Best Production
Medea by Infernal Bridegroom Productions
This year the folks at Infernal Bridegroom Productions conjured the ancient Greeks to help them create the most extravagantly intelligent and wonderfully original production of the season. Euripides's Medea, about a woman who kills her children to get back at her unfaithful husband, is one of Western civilization's oldest and most deadly love stories. But the ancient tragedy was rendered totally new in the IBP production, thanks to the wild imaginations of everyone involved. Musicians, artists, dancers and actors came together to create some wonderfully contemporary gestures that somehow felt completely organic to this hallowed story. Grainy video, performers from Jennifer Wood's Suchu Dance, a Greek "chorus" filled with pot-smoking creepy creatures and the superhero Batman (of all things) wove themselves around Tamarie Cooper's raven-haired, mad Medea, rendering this story of blood-curdling revenge into mind-blowing modern theater.
           -Houston Press, September 29, 2005.

Best Director
Charlie Scott for Medea
Under the guidance of Euripides, one of the oldest playwrights in Western civilization, Charlie Scott, with Infernal Bridegroom Productions, became a directorial force to be reckoned with last season. His mercurial imagination and thrilling intellect shimmered in every aspect of his astonishing adaptation of Euripides's Medea. Scott, who has been an IBP company member since the troupe's inception, has spent most of his time acting for the company. But his dangerously delicious Medea revealed that he's a whole lot more than another pretty face. His fearless production of the tragedy allowed for moments of outrageous humor and heart-twisting pain to reside side by side on a dark stage filled with the strange and the beautiful. It captured the very soul of Euripides's tragedy and made us see once again why those ancient Greeks are so damned important.
           -Houston Press, September 29, 2005.

Best Modern Dance Company
Suchu Dance
Jennifer Wood, the choreographic engine behind Suchu Dance, has been toiling away crafting dance after dance for the past 11 years. It's been said that Wood doesn't make dances -- instead, she creates worlds where dance happens. She has directed ten full-length works and seems remarkably comfortable in the form. Her vivid imagination, combined with a natural sense of theatricality, makes for consistently compelling adventures. [...] This past spring, Wood stretched her choreographic chops to collaborate with Infernal Bridegroom Productions on Medea. It was, without a doubt, a great match.
           -Houston Press, September 29, 2005.