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Lyn Palm received her Best Supporting Actress award from "Clown Car" director, and Circle Theatre board president, Marion Young.
Rachel Hair and Jeff Miller won Best Actress and Best Actor awards for their performances in "Clown Car".
Renée Owens received a Best Actress award for "Tea for Three" and was the Spotlight Award winner for this past season.
The Barnwell Circle Theatre had their 2022-2023 season awards night this past Saturday, August 12 at the Eat Street restaurant. Members of the Circle Theatre board, actors, directors, producers, and some spouses met for a good dinner and lots of stories and memories shared from those who were involved in last year’s productions.
The first show from last season was “Tea for Three; Lady Bird, Pat, and Betty” by Eric H. Weinberger and Elaine Bromka. The play is a three-woman play that gives some possible personal glimpses into the lives of three of our interesting first ladies. As is known to happen at the Circle Theatre, everything did not go as originally planned and the three-woman show became a two-woman show with Renée Owens playing the parts of “Lady Bird” Johnson and Betty Ford. Newcomer Karon Pate played the role of Pat Nixon. Both ladies did a great job and took home the Best Actress awards. The play was directed by Michael Pisacreta and produced by Beth Miller.
The next show was the Circle Theatre directorial debut for Marion Young, but you would have never known it. This was the hilarious who-done-it clown comedy “Clown Car”. Beth Miller also produced this play that featured the cast of Jacob Sanders, Jeff Miller, Rachel Hair, Dan Anderson, Lyn Palm, Virginia Nettles, and Donna Creech. Jeff Miller and Rachel Hair won the awards for Best Actor and Best Actress. Jacob Sanders won the award for Best Clown, and anyone who saw the show will tell you that he was amazing! Dan Anderson and Lyn Palm were the Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress. The entire cast did a super job.
The Circle Theatre had planned a third show as usual, but that show never took place due to some licensing troubles.
The last award presented was the Spotlight Award, formerly called the Leon White Award. The Circle Theatre board selects a special award presented to someone for going well above and beyond the already great efforts most give to help the theatre. This year’s recipient was Renée Owens for agreeing to do an unheard of two different monologues of nearly a half hour each to keep the “Tea for Three” production from closing. One of those parts is extremely difficult, but two?
“I love our little theatre and I love being a part of this group. Thank you for so many wonderful memories over the years,” said Owens.
The 2023-2024 season has three plays scheduled. The first play is being directed by Liz Ringus and is titled “All Through the Night”. It is a Christmas-themed tale where a small group of weary travelers discover the power of the season while trapped in a lonely train station on Christmas Eve. The cast will include adults and kids. Auditions will be held September 5 and 7 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. and September 8 from 6-7 p.m. at the theatre (325 Academy St., Barnwell). Contact Ringus if you would like to be involved.
The second show is “The Savannah Sipping Society” and will be directed by Mike Holbert. This is a laugh-a-minute comedy about four southern women who are looking to reclaim their enthusiasm for life that has slowly escaped them. Contact Holbert for more information.
The third show is a comedy murder mystery favorite, “Death and Taxes”. This show will be directed by Michael Pisacreta. The Circle Theatre did this one more than a decade ago, but it has always been a favorite. Come try to figure out “who done it?” or contact Michael Pisacreta if you would like to be involved in the production.
Keep up with the latest Circle Theatre events and news at www.facebook.com/BarnwellCircleTheatre or barnwellct.weebly.com.
