User:DeLionSleeps/sandbox

The Suzi Bass Awards, Inc., is a non-profit arts service organization in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Primarily a volunteer organization, the mission of the Suzi Awards is to celebrate and promote professional artists and theatres in the Atlanta metropolitan region.

History
The Suzi Awards organization was founded in 2003 by a small group of theatre professionals in Atlanta. Aware that the resident professional theatres were struggling to gain exposure to both a local and national audience, the founders wished to promote a culture of theatre awareness through a year-round, juried awards program.

In 2002, Atlanta's theatre industry lost a well-known actress, Suzi Bass, to cancer at the height of her stage and screen career. Considering her service to fellow artists through the performer’s unions and her popularity with local theatre patrons and producers, naming the awards after Suzi Bass (The Suzis) seemed appropriate. After researching other theatrical awards organizations, the founders determined the best combination of factors for a locally- judged awards program.

At the first awards event in 2005, actor and director Kenny Leon received the Spirit of Suzi Award, now given each year to a person or organization whose long-term commitment to Atlanta theatre embodies the qualities Suzi Bass was known for. Past recipients of the Spirit Award also include the nationally known Center for Puppetry Arts; Karen Howell, actor and long-time Chair of the Atlanta Liaison Committee of Actors’ Equity Association; Rosemary Newcott, the Sally G. Tomlinson Artistic Director of Theatre for Youth of the Alliance Theatre; and Jerry’s Habima Theatre of The Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta, a troupe pairing professional actors with adult actors with developmental disabilities. ______________resume editing here _________ We introduced the performance awards (The Suzis) in 2006 and now award artists in twenty-five categories including acting, directing, design, choreography and musical direction in both plays and musicals. The statue awarded in each category is a silver star inscribed with Suzi’s signature on a metal base. Volunteer Judges serve on panels for an entire year, and use their expertise as long-time patrons, theatre professionals and educators to vote five Nominees and a Recipient for each category.

The Suzi Bass Awards also recognizes local playwrights with The Gene-Gabriel Moore Playwriting Award, named for the founder of the organization. Any local playwright whose work receives a professional production in Atlanta is eligible, and those playwrights are highlighted in the months leading up to the awards. Recipients of the Gene-Gabriel Moore Playwriting Award include Robert Earl Price, Janece Shaffer, Eddie Levi Lee & Larry Larson, Margaret Baldwin and Pearl Cleage.

In the last seven years, The Suzi Bass Awards has grown from a small group of dedicated volunteers to an organization with over two hundred Members, part-time staff, an active Board of Directors, and over 40 volunteer Judges each of whom see and rate an average of 60 professional productions each year.

The annual Suzi Bass Awards event, held at various venues through the years, enjoyed an audience of almost 400 people last year. The Awards have been dubbed “the best theatre party in Atlanta” by both press and audiences. Even more exciting: our Suzi caricature logo and name are beginning to be widely known among local audiences as well as theatre artists nationwide.

As the organization grows we continue to see positive effects from our programs. Most notably, the awards have generated national, industry-wide coverage for nominated artists and theatres, especially in theatre E-zines like Broadway.com and Playbill.com. Our nominees put their honors in production bios around the country and report that producers are impressed by a Suzi Award or Suzi Nomination. Here in Atlanta, The Suzi Awards host seminars and theatre artist panel discussions for our Judges and the general public; these events have received accolades from both participants and attendees. Our programs increase visibility and press coverage for theatre in general and professional companies in particular. Exposure and recognition for Suzi eligible productions continues throughout the season and increases as Suzi Nominations are announced and the Awards event approaches. Best of all, the Awards seem to get people talking about theatre again, and as they do, they’re more likely to notice theatre marketing for productions, and to purchase a ticket for a play.