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Best Supporting Actress

Nanique Gheridian in Michael Frayn's Benefactors, Palm Beach Dramaworks

For good Darwinian reasons, we remember trauma with more clarity than pleasure. This, perhaps, is why tragediennes win more awards than their comedienne counterparts. Last year, Nanique Gheridian turned in a memorable performance as Sheila, the frightened, mousy wife of razor-witted Colin (played by Todd Allen Durkin). Abused, afraid to speak above a squeak, and seemingly incapable of articulating an opinion about anything, she spent the whole play trying her best to disappear. She seemed to grow smaller each time Durkin opened his mouth. Her laughter, always nervous, became ever more tremulous until it was just a tickly flutter — a shamed little spasm of the tonsils. Her character was a woman embarrassed to be alive, and she made her embarrassment our own. Many thespians could have done likewise, but Gheridian went further by making us see the woman her character could have been. When her eyes shyly appraised her feet, they were wise eyes, full of intelligence. You could read in her face the thousand cutting things she'd love to say to her husband, if only she could open her mouth.

Best Theatrical Production

Conor McPherson's The Seafarer Mosaic Theatre

The Seafarer is a big play set in a little room. Comprising nothing more than the banter of old friends (and one diabolical houseguest) in an Irish basement on Christmas Eve, it warmly and humanely paints its characters' portraits as completely as any play can: their histories, flaws, world views, and most private pains. Its playwright's eternal muses are grief, guilt, and redemption, but The Seafarer goes much further. In a sustained moment of uncharacteristic kindness, McPherson wrote his Christmas story as an ode to unconquerable fraternal love — a love that remains strong even when battered senseless by (literally) the forces of hell. It would be difficult to imagine McPherson's script brought off more beautifully than it was at Mosaic Theatre last fall. If you went, you experienced mirth, dread, joy, sorrow, and a kind of moral clarity that you might call "enlightenment" — a stuffed-stocking bounty of thoughts and feelings greater than any piece of art is obliged to supply and which Mosaic nevertheless graciously proffered.

Best Theatrical Season

Palm Beach Dramaworks' 2008-09 Season

There is no doubt about it: Palm Beach Dramaworks' patrons are old. This year, there have been a few evenings when the second-youngest person in attendance was our theater critic's mother. But really, who cares? Because unlike some theaters with aged audiences, Dramaworks refuses to get by on showbiz nostalgia. When the theater did produce something old, it was something daring: Eugene O'Neill's shattering A Moon for the Misbegotten or Eugene Ionesco's freaky The Chairs. And its newer stuff — Edward Albee's updated Zoo Story or Conor McPherson's The Weir — was hip, edgy, and bottomless. It was all performed masterfully too. Dramaworks is the real deal, and theater lovers ought to be grabbing young people off the street and dragging them there.

Best Theatrical Venue to Die

Sol Theatre Project

Tiny Sol Theatre got a major face-lift about two years ago. Its funky little lobby was overseen by a giant sun-themed mosaic of mirrored glass, and painted tile covered one wall from top to bottom, filling the place with a mystical orange glow. Above the ticket booth was a pot-smoking Mona Lisa. Nearby was a refrigerator with a glass door, from which you could buy sodas and water for a buck. Next to that was a table full of complimentary wine, which you were encouraged to take with you into Sol's multitiered auditorium. Auditorium is probably too grand a word for Sol's performance space. It was more like a slightly larger-than-average living room, what with all the couches and barstools across which patrons could casually drape themselves. Sol's doors closed forever this summer. And for many, it felt like losing a second home. RIP.

Best Tribute Act

Rockit to Russia

Diehard Ramones fans will readily admit that it doesn't take a lot of technical skill to faithfully reproduce the New York punk rockers' power-chord assault. What it takes, though, is a kind of scrappy joy that revels in that simplicity and harnesses it into a slap-happy party. South Florida's Rockit to Russia has plenty of that, as well as a near-obsessive devotion to the Ramones oeuvre. Not only have the members renamed themselves, individually, as Ramones (i.e., Nicky Ramone), those Ramones then, uh, play the real Ramones (i.e., Nicky Ramone as Joey Ramone). Heck, the guys of Rockit to Russia have even commented on New Times music blogs in "character" (think, typing a lot of "Gabba gabba hey!"). You've got to admire that kind of dedication and also the musicians' equal-opportunity spirit. They're quick to point out on their MySpace page that, among them, they speak Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, French, Italian, and Japanese — perfect for all your multiculti Ramones booking needs. Hey, ho, vamonos?

