Four from The Acting Company win prestigious 2020 Elly Awards
Four outstanding volunteers from The
Acting Company won the prestigious 2020 Elly Award for their spectacular work. They are Michael Strong, Supporting Male Role as Mr. Potter in It’s a Wonderful Life; Talia Baxter, Sound Design for It’s a Wonderful Life; Betsy Johnson, Script for Season of Giving Too and Jim Achilles, Script for Season of Giving Too.
The Sacramento Area Regional Theater Alliance (SARTA) promotes high-quality theater in the Sacramento area and neighboring regions. Membership includes approximately 100 theaters, more than 400 individual members and 30 media agencies. Each year, the annual
Elly Awards honor outstanding achievements of community theaters and artists in the Sacramento area. Elly Awards are named for the late Eleanor Mcclatchy, who was a devoted patron of the local arts.
Through the years, Michael Strong has been an outstanding performer on The Acting Company stage. He clung to tradition as Tevye in Fidler on the Roof; was a confirmed old bachelor as Professor Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady; enjoyed that “more congenial spot,” as King Pellinore in Camelot (receiving and Elly nomination); served as “monkey trial” defense counsel, Henry Durmmond in Inherit the Wind; persecuted the kindly Kris Kringle as Mr. Sawyer in Mirale on 34th Street; was impresario to the Von Trapp family, as Max Detweiler in The Sound of Music; called the wind “Mariah,” as Jake Whippany in Paint Your Wagon; was a neurotic man in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, a mysterious man in Into the Woods, and deliberated with 11 angry men, as
Juror #4 in 12 Angry Men. He went on to play Fagin in Oliver; the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz; Jacob in the The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat;
Andrew Makepeace Ladd III in Love Letters, Horace Vandergelder, a bewildered widower, in Hello Dolly.
However, it was Michael’s performance as Mr. Potter in It’s a Wonderful Life which earned him his first long coming and well deserved Elly Award. Michael retired after 38 years in state and county government, 16 years of which he served as Sutter County Assessor. He is currently the Treasurer of the Board of Directors for The Acting Company.
Talia Baxter is a full-time Chico State student, double-majoring in Theatre Arts and Multicultural and Gender Studies. She has written and directed several shows for The Acting Company with her mother, Corinna Hayes and she frequently works behind the stage designing sound and lights. Her outstanding sound design for It’s a
Wonderful Life earned her the prestigious Elly award.
Betsy Johnson is the director of children’s programming at The Acting Company and has been volunteering for many years in that capacity as well as acting, writing and directing. Jim Achilles is a professional musician and the music educator at Bear River School in Wheatland. Both Betsy and
Jim Achilles are devotees of the AT Children’s
Project which led them to write the script for Season of Giving Too. Their efforts garnered Betsy and Jim a well deserved Elly.