GableStage takes 7 bows at Carbonells

It was a dramatic night for GableStage, the edgy 150-seat company that makes its home in Coral Gables' Biltmore Hotel, when the 27th annual Carbonell Awards for excellence in theater were presented at the Broward Center's Amaturo Theater on Monday.

Winning seven of the 20 regional Carbonells handed out at the Fort Lauderdale ceremony, GableStage took best musical honors for James Joyce's The Dead and best play honors for A Lesson Before Dying.

Producing artistic director Joseph Adler also won both directing Carbonells for his staging of the two shows. The large cast of The Dead was honored as the best ensemble of the 2001-2002 South Florida theater season.

John Archie's powerful performance as a teacher who helps a wrongly convicted young man cope with death in A Lesson Before Dying won him the Carbonell as best actor in a play. The handsome turn-of-the-century Dublin home that Rich Simone created for The Dead won him the Carbonell for best scenic design.

Director sweeps awards

When a tear-stained GableStage guru Joseph Adler mounted the stage for a fifth time Monday night to accept a Carbonell award, producer Jay Harris announced it was "the night of the Adler."

GableStage, known for its edgy contemporary fare, won seven Carbonells with a searing Death Row drama, A Lesson Before Dying, and its first musical, James Joyce's The Dead.

The Coral Gables theater and its creative team took home the largest number of sculptures handed out in the 27th annual ceremony recognizing excellence in South Florida theater during the 2001-2002 season.

The presentations at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale doubled as a celebration of survival for theatrical companies who have struggled to stay financially afloat in the post-9/11 world of uncertain subscription lists and shaky sponsorship.

"On Monday nights after the games, I hear the coaches all the time talking about millionaires who need to be motivated," Adler said. "I have the privilege of working with people here -- their commitment, their talent, their incredible intelligence and their passion."

Lesson won best play, The Dead best musical and GableStage Artistic Director Joseph Adler won two best director awards for helming both shows.

Romulus Linney's play also resulted in a best actor award for John Archie who portrayed a teacher counseling a former student sentenced to the die in the electric chair.

The Dead, a chamber musical based on Joyce's short story of an eventful Christmas party in turn of the century Dublin, also won best ensemble and best scenic design for Rich Simone.

Miami-Dade theaters dominate Carbonell Awards

If you wanted to see the best in South Florida theater last season, you had to drive south. At least that is the conclusion of the 27th annual Carbonell Awards, which went largely to companies in Miami-Dade County, with Palm Beach County troupes entirely shut out of the winner's circle.

It was a dramatic turnaround from last year, when Manalapan's Florida Stage and Boca Raton's Caldwell Theatre took home more than half of the awards between them.

What a difference a year makes. For the season that ended at Labor Day, Coral Gables' GableStage, a young company that concentrates on uneasy productions of off-Broadway fare, pulled in seven wins including both the best production of a play (A Lesson Before Dying) and of a musical (James Joyce's The Dead.). The group's artistic director, Joseph Adler, directed both shows and was named best director for his work on each.

In addition, The Dead, a song-filled Christmas gathering memoir by Joyce, was also cited as having the season's best ensemble and scenic design by Rich Simone. John Archie was named best actor for his performance as a Southern schoolteacher in A Lesson Before Dying, an adaptation of Ernest Gaines's Pulitzer Prize-nominated novel.