"Somebody Put Something in My Drink" by Rockit to Russia

Best Visual Artist

Janet Gold

It's hard to keep track of Janet Gold, which is part of what makes her one of the most compelling presences on the South Florida art scene. One day, you may catch her at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, where she has taught courses ranging from illustration to creative thinking. Another day, you might find her squeezing in a museum visit. Or hauling a friend off to discover a new gallery. Or taking in an art lecture. Or putting in an appearance at an opening, either for herself or in support of another artist friend. And yet she still finds time to spend in her studio on the fringes of downtown Fort Lauderdale, where she shares a space with fellow artist Tobey Archer and from time to time even takes on nonartist collaborators. There she has long engaged in her equally varied work, which includes pastel paintings, abstract photography, and, most recently, delicate collages. Given such scope, you never know where her work will turn up either. In the past year alone, she has taken part in a faculty exhibition at the Art Institute, the latest round of the South Florida Cultural Consortium for Visual and Media Artists (a fellowship she has won twice), an exhibition of triptychs at a gallery specializing in lowbrow art, and a show focusing on handmade books (another current interest) at the Broward County Main Library. You get the picture. She's all over, in a good way.

Culturebeat

As the title of this crowd-pleasing exhibition indicates, the pairing is a natural. But this is the first time the work of these two 20th-century titans has been presented side by side. It includes more than 40 O'Keeffe paintings and more than 50 Adams photographs, covering the scope of their careers but emphasizing comparisons and contrasts of works completed in the desert Southwest, where both traveled extensively and where O'Keeffe eventually settled for much of her long life. Some of the show's juxtapositions are startling — slightly different views of the same subjects, for instance, or uncannily similar takes on very different subjects, captured by two virtuosos of their respective media. It's an extraordinary, not-to-be-missed exhibition.

Alain Guerra and Neraldo de la Paz are not the type to gingerly test the depths of mythology. Instead, the Miami-based pair has plunged headfirst into the unknown, seeking to fathom the common lore that binds humanity in an Ariadne's thread across the globe. At the Carol Jazzar Gallery in El Portal, the conceptual duo has conjured a realm of enchantment by creating iconic imagery of fantastic creatures lost to time yet that appeared very much alive to the bygone civilizations that venerated them.

Culturebeat

Landscapes From the Age of Impressionism

Through May 10 at the Norton Museum of Art, 1451 S. Olive Ave., West Palm Beach. Call 561-832-5196, or visit norton.org.

This small but satisfying show includes just over three dozen French and American paintings that form a sort of encapsulated history of the subject, drawn from the collection of the Brooklyn Museum. There are some big names here — Renoir, Manet, Pissarro, and Courbet among the Frenchmen; Childe Hassam, William Glackens, and John Singer Sargent among the Americans. And there's a handful of to-the-point wall panels to provide context, tracing the movement from its mid-19th-century beginnings in France through its evolution and on to its American manifestations in the early 20th Century. Be warned, though: If you're among those for whom one landscape looks pretty much like the next, there's nothing here likely to convert you. If you're already a believer, however, you'll find plenty of sustenance.

"Georgia O'Keeffe and Ansel Adams: Natural Affinities"

Through May 3 at the Norton Museum of Art, 1451 S. Olive Ave., West Palm Beach. Call 561-832-5196, or visit norton.org.

As the title indicates, the pairing of Adams and O'Keeffe is a natural. But this is the first time the work of these two 20th-century titans has been presented side by side. It includes more than 40 O'Keeffe paintings and more than 50 Adams photographs. It's an extraordinary, not-to-be-missed exhibition.

"NeoHooDoo: Art for a Forgotten Faith"

Through May 24 at the Miami Art Museum, 101 W. Flagler St., Miami. Call 305-375-3000, or visit miamiartmuseum.org

This show is freighted with many of the religious beliefs of those who have migrated to South Florida from distant shores. The sprawling show corrals together 50 works by 33 artists in an arresting variety of media, ranging from sculpture to photography, assemblage, video, and performance. NeoHooDoo includes a mind-jarring range of depictions of spirituality that will bring you back to plumb its enigmatic depths.

"Bazaar"

Through April 14 at the Dot Fiftyone Gallery, 51 NW 36th St., Miami. Call 305-573-9994, or visit dotfiftyone.com.

