Natchez Little Theatre has awards night

Published 11:57 pm Saturday, June 25, 2011

ERIC SHELTON | THE NATCHEZ DEMOCRAT Susan McMillin celebrates as she accepts her award for best debut actress during the Natchez Little Theatre Ovation Awards Saturday.

NATCHEZ — The Natchez Little Theatre filled with food, chatter and more than a little personality at Saturday’s annual awards show.

Some actors receiving top honors have been a part of the theater group for more than 10 years, while others only started acting a year ago.

A panel made up of the Natchez Little Theatre Awards Committee and the Board of Directors selected the winners of the 24 awards that were up for grabs at the Eighth Annual Standing Ovation Awards.

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And some performers took home more than one of the awards.

Ryan McGaughey has been with the group since he was 16, and on the Fourth of July, he’ll be 28.

McGaughey took on the lead role of Brick — and won the award for best actor in a play — in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.”

Viewers and participants alike couldn’t stop talking about the play that won eight awards.

“I read (‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’) about three years ago, and it felt like I was reading a novel,” McGaughey said. “I wanted to play Brick. I was looking forward to that.”

Playing Brick felt right to him, McGaughey said, because he connected with his character.

“(Brick is like) the worst side of me, and I wanted to really tap into that,” he said. “I could see where he was coming from.”

Natchez Little Theatre Executive and Artistic Director Layne Taylor won numerous accolades: best director of a play for “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” best supporting actor in a musical as Dr. Neville Craven in “The Secret Garden,” one of the best directors of “Beauty and the Beast,” as well as the award for one of the best set designers in “Beauty and the Beast.”

The theater company just finished its 63rd season, and Taylor said he loved participating in it.

“I have to say, I’ve been here since 2002, and this was our best season ever, across the board,” Taylor said.

Dwight Williams, 18, who played the prince/beast in “Beauty and the Beast,” took home best actor in a musical for his performance.

“I love bringing out (the beast’s) different emotions,” he said. “Sometimes he’s angry, sad, happy.”

Williams said he doesn’t think he has the best voice, but he felt comfortable with his performance, nonetheless.

“If you learn the script and lines then you have an idea of what (the character) is like,” he said. “If you do that, then you don’t have to be confident (with singing).”

No matter which play or musical is being performed, McGaughey said he always gets a rush.

“(Sometimes I) get goose bumps, and it feels like I’m not even under stage lights,” he said. “You’re just zoning out and becoming someone else.

“There is the self pride when you feel like you nailed it, there is a self affirmation. It feels really good to get noticed, but that’s secondary.”

Additional awards include:

  • Best play — “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”
  • Best Actress in a play — Susan McMillin as Maggie the Cat in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”
  • Best supporting actress in a play — Yvonne Murray as Big Mama in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”
  • Best cameo actor in a play — Wade Heatherly as Reverend Tooker in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”
  • Best cameo actress in a play — Sydney Eidt as a tourist in “Southern Exposure”
  • Best sets — Layne Taylor and Don Vesterse, “Beauty and the Beast”
  • Lifetime achievement — Carolyn “Tootsie” Yelverton
  • Volunteer of the year — Yvonne Murray
  • Best youth actor — John Ashton Hicks as Dickon in “The Secret Garden”
  • Best youth actress — Taylor Spring as Mary Lennox in “The Secret Garden”
  • Best musical — “Beauty and the Beast”
  • Best director of a musical — Layne Taylor and Kathleen Mackey King, “Beauty and the Beast”
  • Best actress in a musical — Gabrielle Richardson as Belle in “Beauty and the Beast”
  • Best supporting actor in a musical — Tommy Jackson as Big Daddy in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”
  • Best supporting actress in a musical — Laurie Williams as Martha in “The Secret Garden”
  • Dawn Taylor Memorial Scholarship Youth Volunteer ($500) — Taylor Spring
  • Best cameo actor in a musical — Colby Passman as Chip in “Beauty and the Beast”
  • Best cameo actress in a musical — Taylor Spring as Mary Jane Wilkes in “Big River”
  • Best debut actor — Benta Thomas as Jim in “Big River”
  • Best debut actress — Susan McMillin as Maggie the Cat in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”