Malibu Stage Company snags 1 win, 3 nominations total at August ceremony.
By Michael Aushenker / Special to The Malibu Times
Three of the Malibu Stage Company’s recent productions were on the list of nominations, with one win, when the 21st Annual NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) Theatre Awards took place last Monday night at the Directors Guild of America theater in Hollywood.
Veteran actor Obba Babatunde (“Black Dynamite”) won the Trailblazer Award for his towering performance in Charles Fuller’s 1982 Pulitzer Prize-winning “A Soldier’s Play,” which Malibu Stage Company produced in the fall of 2010.
“A Soldier’s Play” was also nominated for the Best Producer category (Graeme Clifford, Richard Johnson, Diane Peterson), while Julia Holland was nominated for Best Director for her work on MSC’s “The Wild Party” in late 2010.
“I am particularly proud of the MSC’s recent achievements,” said Clifford, who directed “A Soldier’s Play,” “since, in 2010, another production which I had produced and directed, ‘Rabbit Hole,’ won an L.A. Stage Alliance Award for Best Featured Actress (Tasha Ames).”
The star-studded Aug. 29 awards ceremony also included tributes to Diahann Carroll and Raven-Symone, along with presenters and performers such as Billy Dee Williams and Freda Payne.