2007 Ivey Award Honorees

Productions

Don Giovanni
Musical Direction & Performances
Theatre de la Jeune Lune

Love, Janis
Musical Direction & Performances
Ordway Center

Messy Utopia
Innovative Concept & Idea
Mixed Blood Theatre

Actor Honorees

Thomas W. Jones II
Yellowman, Mixed Blood Theatre
Writer, director, and actor, Thomas W. Jones II founded Jomandi Productions in Atlanta with partner Marsha Jackson in 1978, serving as artistic director until 2000. During that time he produced, directed, and acted in over 100 productions, presenting and creating the African American canon. His one-man show, The Wizard of Hip, toured nationally and ultimately played at Woodie King's New Federal Theatre in New York. His sequel, Birth of the Boom, played at Mixed Blood before going to Pittsburgh, San Diego, and many other theatres.

In Minneapolis he has performed at Mixed Blood in They're Coming To Make It Brighter, League of Nations, Salt Fish and Bakes, Topdog/Underdog, Permanent Collection, and Yellowman. He has directed Cut Flowers, Dance on Widow's Row, Point of Revue, and Two Queens One Castle that he co-authored with Jevetta Steele (now running at The Music Box).

He has also penned Three Sistuhs, Bricktop, and Slam, all of which have been produced extensively.

Tom has directed at the Indiana Rep, San Diego Rep, Metro Stage (Virginia), Lorraine Hansbury Theatre (San Francisco), Horizon Theatre (Atlanta), and Studio Theatre of Washington, DC.

Kris Nelson
Wellstone!, History Theatre
Kris’s theatre credits include Private Lives, Boats on a River, The Merchant of Venice, A Christmas Carol (eight productions since 1995), Hamlet, His Girl Friday, As You Like It, The Sex Habits of American Women, Othello, Three Sisters, Six Degrees of Separation, Antony and Cleopatra, Amadeus, Once in a Lifetime, Twelfth Night, To Fool the Eye, The Plough and the Stars, Mr. Peters' Connections, The School for Scandal, Summer and Smoke, Julius Caesar, The Venetian Twins, Much Ado About Nothing and A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Guthrie Theater.
Other credits include Thirst Theater, Ten Thousand Things Theater’s productions of Red Noses and Iphigenia; Jungle Theater’s The Blue Room and productions at Utah Classical Greek Theater Company,Salt Lake Acting Company,Creede Repertory Theatre, Babcock Theatre and TheShakespeare Theatre in Washington, D.C.

Edward Williams, Jr.,
Kiss of the Spider Woman, Minneapolis Musical Theatre
Edward received critical acclaim for his role as Molina in Kiss of the Spider Woman. Also at Minneapolis Musical Theatre he was featured in A Class Act and La Cage aux Folles. At the Children’s Theatre Company audiences saw him in Honk and Reeling. At Mixed Blood Theatre, Edward was featured in Take Me Out. His credits at Bloomington Civic Theatre include A Chorus Line, Guys and Dolls, Cabaret and Hello Dolly with Sally Struthers.

He is also an instructor at the Children’s Theatre Company.

Sally Wingert
Woman Before A Glass , Minnesota Jewish Theatre
Sally has an extensive career in Twin Cities theater. At the Minnesota Jewish Theatre she has also been seen in Family Secrets.

Sally has been featured in more than 70 productions at the Guthrie Theater including : Private Lives, The Merchant of Venice, A Christmas Carol (16 productions since 1985), The Real Thing, , Hamlet,, Pride and Prejudice, Top Girls, The Comedy of Errors, Six Degrees of Separation, The Canterbury, The Plough and the Stars, , A Month in the Country, The Importance of Being Earnest, Julius Caesar, Summer and Smoke, Blithe Spirit, You Can't Take It With You, A Midsummer Night's Dream, A Doll's House, She Stoops to Conquer, The Royal Family, King Lear, Old Times, K: Impressions of The Trial by Franz Kafka, Macbeth, The Broken Jug, The Play's the Thing, A Woman of No Importance, , Marat/Sade, The Illusion, Richard II, The Skin of Our Teeth, Medea, Henry IV, Volpone and Candida .

Sally also worked with Actors Theatre of St. Paul for four seasons. At Mixed Blood Theatre her credits include The Mad Dancers, Sweet Nothings in My Ear, Winter and Spinning into Butter; for theThe Jungle Theater Sylvia, Entertaining Mr. Sloane; plus productions at Theatre de la Jeune Lune, Thousand Things Theater, Eye of the Storm, History Theatre,The Children's Theatre Company, Cricket Theatre and Chanhassen Dinner Theatres.

Sally’s work has also been seen at the Arizona Theatre Company and the Barrington Stage Company.

Individual Honorees

John Arnone
Scenic Designer for Private Lives, Guthrie Theater
John Arnone, Tony Award- winning set designer, began his distinguished career in 1976 with Jack Heifner's, Vanities directed by Garland Wright, which ran for an unprecedented five years off-Broadway.
As a founding member of New York's Lion Theatre Company, he designed numerous productions including Music Hall Sidelights featuring Kathy Bates as Colette and K:Kafka’s The Trial for which he received his first Obie Award Forging a professional relationship with the legendary producer Joseph Papp of New York's Public Theater his designs included New Jerusalem starring Sigourney Weaver, JoAnne Akalaitis' Red & Blue, My Uncle Sam, James Lapine's production of A Winters Tale starring Mandy Patinkin and Christopher Reeve; Kevin Kline's Hamlet; Tony Kushner's Bright Room Called Day; Pericles starring Campbell Scott; George C. Wolfe's Twilight Los Angeles; 1992 with Anna Deavere Smith; and Vanessa Redgrave's Antony and Cleopatra.

