A prize of recognition, opportunity

For actress and artistic director Jennifer Childs, a $10,000 prize meant she could own the roof over her head. She used it for a down payment on a house.

For playwright Michael Hollinger, $10,000 provided not just a financial boost but also a mental one: The infusion of money encouraged him to leave his job as a theatrical literary manager and begin writing full-time.

And for actress Grace Gonglewski, $10,000 bought new head shots, a student loan payoff, additional theater classes, and a savings account with a higher deposit. (Plus, OK, a new pair of shoes.)

These three are past winners of a special honor - the F. Otto Haas Award for an Emerging Philadelphia Theater Artist - presented at the Barrymore Awards, the region's annual professional theater accolades. This year's Haas winner will be revealed, along with all the others, tomorrow night at the Crystal Tea Room in the Wanamaker Building.

While the typical categories - best actor or actress, best musical or play, and the like - bring bragging rights and esteem to the professionals and theater companies that win, only the Haas Award comes with all that and money, too. In addition to the winner's $10,000 prize, each of the four runners-up receives $1,000.

Named for the late chairman of Rohm and Haas, the specialty materials company, the award goes to a theater artist who shows outstanding promise and is dedicated to working in the Philadelphia theater community - an expanding body of artists that, aided by similarly expanding audiences, has turned theater into a force that sells more than a million tickets a year.

The $10,000 is given specifically to help cover the winner's living expenses and enable him or her to focus on theater and possibly take the next career step. The award has been given every year since Gonglewski won in 1995 at the first Barrymores.

At a gathering of past winners last year, "many of them told us they have been able to start families and buy homes with the money - it's very gratifying. It would really have pleased my former husband," says Carole Haas Gravagno, a passionate supporter of the arts who sits on several boards, and who established the award to honor her late husband's memory. "The amount of money I give isn't enough to live on, but it gives people a little opportunity to do something."

In fact, $10,000 represents a sizable chunk of change for many theater artists. Even so, the lasting part of the award, former recipients say, is the recognition and the encouragement. "The money I got from the award was not used for anything specifically, it just added to our ability to lead a non-starving artist's life," actor Ian Merrill Peakes, the 2003 winner, writes in an e-mail. "The impact the award has had on me is mostly measured in confidence."

Multimedia designer Jorge Cousineau, who won in 2004 and, like other former recipients, responded by e-mail to questions about the award, writes that "the professional appreciation resulted in more offers, more than enough to schedule uninterrupted seasons ever since."

Cousineau does not overstate the case; since January, he has designed multimedia and special effects for six plays at professional Philadelphia theater companies, and for one film. He is nominated tomorrow night for two design awards, and this year won a Lortel, Off-Broadway's biggest honor, for sound design on Opus, a play written by fellow Haas-winner Hollinger. It premiered here at the Arden Theatre Company and went on to a New York production.

The show that generated the most Barrymore nominations this year - 11 - is the Walnut Street Theatre's Les Miserables, one of the first reimaginings of the celebrated musical's staging since it premiered 22 years ago. The Arden Theatre Company is next with eight nominations for its production of Stephen Sondheim's dark musical Assassins.

Many Haas Award winners either have won in categories for such musicals and plays, or go on to win in ensuing years. Three of this year's five Haas nominees are also up for Barrymores as an actor, a director and a costume designer - and three have previously been Haas nominees.

While they take gigs elsewhere, most Haas Award winners have elected to live and stay in Philadelphia. "I was already pretty committed to Philly, but the award validated that decision," Childs e-mails. In addition to her presence on local stages, she is artistic director of 1812 Productions, devoted to comedy.

"My wife is from Philly, we own our own home that I renovated with my own two hands, and now we have a daughter," writes Matt Saunders, a freelance designer and performer who is also a company member of the city's cutting-edge New Paradise Laboratories.

Saunders took home the award last year - given at the same ceremony in which the Philadelphia Theatre Alliance, sponsor of the Barrymores, honored Carole Haas Gravagno with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Saunders says he is at home in the city's theater world, and enjoys close relationships with several companies and directors.

"I feel very, very connected to this community and have a very deep affection for it," he writes. "It's everything that I could want in a career, in a life - the Haas just reaffirmed it all."

This year's five nominees for the $10,000 F. Otto Haas Award for an Emerging Philadelphia Theater Artist are:

Kala Moses Baxter, actress, began her career at Freedom Theatre. She was seen last season in the Arden's The Piano Lesson and, earlier, in The Story at Philadelphia Theatre Company and the Wilma's Love and Anger.

Jeb Kreager, actor, is also nominated this year for his roles in InterAct's Frozen and Theater Exile's Mr. Marmalade. A 2007 Haas nominee, he was most recently seen in the Live Arts Festival's The European Lesson.

Matt Pfeiffer, actor/director, is also nominated this year for direction of Theatre Exile's Bug. Last year he was up for the Haas, and for direction of Glengarry Glen Ross and acting in Red Light Winter, both Theatre Exile.

Sarah Sanford, actress, most recently in Live Arts' The European Lesson. She performed last year in Lantern's Othello.

Charlotte Cloe Fox Wind, costume designer, a Barrymore nominee this year for costumes for Villanova's The Illusion. She was a 2006 Haas nominee, and her work will appear on three stages this season.

EndText