Dr. Annette Lust (1924-2013)
San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards for Best Play, Directors and Actors were announced Sunday, May 5 at Meadowlands Assembly Hall at Dominican University.
The first Critics Circle Award was for Best Play and the pride of 1st Place went to Roberta Palumbo for Not Death, But Love. There was a tie for 2nd Place between Norma Anapol’s Rose Levy Learns At Last and Deanna Anderson for The Wreck. Honorable Mention for Best Play went to Stacy Lapin and Pamela Rand, co-authors of Here’s Your Life and Gina Pandiani for The Marriage Proposal.
Next up were awards for Best Director with a 1st Place tie between Roberta Palumbo and Molly McCarthy for Not Death, But Love and Leonard Pitt for The Wreck. 2nd Place went to Jerry Ambinder for Here’s Your Life and Honorable Mention went to Gina Pandiani for The Marriage Proposal.
The 1st Place Best Actor Award went to Michael Walraven (Al) in Rose Levy Learns At Last. 2nd Place honors went to Steve North (Da Sub) in Something’s Not Wright. There was a tie for Honorable Mention between Kris Neely (M.C.) in Here’s Your Life and Damian Square (Ivan) in The Marriage Proposal.
The last of the Critics Circle Awards went to Best Actress. 1st Place honors went to Molly McCarthy (Elizabeth Barrett Browning) in Not Death, But Love. 2nd Place went to Pamela Rand (Susannah P. Metcalf) in Here’s Your Life. There was a tie for Honorable Mention between Deanna Anderson (herself) in The Wreck, Hilda Roe (Marina) in The 200th Day, and Sandi Weldon (Stephania Stepanovna) in The Marriage Proposal.
There were special thanks to Gina Pandiani, the new Managing Director and Pamela Rand, the new Production Manager for the Fringe.
The Awards Ceremony was followed by a celebration of Annette Lust’s life (1924-2013) with her family in attendance. The Fringe was founded by Dr. Lust nearly 20 years ago to give local writers, actors and directors a chance to try out their work in an informal setting. Her tribute began with a memorial slide show created and narrated by Marisa Hoke, a former French student of Annette’s. Following the slide show, six invited speakers who were close to Annette gave presentations celebrating her life. They were Flora Lynn Isaacson from the Fringe of Marin, Linda Ayres-Frederick from the Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, Steve North from the Fringe of Marin, Suzanne Birrell, former Production Manager of the Fringe of Marin, Jo Tomalin, San Francisco State Professor of Theatre Arts and Gina Pandiani, the new Managing Director of the Fringe of Marin who announced the creation of the Annette Lust Scholarship Fund for the Performing Arts at Dominican University.
A lovely outdoor reception followed the tribute at the Anne Hathaway Cottage at Dominican hosted by Annette’s daughters, Eliane and Evelyne. All of Annette’s friends joined her family to toast Annette and to share personal and family memories.
Flora Lynn Isaacson
