Four
Yuba City residents were honored for excellence in community theater
at the 23rd Annual Elly Awards
at the 23rd Annual Elly Awards
Held
at the Crest Theater in Sacramento Sunday night, The Sacramento Area Regional
Theater Alliance named Neil Thorsen the Best Director of a Comedy and
gave his production "Funny Money" an Elly for Best Overall Production.
Thorsen lives in Yuba City and works as a director at Garbeau's Dinner
Theater in Folsom. This was Thorsen's first Elly nomination; he has been
acting and directing in the Yuba City/Marysville area for more than 10
years. Before that he starred in Dinner Theater productions in Los Angeles
and San Diego.
Staci Johnson received her second Elly Award, this time for Best Set Design
in a Comedy for her Acting Company production of "Escanaba in da
Moonlight." Johnson received an Elly Award for Best Director in 2002
and has been nominated a total of 4 times. Johnson is currently the President
of The Acting Company Board of Directors. The zany hunting comedy "Escanaba"
also received an Elly Award for Best Lighting Design given to Jim Green,
Technical Director at The Acting Company and an employee for Fremont-Rideout
Health Group. Green wasn't able to make it to the ceremony due to an emergency
at work, so when his name was called, Johnson phoned him and asked him
to make his acceptance speech over the phone into the microphone. The
Elly Ceremony audience was highly amused. One audience member commented
to Johnson, "You just made the category of Lighting Design very interesting!"
In
a rare Elly moment, a tie occurred in the category of Best Set Design.
Yuba City native Michael RJ Campbell also received Best Set Design in
a Comedy for his work at Garbeau's Dinner Theater designing the set of
"Funny Money." Johnson and Campbell embraced on stage having
the unique opportunity for two Yuba City thespians to receive the same
Elly Award. Campbell has received a total of 6 Elly nominations for acting
and set design categories and received Best Actor in 2002. Campbell is
currently working full-time at the B Street Theater in Sacramento for
their Children's Theater program. For more information, please contact
Staci Johnson at 530-300-4037