In 1979 Arnone made his Broadway debut with James McLure's Lone Star/Pvt Wars and Patio/Porch starring Fannie Flagg.

He has worked with every artistic director in major repertory theaters across the United States: in the late 1970's and early 1980's at Studio Arena, Indiana Rep, Syracuse Stage, The Huntington Theater, Arena Stage, The Hartford Theater, American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, La Jolla Playhouse, The Seattle Rep, The Folger Theater, and Steppenwolf for Gary Sinise in Chicago.
At the Guthrie Arnone worked with Garland Wright on Marat/Sade, The Piggy Bank, Frankenstein, Candide, K, Impressions of Kafka’s The Trial and Babes in Arms.
With Des McAnuff, he returned to Broadway in1993 with The Who’s Tommy for which Arnone received a Tony Award for Best Set Design. His credits also include How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying.

Michael Matthew Ferrell
Choreography for Disney’s High School Musical, The Children’s Theatre Company
Michael has worked throughout the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean. His choreography has been seen at Theatre Latte¢ Da, Minnesota Opera, Troupe America, Park Square, North Star Opera, the Ordway, the Pantages Theatre, and Chanhassen Theatres – where he worked for nine years on such productions as Cats, The Music Man, Oklahoma, and Forever Plaid.

Michael has staged tours for Lori Line, Sesame Street and has worked with such stars as Petula Clark, Charlotte Church, Lucille Ball, and Mikhail Baryshnikov. In addition to choreographing and directing, he teaches all styles of dance and is director of Dyan’s World of Dance where his students have won many top awards and national competitions.

Mike Hallenbeck
Sound Design for Kid-Simple & Hunger, Emigrant Theater
Mike is a sound designer, composer and audio artist based in Minneapolis. His work has been featured in theatrical productions and installations in Chicago, Toronto, Berlin, New York and Los Angeles.

In the Twin Cities he has worked with Emigrant Theater, Fifty Foot Penguin Theater (The Quick and the Red, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, I Married Odin and Escape from Happiness,) Torch Theater (A Thousand Clowns Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Educating Rita The Miracle Worker,)Actors Equity Showcase (A Streetcar Named Desire,) History Theater Chopsticks, Band-Aids, Johnny Unitas,) Gremlin Theatre (Wait Until Dark, Blithe Spirit,) Illusion Theater (Autistic License, Iron Kisses American Klepto, Murderers,) Outward Spiral Theatre Company (In The Garden, The Mineola Twins, 5 Women on a Hill in Spain,) Pigs Eye Theatre (Picasso at the Lapin Agile, The Front Page Buried Child,) Starting Gate Productions (Man Saved By Condiments, Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean,) Theater in the Round (The Cherry Orchard,) and The Actors Theatre of Minnesota (Driving Miss Daisy.

Emerging Artist Award

Kate Sutton-Johnson, Scenic Designer
Kate Sutton-Johnson currently lives and works as a freelance set designer in the Twin Cities. Some of her past design credits include Flags, Permanent Collection, Queen of the Remote Control, Found, and Messy Utopia at Mixed Blood Theatre Company; Seascape at the Jon Hassler Theatre, Constant Star at Park Square Theatre, Seussical the Musical and Harriet and Walt at Stages Theatre Company, Strega Nona at the Weston Playhouse in Vermont, Crimes of the Heart at the Commonweal Theatre; Beyond the Rainbow at the History Theatre and its remount at Florida Stage in the spring of 2006. Kate most recently designed Yellowman and Confluence, both staged in the Guthrie’s new Dowling Studio; Lutefisk Champ and Other Frozen Holiday Tales at the History Theatre, and Disney’s High School Musical at the Children’s Theatre Company. Upcoming projects include The Rocky Horror Show at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts opening next week.

Previously, Kate worked at the Guthrie Theater as the Associate Prop Manager from 2002-2004 and at Mixed Blood Theatre as the Interim Production Manager during the 2004-2005 season. Kate grew up in Richmond, Virginia and went on to study design at the North Carolina School of the Arts where she graduated in 2002.

Lifetime Achievement Award

Sheila Livingston
Director of Education and Community Programs, Guthrie Theater
Sheila Livingston has been associated with the Guthrie Theater since its earliest days in 1961 when she joined Stagehands, the Guthrie’s volunteer organization, serving as president in 1969-1970.

She joined the Guthrie staff in 1971 and established the Student Resource Center, developing the Symposia, Open House Tour Programs, and numerous educational programs that continue today.

Over the years, she has served as the Guthrie’s Audience Services Director, Public Relations Director, and the staff liaison with the Artist Relations Committee of the Board of Directors. In May 1988, Sheila was appointed the Guthrie’s first Education Coordinator. She developed several highly successful educational programs including: the Summer Theater Conference, the Global Voices series and the In Conversation series.

Sheila has served on many arts organization boards, including the Playwrights’ Center, Minnesota Jewish Theatre and Project SUCCESS.

In 1998, she was awarded the Artistic Director’s Award by Joe Dowling for her many years of dedicated service to the Guthrie Theater. Following this award, the Kenneth and Sheila Livingston Education Fund was established in her honor.

In 2002, she was the recipient of the Medallion Award from the Children’s Theatre Foundation of America. Other awards include the 1992 Outstanding Individual in Communication and Theater Award from the Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota; the 1997 Friend of Education Award from the Minnesota Education Association; the 2000 Friend of Education Award from the Minnesota Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development; the 2000 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Greater Minneapolis Convention and Visitors’ Bureau, and the Sally Award from the Ordway Music Theater in 2003.

She received her B.A. from the University of Manitoba and a B.S.W. from the University of Toronto where she majored in Social Groupwork.