TATE revamp

The Tulsa Awards for Theater Excellence will undergo much-needed changes

Over the past eight years, the Tulsa Awards for Theater Excellence, known as the TATEs, have been a boon to the local theater groups that benefit from its annual $20,000 in prize money for the plays judged to be the best of the year. Among theater-makers and audiences, there’s no question the TATEs have improved the quality and audience appeal of local theater by incentivizing excellence.

Julia White, now in her second year as TATE program director, says the awards were originally conceived as “a fun way to encourage those that aren’t wrapped up in the theater world but appreciate it to go and see the shows because at the end of the year there’d be an awards ceremony—a Tonys for Tulsa.”

But recently the program and its understanding of “excellence” have come under fire from many in the Tulsa theater community. The 2016 ceremony, held in late June, featured a disorderly Gary Busey as its “Distinguished Artist” and saw the largest two cash prizes going to plays produced by the same organization, raising concerns that the awards had become less celebratory than divisive for local artists. 

Disgruntlement with the TATEs goes back even further than this most recent ceremony, described as “an absolute farce” by Odeum Theatre Company’s Whitson Hanna in a widely read post on the blog StageLife918. For those whose organizations already enjoy decent support, wrote director Frank Gallagher on the same blog, the attitude going into the awards is “Free wine and I hope we win.” For those that don’t, he speculates, it’s more like, “We desperately need the money, but they’re probably going to [screw] overlook us again.” 

First, there’s the awkwardness of celebrities who have little to do with Tulsa being held up as icons representing the greatness of Tulsa theater, purportedly to attract people to the event. It doesn’t help when those celebrities make asses of themselves—as Busey reportedly did (I skipped the event precisely because of his presence)—and thus show a lack of respect for the talent and effort the awards are intended to highlight.

Then there’s the question of the judges and their criteria for choosing which plays are “best.” What is their experience in theater? Do they have standards in common? Do they even see all the shows? Are they just ticking boxes, or do they have constructive criticism to offer? 

Finally, there’s this delicate question: are the TATEs living up to their commendable goal of supporting theater in Tulsa as a whole? When the focus of the event is not local theater itself but outrageous celebrities, when the fairness of the judging is in question, and when many local organizations feel slighted in the process (and thus deprived of money they badly need to make better art), can we say that it’s the excellence of Tulsa theater that’s actually being celebrated?

It was a complex situation to contend with even before the 2016 awards ceremony. The good news? GKFF is listening. 

White reports that on the basis of community input over the summer the TATEs are being entirely restructured, beginning with the inclusion of a representative from each local theater group on an advisory committee, which has made recommendations that are already being implemented. The changes include a revamping of the panel of judges and their process, making it more diverse and more accountable, with a stronger emphasis on critical feedback. 

In September, the foundation is bringing in a professional adjudicator from Canada to run a workshop for the new TATE judges and the community at large. White describes this as part of GKFF’s larger mission “to get the community involved in what’s happening onstage” and says it’s just the first of many planned workshops on subjects like set design, writing, and the process of applying for non-profit status.  

“We have [it] better than most,” Hanna (who now sits on the TATE committee) said in an email. “Most communities don’t have a great benefactor that is pouring money into the system in order to make it better. We are very lucky that the Kaiser Foundation has taken it upon themselves to do this for our community. And they have a broad goal to make theater a viable entertainment option, on par with our ballet or opera.

“I’m glad that they are not only willing to listen, but willing to do the work,” Hanna continued. “This is only the beginning of the process, and I’m sure there will be some glitches in the system, but I feel like it’s on the right track.”

For more from Alicia, read her article on playwright Lynn Riggs and the roots of “Oklahoma!”