LISA VELTEN SMITH AND DANIEL KRELL
The honor is called Post-Gazette Performer of the Year, and in the 36 previous years of celebrating Pittsburgh’s top stage actors, it has all but twice been just that — one singular sensation. But this year the PG’s two theater critics have agreed to break precedent and choose two honorees.
With performances that graced three Pittsburgh companies, Lisa Velten Smith and Daniel Krell are the 2019 Post-Gazette Performers of the Year.
On two other policies, we have stayed firm: the award is for actors only in Pittsburgh shows, and although many former Performers of the Year remain active, we allow no repeats.
This year, Velten Smith and Krell costarred in Pittsburgh Public Theater’s witty, thoughtful “A Doll’s House, Part 2,” an intellectual comedy like those of Stoppard and Shaw.
Velten Smith’s indelible, dynamic performance as the second coming of Ibsen heroine Nora Helmer, an independent woman years ahead of her time, was a physical and intellectual triumph. She showed emotional range in confronting her own unorthodox convictions, and she was funny, too. Both adventurer and warrior, her Nora broke societal rules and bravely faced the consequences.
Velten Smith went from that 19thcentury heroism to City Theatre’s “We Are Among Us,” playing a present-day single mother, deeply conflicted over her time as an Army contractor in Afghanistan. Her quiet inner battle exhibited a different kind of strength, no less real than Nora’s. Note that both performances, though rooted in specific historical moments, spoke vigorously to contemporary issues.
Krell has dozens of credits with many professional Pittsburgh companies, including more total credits at the Public than anyone else. Opposite Velten Smith’s Nora, he captured the turmoil of her seemingly bewildered and defeated husband, Torvald. But what might seem a small man’s revenge turned out to be more complex, as Krell dug down to find Torvald’s sympathetic emotional substance, particularly when he finally let go of his reserve with an explosion of anger and confusion.
In Front Porch Theatricals’ “Fun Home,” Krell navigated an even wider range of subtle and heightened emotions as a family man crippled by his own secrets. He thoroughly inhabited the role of the closeted father of a gay teenage daughter, heading up a talented local cast in the excellent regional premiere of the Tony Awardwinning musical.
The only previous years with multiple PG Performers of the Year were 2012, with Tami Dixon, Leo Marks and Mary Rawson, and 2010, with Derdriu Ring and Simon Bradbury.
Naming Velten Smith and Krell as Performers of the Year is the second half of our annual celebration of Pittsburgh theatrical excellence, following the list of the top 10 shows (and some runners-up) on Dec. 19. As we said then, not even two people could possibly see all that Pittsburgh had to offer in 2019, but we saw a lot, including the following performances that stood out:
MVPs: Shua Potter lit up the stage as a drag queen and mentor in “The Legend of Georgia McBride” (barebones productions) and as Mrs. Rachel Claus, whom he created with Monteze Freeland as a pre-show to “The Santaland Diaries” (City Theatre). … Justin Lonesome excelled in “Georgia McBride” and CLO Cabaret’s “Spamilton.” … Martin Giles was a master of satire in “An Octoroon” (Kinetic Theatre) and of varied characters in “The Woman in Black” (PICT Classic Theatre).
Ensembles: Joining Potter and Lonesome in “Georgia McBride” were a wideeyed, daring Andrew Swackhamer and charismatic David Conrad (also in “Dance Nation” at barebones). … The fearless cast of “An Octoroon” was led by Giles and Ananias J. Dixon (2018’s “Sweat” at the Public) … The hard-working cast of Quantum Theatre’s massive “King Lear” at the Carrie Furnace historic site … Public Theater’s gathering of more than “A Few Good Men” … The Florida-to-Pittsburgh cast of “Scapino” for Kinetic Theatre, including adapter and star Jeffrey Binder, plus longtime Pittsburgher David Whalen … and City Theatre’s “One Night in Miami …”
Standouts: For Pittsburgh CLO: Carnegie Mellon University grad Nathan Salstone, fresh from Broadway’s “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” stealing all his scenes in “Rock of Ages,” and a couple of non-local celebs who helped make summer fun — Clay Aiken’s pure joy as Teen Angel in “Grease” and Tony nominee Jenn Colella (“Come From Away”) providing reason to crow in “Peter Pan.” … Burke Moses’ pillar of indignation in “A Few Good Men”; Lissa Brennan’s fierce “teen” in “Dance Nation” (barebones); Ken Bolden’s heartbreaking Duke of Gloucester in “King Lear”; Dwayne Washington’s uncanny Sam Cooke in “One Night in Miami …”; Shammen McCune’s year of genderbending the Bard (Caliban in the Public’s “The Tempest” and Brutus in Pittsburgh Shakespeare in the Park’s “Julius Caesar”). …
So many of merit, so little space.