Pancho Luna is no stranger to yanking perfection from the jaws of chaos. The artist often tinkers on multiple series of works at the same time, allowing his cranial crankshaft to intuitively fire the connective rods linking disparate elements of his art. The result of his cerebral shenanigans is on display in "Bazaar" at Dot Fiftyone Gallery, where Luna's pristine installations and pieces combine to reveal a witty and inventive mind.

"People, Places, and Things"

Through April 4 at the Dina Mitrani Gallery, 2620 NW Second Ave., Miami. Call 786-486-7248, or visit dinamitranigallery.com.

Peggy Levinson Nolan's path from the projects to her first solo show at an art gallery went something like this: marriage, seven kids, dreams of becoming a photographer, shoplifting a lot of film. From there, the South Florida local taught herself to shoot and print pictures, stole more film, moved out of the projects and returned to college, got divorced, got pierced up, graduated from Florida International University, and stole some more film. Through it all, Nolan has never stopped shooting pictures. The result is this staggeringly impressive photography exhibit.

Culturebeat

Naked Women Fully Clothed

Poet Muriel Rukeseyer once asked "What would happen if one woman told the truth about her life?" If the opening-weekend audience at Naked Women Fully Clothed is any indicator, the world would share a hearty laugh. This production by the Women's Theatre Project is a series of shorts that, at their best, examine women's lives honestly and with a wink and, at their worst, indulge in subjects that are redundant or uninspired. One of the ill-fated sketches, "The Meeting," falls back on lesbian, Jewish, and feminist stereotypes in an attempt to elicit politically incorrect laughs. Another sketch, "Lorraine," pits a woman calling about her car insurance claim against a customer-service representative. Many have dealt with the hassle, but if you want the audience to want to relive it, the writing better be damned funny and creative. It's not. Not even one of the top performers of the evening, Lela Elam, playing Lorraine, could pull it off. Luckily, Elam's talents are utilized elsewhere, like in "I Am Pastrami," in which she compares womanhood to the deli meat, or "Lemonade," in which she relates tales of lost lesbian love to a class of young girls through unsubtle but funny subtexts. Other highlights include "Big Fake Breasts," which evaluates the empowering quality of having huge knockers (or wearing a Wonderbra), and "Isn't This the Truth," in which the company shares the war-zone quality of public restrooms (not a new subject for women, but the actors offer a hilarious delivery nevertheless). Erica K. Landau

"Stan Slutsky: The Shape of Things"

Slutsky is that rare creature these days, a contemporary practitioner of op art, a style that enjoyed its heyday in the mid-'60s. Op art, short for optical art, traffics in illusion — the illusion of movement and of space as generated by the use of geometric forms and the precise manipulation of color. Slutsky, a Pittsburgh native who studied at Ohio's Youngstown University before settling in South Florida in the early 1980s, is a master at it, and it's not surprising to learn that as a child, he was fascinated with magicians and magic acts. His best work, like that of such well-known op artists as Hungarian Victor Vasarely and England's Bridget Riley, prompts a quizzical "How did he do that?" reaction. In his capable hands, a style that quickly came and went becomes a noble tradition well worth preserving. Michael Mills

A Doll's House

The proto-feminist statement A Doll's House, by Henrik Ibsen, is quite powerful enough. It needs little amplification between the page and the stage. Unfortunately, this production finds Nora Helmer — the play's slowly liberated protagonist — played by Margery Lowe in a frenzy of dramatic overachievement. She is never quite believable and never anywhere near likable; in fact, you're more interested in seeing her silenced than freed. A shame too, because this production — with lovely turns from Gregg Weiner and Nanique Gheridian and a gorgeous belle epoque set by Michael Amico — could have been great. Brandon K. Thorp

"George Segal: Street Scenes"

There are 13 life-sized plaster casts of the human figure in this mini-retrospective — sometimes alone, often in pairs or groups, usually in public places re-created using found objects. Such was the approach taken by Segal, who died in 2000 at age 75, since the early 1960s, when he began producing the sculptures on which he built his reputation. This marks the first time an exhibition has taken an in-depth look at the artist's preoccupation with urban scenarios, specifically those inspired by his native New York. The works are a thicket of paradoxes, set in public spaces where utterly private moments are revealed, as much defined by human absence as by human presence. Like contemporary Duane Hanson, whose work Segal's is sometimes compared with, he was ultimately a documenter of despair, as this exceptional little show adroitly demonstrates. Michael Mills

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