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Sunday, August 17, 2008
DayTony Awards a Lockwood lovefest
Master of ceremonies Greg Smith was only partially joking when he remarked during the 2007-8 DayTony Awards Sunday, Aug. 17, “This is the theater. You know some of these people hate each other.”
Debra Strauss meant what she said, although she meant to say something else a bit later when she introduced Jim Lockwood as a new inductee of the “Dayton Theatre Hall of Friends.”
He and Dodie Lockwood, the year’s other inductee into the Dayton Theatre Hall of Fame, were surrounded by friends during local theater’s annual gala of togetherness, held for the first time at the Mandalay Banquet Center.
Based on voting by representatives of participating theaters during the 2007-8 season, tens of awards for merit and excellence were presented for acting, directing and design in community, college and professional theater. Several honorees were absent, leaving representatives of some theaters to collect numerous medallions and certificates.
Serving as a surrogate for absent Human Race Theatre performers, actress Katie Pees posed with a neck burdened by others’ medals at one point, returning later to claim her own for the one-woman show, “The Divine Miss P.”
The Lockwoods, former spouses and ongoing parents of two adult offspring who are also active in local theater, were the main act. Daughter Jennifer Lockwood introduced mom Dodie, who’s an actress, director, choreographer, co-founder of the Dayton Playhouse’s Futurefest and former fund raising campaign chair for the Dayton Theatre Guild.
Jim Lockwood entered the theater via the orchestra pit as a musician before digging himself way deeper over the years as a performer in more than 150 local productions, a director of 41 more and an audience member for at least 50 shows a year.
Strauss, who has acted, volunteered and served on the board of the Dayton Playhouse, began her introduction with the line, “It’s a good night to be a Lockwood.”
It was also a good night to be a friend of the Lockwoods, even if you left without a medal. Arthur Jackson, a former Dayton judge and Dayton Playhouse board member, made the trip from Seattle to join the ovation. Brian Spitler, a former local music director who now works for the Disney company, came from Florida for the occasion.
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