Hometown: New York City
Claim to fame: Founder and producing director of the acclaimed Florida Stage
What he's done for us lately: The Florida Stage has stuck by its guns for 17 years, producing quality new stage works with professionalism. No tired revivals of Arsenic and Old Lace or The Glass Menagerie, no janitors stumbling on as walk-ons, no costumes from Kmart. Spots are hit, lines are spoken on cue, and the company does its damnedest to grapple with the issues that contemporary playwrights are brooding upon. This year, Tyrrell, a hands-on theater man all the way, directed local playwright Michael McKeever's macabre Running with Scissors. Then the company staged one of the best South Florida productions of the past year, Permanent Collection, Thomas Gibbons' challenging examination of institutional racism and political correctness.
What it takes: "In the theater, it's all about collaboration. The thing that's driven me is ultimately a practical need to interact with other people, to have a positive impact on the community in the small way that we do. The moment we start to think too much of ourselves and that impact, though, I remind myself that we wear wigs and bows for a living."
Hometown: New York City
Claim to fame: Founder and producing director of the acclaimed Florida Stage
What he's done for us lately: The Florida Stage has stuck by its guns for 17 years, producing quality new stage works with professionalism. No tired revivals of Arsenic and Old Lace or The Glass Menagerie, no janitors stumbling on as walk-ons, no costumes from Kmart. Spots are hit, lines are spoken on cue, and the company does its damnedest to grapple with the issues that contemporary playwrights are brooding upon. This year, Tyrrell, a hands-on theater man all the way, directed local playwright Michael McKeever's macabre Running with Scissors. Then the company staged one of the best South Florida productions of the past year, Permanent Collection, Thomas Gibbons' challenging examination of institutional racism and political correctness.
What it takes: "In the theater, it's all about collaboration. The thing that's driven me is ultimately a practical need to interact with other people, to have a positive impact on the community in the small way that we do. The moment we start to think too much of ourselves and that impact, though, I remind myself that we wear wigs and bows for a living."
Best Radio Show
Sounds of the Caribbean
WLRN-FM (91.3) Sounds of the Caribbean has been a presence on South Florida's airwaves since 1979, when none other than Bob Marley convinced host Clint O'Neil that he could be an important voice of island culture in Miami, a city that could be called the capital of the Caribbean. Until recently, O'Neil's Monday-through-Friday, late-night broadcasts were supplemented with two weekend editions hosted by Kevin "Ital-K" Smith, but Smith's early Sunday and Monday morning shows were replaced with BBC News by station management in October. It's a shame Smith's quick wit and sharp British accent is no longer heard, but O'Neil is still on from 2 to 7 a.m. Sundays, laying down tracks from nearly every tropical genre, from soca to rocksteady and dancehall through Afro-Cuban. Through the Internet, the station reaches listeners worldwide. The show breaks up the canned chatter and carefully calculated playlists that rule the corporately controlled medium of radio today.