Local acting coach nominated for regional Tony Award

There’s magic in the air. I mean the kind of magic that makes a person float on air, and incites a sense of pride in the rest of us. Several years ago, we saw that kind of magic when local actress Keala Settle received the Helen Hayes Award for her role in “Hairspray,” and followed that with a Tony nomination for featured actress in the musical “Hands on a Hard Body.” The entire theater community sat glued to their televisions.

The Tony Awards are a function of the American Theatre Wing, an organization that recognizes outstanding work in the theater. They’ve presented awards to regional theater companies for many years. The Utah Shakespeare Festival has been a recipient, and this year the Cleveland Playhouse, where I saw my first Broadway tour, is being honored.

For 2015, they’ve added a new one: Excellence in Theatre Education, presented by Carnegie-Mellon University, established to celebrate the educators who transform lives through the power of the arts. And Las Vegas has been blessed again.

Director and acting coach Gerald Gordon was nominated for this prestigious award. He’s directed for stage and film. Since arriving in Las Vegas in 1997, he’s had more than 5,400 students audition and accepted more than 850. Since he’s directed and coached the likes of Janis Paige, Roslyn Kind and Academy Award winning actor Adrien Brody, it’s no wonder he’s the most sought-after acting coach in the valley. According to the Tony Awards website, finalists will be announced later this spring. In any event, I’ll be watching on June 7, as I do each year, hoping the lightning bolt strikes for him.

Speaking of awards, the 2015 Las Vegas Valley Theatre Awards, honoring outstanding achievement in local productions, will be announced this summer. The organization is about more than recognizing talent; its goal is to create more buzz and awareness for the local scene. I should have an exact date and venue in next month’s column.

It can be so glorious when magic happens on a stage. But it’s tough to make it work on the boards if you have no home. Poor Richard’s Players, one of our local companies, has spent its initial seasons as a nomad theater, floating from venue to venue. And doing excellent, award-winning work, such as their hilarious “Dick Johnson, Private Eye” series and “5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche.” They have much to be proud of, and it’s fair to say they’re more than capable of covering us in layers of enchantment.

Now, in order to become more stable, producing on a more consistent basis, they’re asking for your help in establishing a permanent home in the proposed Poor Richard’s Playhouse. A crowd-funding effort on IndieGogo ended April 29, having met only 39 percent of its goal. If you’d like to help them out, hit the Internet and click on over to www.poorrichardsplayers.com, or contact them at info@poorrichardsplayers.com.

Last thing on this month’s list of pride-inducing things: The evening of May 30, yours truly will be ensconced inside The Writer’s Block indie bookstore in downtown Las Vegas to sign copies of my novel, “(Marvin’s) World of Deadheads,” a humorous romp through the afterlife.

Paul Atreides’ Offstage column appears on the first Thursday of the month.