[CalArts Office of Public Affairs] – The LA Stage Alliance’s Ovation Awards ceremony, which honored the best in LA’s local theater scene for the 2009-2010 season, took place at The Orpheum Theater on Monday, Nov. 14. CalArts had a strong showing, with Beth Kenney (Acting ‘91) winning for her performance in The Winters Tale, and nominations going to productions featuring work by Nataki Garrett (Faculty), Christoper Hampton (Acting ‘10), Maureen Huskey (Directing ‘10), Julian Evens (Acting ‘10), Sean Branney (Acting ‘91) and Leslie Baldwin (Acting ‘91).

Christopher Kuhl, lighting designer

Design nominations went to Bryan Maier for Shoe Story at Theater of Note (Sound Design ‘09), Christopher Kuhl for How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found at The Theater @ Boston Court (Lighting Design ‘05), Daniel Weingarten for Krunk Fu Battle Battle at East West Players (Lighting Design ’04) and Phil Allen for Kiss Me Kate at Reprise Theater Company (Faculty).

The prestigious Richard E. Sherwood award was given to School of Theater alum Christopher Kuhl (Lighting Design ‘05). The $10,000 award identifies innovative and adventurous artists in all aspects of the field, and works with them to build a creative relationship with Center Theater Group.

CalArts Graphic Design Program Visiting faculty member Mark Owens was among the awardees of The Creative Capital | Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant.  In its 2011 cycle, the Arts Writers Grant Program has distributed awards ranging from $8,000 to $50,000 in four categories—articles, blogs, books and short-form writing.  Mark was recognized for his book Graphics Incognito: Design, Material Culture, and Post-punk Aesthetics.

Mark Owens

Designed to encourage and reward writing about contemporary art that is rigorous, passionate, eloquent and precise, as well as to create a broader audience for arts writing, the Arts Writers Grant Program aims to strengthen the field as a whole and to ensure that critical writing remains a valued mode of engaging the visual arts.

The Huffington Post reviewed School of Critical Studies faculty member Douglas Kearny’s book The Black Automaton, noting: ““if you can’t fall in love pretty quick with a book equally committed to VisiPo, race relations, and Voltron, you shouldn’t be reading contemporary poetry.…”  And concluding, “if you care about both the justness of language and the language of justice, this is your book. Read it. Many times.”

Kearney was also named one of THE Local Creative People in THE Magazine.