Undercover props

UNEXPECTED ADVANCES Brenda Barrie and Marcus Kamie get it on in Tango, directed by 2006 Orgie winner Brandon Bruce who pocketed $100.

If every Chicago theater artist is dreaming about an orgy, most of them won’t admit it. But with the emergence of a secret society that gives awards to underappreciated theater accomplishments, openly pining for an Orgie in mixed company might become acceptable practice.

During the last week of February, the second annual round of Orgie awards (the name is taken from the word original, by the way) was mailed out, and some of our favorite storefront artists received shiny envelopes in the mail containing crisp $100 bills.

The anonymous Orgie committee cropped up last year and e-mailed a press release (from a nonincriminating Yahoo! account) that identified its members as both “theatre artists and patrons.” The group declared that the awards—given for the first time in February 2006—were meant to “encourage original, innovative, risky, thrilling, inspiring and possibly outlandish work in Chicago theater.” The eight winners—honored in the areas of acting, directing and design, all in plays unlikely to garner much mainstream love—were notified via mail. In addition to the shiny certificate enclosed, the honorees received what seems to be the staple $100.

We were intrigued—after all, the Orgies were thoughtful enough to honor otherwise awardless fringe standouts such as the Hypocrites’ dynamic production of Sarah Kane’s suicide play 4.48 Psychosis, and the Trap Door’s giddy, gross-out production of People Annihilation, or My Liver is Senseless. But with no official website, no phone number, not even a basic MySpace page for cryin’ out loud, we shrugged it off as a stunt.

We’ve written before that the seemingly arbitrary and mainstream-affirming Jeff Awards too often let some of the city’s best theater slip through the cracks. And while that award is still Chicago theater’s highest honor, it doesn’t include any green. The Orgie might be an award you’re embarrassed to tell your family about, but at least it allows you to buy the first round.

We find ourselves agreeing to an alarming degree with the Orgies (seven of the nine productions cited were recommended by TOC)—maybe it’s because we admire their openly arbitrary stance. Or maybe it’s because we could get used to the following phrasing: For the 2006–2007 season, the Orgie goes to…

Nathan Allen, Music Composition, Valentine Victorious (The House Theatre of Chicago)

Brandon Bruce, Direction, Tango (Chopin Theatre)
Mark Comiskey, Dominic Conti, Sharon Gopfert and Tere Parkes, Ensemble Performance, Live Feed (Plasticene)

Zeljko Djukic, Artistic Direction, Huddersfield, Tracks (TUTA)

Chuck Likar, Acting, Fellow Travelers (Stage Left Theatre)

Jenny Magnus, Guy Massey, Kat McJimsey, Beau O’Reilly, Colm O’Reilly, Kathleen Powers, Vickie Walden and Teresa Weed, Ensemble Performance, No Danger of the...Spiritual Thing (Curious Theatre Branch)

Lily Mojekwu, Acting, Another Part of the House (Teatro Vista)

Grant Sabin, Set Design, Killers (Mary-Arrchie Theatre)