The Alvin Awards Ceremony given by Playmakers Inc. in 1977 drew an audience of 109 people for a fun and award-winning presentation of the past year's outstanding productions. Here is a photograph of the winners, followed by the handwritten notes taken during the program.
Among the presenters were Meda Koepp, Claire Canik, Meredith Berry, Ducky Adams, Elizabeth Malone, and Al Poncet. Danny Hanemann won Best Actor and Karen Giglioni won Best Actress. Arthur Middleton won Best Set, Christopher Hanian won Best Supporting Actor, Taffy Maginnis won Best Supporting Actress, and John Stipcewich won Best Director.
Accompanying the presentation of awards came the traditional remembrances from the past year of lines forgotten, backstage mishaps, and wardrobe malfunctions. But the show must go on (and went on) in spite of actors falling asleep, very large casts, non-working props, unreliable special effects, and make-up issues.
These memories often called up further remembrances of what the really early days at the Sans Souci theater were like: the cold drafty barn, no rest rooms, a tent for the make-up application, goats, cats, cat mishaps, turtles laying eggs, and the lights going out.
On the Playmakers Board at that time, 1977, were Katie Friedricks, Marcella Illing, Mike Cousin, Jacques Gibert, Arthur Middleton, John Stipcewich, Troy Jackson, Norma Core, Bill Mysing, and A.J. Kreller. Lifetime memberships had been acquired by longtime Playmakers supporters Elizabeth Malone, Joyce and Les Landon, Julia Stone, Steve and Betty Ellis, Philip Burns and Peggy McGinnis.
Here's a picture of the top award winners at an Alvin Awards ceremony in the mid-1970's.
See also:
History of Playmakers
Playmakers Inc. Origins
Playmakers Backstage
The Playmakers Barn
The 1972 Alvin Awards
