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Kevin Kline Awards will be presented March 20The first Kevin Kline Awards will be presented on March 20, 2006, with a ceremony at the Roberts Orpheum Theatre and celebrations at the Renaissance Grand Hotel."It's going to be the city's biggest cast party," quips actor Steve Isom. He is executive director of the Professional Theatre Awards Council, the organization presenting the Klines. At the ceremony, awards for the 2005 professional theater season in St. Louis will be presented. In the course of the year, more than 80 productions from professional St. Louis theaters are being judged for the awards. About 20 cities around the country have "local Tony" programs along the lines of the Klines. The St. Louis awards - named for and endorsed by the noted actor, who grew up here - are modeled most closely after the Helen Hayes Awards in Washington. When the Hayes Awards were established 20 years ago, there were 19 professional theaters in Washington, Isom says; today, there are 85. These kinds of awards programs, he says, help to build audiences and to raise the profile of a city's professional theater work, both locally and nationally. Organized in 2004, the council just settled on plans for the first awards presentation. The evening will begin with a Nominees' Reception in the hotel's Crystal Ballroom, move over to the Roberts Orpheum for the awards, and return to the ballroom for drinks and dancing. For more information about the awards, call 314-276-8165 or visit www.kevinklineawards.org. - Judith Newmark |
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