By Erin Morrison
On Jan. 12, 2020, C-U at the Show, which describes itself as, “Champaign-Urbana’s Community Theatre Resource” had an award show for local community theatre called the C-U at the Show Globes. This was the first year the Globes have taken place.
The Globes featured 17 categories, and the Parkland College Theatre was nominated for 13 of them. Parkland ended up winning in six of these categories. Out of these six awards, four of them were for Young Frankenstein: Autumn Ellis for Outstanding Comedic Performance; Mallory Sellers for Outstanding Actress in a Musical; Brian Morgan for Outstanding Sound; and the production won Outstanding Production of a Musical. The other two awards were for Elephant’s Graveyard, which include Michael O’Brien for Outstanding Set Design and Outstanding Production of a Play.
Parkland Theatre also received nominations in other categories including Outstanding Supporting Actress, Outstanding Supporting Actor, Outstanding Actor in a Musical, Outstanding Choreography, Outstanding Lights, Outstanding Costuming, and Outstanding Direction.
Community theatre plays and musicals that were put on in 2019 in Champaign-Urbana were eligible for nominations. Brian Morgan, Theater Director at Parkland, told the Prospectus that, “The creator of [C-U at the Show] Eric Schacht thought having an awards program each year would help us further celebrate the work we have accomplished over the year and serve as a place for all the community theatre practitioners to come together.”
Parkland’s productions of Elephant’s Graveyard, Young Frankenstein, and Peter and the Starcatcher received nominations.
According to HeatherAnn Layman, the Production Assistant for the Parkland theatre, Elephant’s Graveyard, which was directed by Latrelle Bright, is a play based on the true historical story of an Elephant named Mary who was hanged in Tennessee. The play was performed at Parkland in October of 2019.
Young Frankenstein, which was directed by Chelsea Collier Zych, was performed at Parkland in April of 2019. Layman said it is a musical based on the Mel Brooks movie of the same name. Peter and the Starcatcher, a pre-story of Peter Pan, was directed by Matthew Green and performed at Parkland in November of 2019.
Other productions also performed at Parkland in 2019 were Come Blow Your Horn, which was the 28th annual student production, directed by Melissa Goldman. The production took place last February. There were two new Actors’ Studio Series shows, which include Dear Brutus directed by D. J. Bailey and A Christmas Carol directed by Michael O’Brien.
“Next year we will be doing four main stage shows and… two student productions”
The production of A Christmas Carol was also a fundraising radio drama. Morgan said the Actors’ Studio Series is, “a series of three shows that are completely done by students and is funded by an I.D.E.A.S. Grant from Parkland College.”
While Morgan said that the announcement of the shows coming in the 2020-2021 season was not yet public, he did say they would be having more shows than in previous semesters. “Next year we will be doing four main stage shows and… two student productions,” Morgan told the Prospectus.
The theatre at Parkland continues to grow from its first year in 1989 with the 2018- 2019 theatre season being the Parkland theatre’s 30th anniversary.
To check out the list of shows available this theatre season, head to the Parkland College Theatre website which can be found here.
