Two bits of news about the Helen Hayes Awards on April 6:
“Last year was the 30 year lollapalooza, and it was a great party,” said Brad Watkins of TheatreWashington, which administers the awards. “I think this will be a more modest production.”
Also: the Hayes Awards are now divided into two general categories (“Helen” for largely non-Equity shows; “Hayes” where most actors are Equity), but the ceremony remains united. Somehow all 47 trophies — nearly twice the maximum ever handed out in one year — will be bestowed in a show starting at 8 p.m. and ending (hopefully) at 10:15.
The Hayes Awards are undergoing a heavy makeover driven by the massive expansion of the area’s theater landscape over the past three decades. Dividing the awards into two separate categories led some to fear that the “Helen” prizes — with nominees coming largely from the region’s lower-budget troupes — might lose luster next to the “Hayes” awards. Some also feared that the awards night — the swanky annual gala and swarming after-party, together known as D.C.’s “theater prom” — would be sliced into separate and unequal evenings, with the Helen event a decidedly junior partner.
On Monday afternoon, Watkins brushed that off. A big payoff of the awards, he said, is the “abiding sense of community that comes up every year we do this.”
Tickets, which had run well into the hundreds of dollars, this year will be priced at a more-affordable-than-ever $50. (Some VIP tickets will be available for $100.) In contrast to last year’s simultaneous ceremony/open bar soiree, this year’s post-show cast party will offer just the first two drinks on the house.
How will TheatreWashington keep track of that? “That’s not my job,” Watkins said.
In another controversial development, TheatreWashington announced a “pay floor” in December — minimum amounts that any theater must pay artists to be eligible for award consideration. (This would take effect in 2016; the Hayes Awards follow the calendar year.) Pushback from the small theater community has been substantial, and TheatreWashington may be re-examining. After the awards, Watkins will take his findings back to the board.
“There has to be another level of discussions,” Watkins said. “After great uproar and reaction from the community, which was not unanticipated, but was certainly larger than I expected, the sense is that we are back at the table talking about how we move forward together, not splintered in different directions.”