Reston Play Festival Picks Its Winners

A hardy band of theater lovers who stage their plays in the middle of the woods at a rustic, open-air Maryland amphitheater dominated the 23rd annual NVTA One-Act Play Festival awards.

Accokeek's Hard Bargain Players took several top honors at Sunday night's ceremony, including best overall production for "Gone." NVTA was formerly known as the Northern Virginia Theatre Alliance.

In its second year of competition, the Maryland theater group scored with the original play by Bob Bartlett, edging out well-established troupes that have traditionally prevailed in the major award categories at the festival, held each June in Reston.

Herndon's Elden Street Players, the Reston Community Players and the Little Theatre of Alexandria, which frequently take home trophies in regional theater competitions, were denied awards.

Tom Ziemba won a best supporting actor award for his role in "Lone Star," and Mona Kay Helper won best supporting actress for "Ripe Conditions," a comedy presented by Fauquier Community Theatre of Warrenton.

Hard Bargain Players won four of 10 award categories. No other company earned more than one prize. Bartlett's play, "Gone," which he also directed, was produced by Suzanne Fehl. It is a whimsical look at three youngsters coming to grips with the death of their father. Searching for their dog in a peculiar ravine, the siblings are helped by a dreamy, philosophical friend.

Bartlett made his way to the podium three times in a row at the Reston Community Center's CenterStage theater, accepting awards for best production of an original play, best director and best overall production.

"I write every day," he said. "It's sort of how I get by. But I wanted to write a play about leukemia, that wasn't about leukemia, for my brother. And I think we succeeded in bringing some joy to a pretty sad thing."

Earlier, the four cast members of "Gone" -- Cassie Lee, Bruce Ward, Matthew Jordan and Randy Tusing -- were cited by the judges for a discretionary award for best ensemble.

"Once in a great while, a cast comes along that's so perfectly, evenly matched that to separate the actors into categories and judge them as individual entities would not only be impossible, but wrong," said judge Donna Migliaccio, a Helen Hayes Award winner as a performer and co-founder of Arlington's Signature Theatre. "It was the incredible sense of ensemble that they brought to the stage which created something extraordinary."

Bartlett noted that actors performing on the stage at remote Hard Bargain Farm do so outdoors, often in less than ideal weather.

"The secret is assembling a cast that doesn't mind rehearsing in the rain and the heat and with all the bugs," he said.

In other top awards, Sally Zatkoff was named best actress for her role in "Sins of the Fathers," an original drama by Deb Crawford, produced by Prince William Little Theatre. Darius Suziedelis won best actor for "Piano Man," an original drama by Audrey Cefaly of Rockville Little Theatre.

Crawford was the busiest person at the festival. She wrote, produced and handled lighting for two plays -- "Cutting in Line," a comedy staged by Castaways Repertory Theatre of Woodbridge and "Sins of the Fathers." She also acted in, produced and did lighting for Katy Helper's original drama, "Visible Traces," for Fauquier Community Theatre. And she was a stagehand for the Woodbridge theater's production of "Lone Star."