Fresh Loaf

A spirit of generosity seems to be affecting the Atlanta performing-arts community this fall. Not only is local theater awards season upon us, but theater is actually being given away for free.

The Atlanta Coalition of Performing Arts will present its annual Georgia Arts & Entertainment Legacy Awards, or GAELA, at 7:30 p.m. Mon., Oct. 1, at the Rialto Center for the Arts. Honorees include True Colors Theatre Company Artistic Director Kenny Leon, Center for Puppetry Arts Executive Director Vince Anthony and Ruth Mitchell Dance Theatre founder Ruth Mitchell.

GAELA kicks off the 2nd annual Georgia Open Arts Month, or GO Arts, which features special chances to see free and discounted visual and performing arts. To sign up for free theater tickets, for instance, go to this page to sign up, starting at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 4. Shows include Georgia Shakespeare’s Richard III, the Alliance Theatre’s Sleuth, Dad’s Garage Theatre’s Improv Revolution and more. Warning: The 1500 available free tickets are expected to be snatched up in about 10 minutes.

Even more theater awards will be presented at the 2007 Suzi Bass Awards gala evening at 8 p.m. Monday, Nov. 5, at the Fox Theatre. More than 100 nominees from 17 producing organizations will be honored in 20 categories of excellence in theater and musical theater. The most-nominated shows include the Alliance Theatre’s Sister Act: The Musical, Synchronicity Performance Group’s A Year with Frog and Toad and Theatre in the Square’s Turned Funny.

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According to this article in Variety, True Colors Theatre Artistic Director Kenny Leon is planning to direct a stage adaptation of the 1967 film Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. Leon’s teaming with producer Jeffrey Finn, who worked on the 2005 African-American revival of On Golden Pond with James Earl Jones, and hopes that Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner will be ready for Broadway by fall 2008.

Leon and adapter Todd Kreidler will have their work cut out of them, however. The original movie confines so much of the action to so few rooms that it seems like a filmed stage play, but, in fact, screenwriter William Rose won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. When I wrote about the film in comparison to the 2005 race-reversed remake Guess Who with Bernie Mac and Ashton Kutcher, Dinner struck me as fatally stodgy and self-important, the epitome of the highly respected “issues film” that ages poorly. It coasts on the star power of Sidney Poitier as the saintly African-American fiance and Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy as the white parents who find their liberal ideas put to the test when their daughter brings home her new prospective husband.

Dinner dates to a time when mixed marriage was illegal in parts of America: “In 16 or 17 states you’ll be breaking the law — you’ll be criminals,” declares one character, so hopefully the play version can evoke the high stakes of the era without replicating the condescension of the film. Unquestionably, Leon will be able to assemble an all-star cast (the acting in True Colors’ Ceremonies in Dark Old Men is tremendous across the board). Let’s just hope that the Dinner reservation is worth waiting for.

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