Cantu is first three-time winner of Renaissance Players Jimmy Awards

Whiting, Gunn earn second medals at awards ceremony

Release Date: 8/17/2004. Expired: 9/17/2004

Kim Brownfiel Cantu became the first three-time winner of a Jimmy Award while Tom Whiting and Rachel Gunn each picked up their second when the Renaissance Players capped off the 2003-04 community theatre season with the annual Gala Tuesday night at The Renaissance Center.

The Jimmy Awards, named for the late Dr. Jimmy Jackson, founder and first board chairman of The Renaissance Center, recognize participants in the center’s community theatre program through a variety of awards similar to Broadway’s Tony Awards. The 2nd annual Jimmy Awards were handed out Tuesday during a ceremony in the center’s Performance Hall.

Awards were given in several categories in recognition for the 2003-04 season, which included productions of The Mousetrap, Cinderella, The Miracle Worker and The Wizard of Oz. Pacer Harp, managing director of the Gaslight Dinner Theatre, introduced a special retrospective on each production throughout the evening while Amy Scott, managing director of the Renaissance Players, presided over the ceremony.

Cantu, a Bon Aqua resident, won the night’s top honor, the Renaissance Players Spirit Award, for the second year in a row. She also picked up the award for Best Featured Actor/Actress in a Play last year for her performance in Harvey to make her the first person to receive three Jimmys. During the 2003-04 season, Cantu was stage manager for The Wizard of Oz and Cinderella and directed The Mousetrap.

Whiting, a resident of Charlotte, won Best Actor in a Musical for his performance as the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz. He had previously won Best Supporting Actor in a Musical for last season’s production of The Sound of Music.

Dickson resident Gunn received this season’s award as Outstanding Technical Crew Member. She served as assistant director for The Wizard of Oz and also was nominated for Best Actress in a Musical for her role as the Stepmother in Cinderella. Gunn earned her first Jimmy last season for Best Actress in a Play for A Christmas Story.

This year’s ceremony saw three members of Dickson’s Frey family pick up Jimmy Awards.

Greg Frey was named Best Actor in a Play for his portrayal of Captain Keller in The Miracle Worker while two of his eight children also won awards. Jory Frey earned the Jimmy as Best Young Performer in a Play for the role of Jimmie Sullivan in The Miracle Worker and Ashton Frey tied for the honor of Best Young Performer in a Musical as a villager in Cinderella.

Husband and wife Tony and Pam Funderburg of Leiper’s Fork also earned their first Jimmy Awards Tuesday night. Tony Funderburg received Best Featured Actor in a Play for playing the Doctor in The Miracle Worker. Pam Funderburg took home Best Supporting Actress in a Play for her role as Mrs. Boyle in The Mousetrap.

In her first performance with the Renaissance Players, Stephanie Rothenberg of Williamson County earned the Best Actress in a Musical after playing Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz.

Dickson’s Buddy Tidwell, a computer crimes investigator with the Dickson County Sheriff’s Office, received the Jimmy for Best Supporting Actor in a Musical for his dual role of Professor Marvel and the Wizard in The Wizard of Oz.

Sandra Harris of Bellevue, a former television news director who now directs productions at The Renaissance Center, was named Best Supporting Actress in a Musical for playing the Fairy Godmother in Cinderella.

Maggie, a Yorkshire terrier owned by Steve and Michelle Herbert of Dickson, became the first non-human to ever win a Jimmy Award when she was voted Best Featured Actor/Actress in a Musical after portraying Toto in The Wizard of Oz.

Kayci Totty of Fairview made her Renaissance Players debut as Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker and took home Best Actress in a Play.

Daniel Bissell of Pegram won Best Supporting Actor in a Play for playing Christopher Wren in The Mousetrap. He also had been nominated for Best Actor in a Musical for his role as the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz.

Jesse LeJeune of Fairview tied with Ashton Frey for Best Young Performer in a Musical for his portrayal of Coroner Munchkin in The Wizard of Oz.

The awards ceremony also included several musical performances, most of them serving as previews of Renaissance Players shows in the 2004-05 season.

Josh Arnold of Houston County, a nominee for playing the Prince in Cinderella, sang Me from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, which kicks off the new season with performances in October. Beth Burch, last year’s winner for her role as Annie Oakley in Annie Get Your Gun, performed I Don’t Know How to Love Him from Jesus Christ Superstar, to be presented next March. Whiting and Cantu presented Do You Love Me? from Fiddler on the Roof, scheduled to conclude the upcoming season in July 2005.

In a flashback to the 2000-01 season, Bissell and Katherine Jett performed All for the Best from Godspell. Jett was a double-nominee for Best Actress in a Musical for the title role in Cinderella and the Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz.

The evening concluded with a special performance by the Swingy Sisters, Candy and Cooky (Kelli Workman and Elaine Sherrill) accompanied by Elton Jeff (Jeffery Martin) in a preview of Sherrill’s A Dickson, Tennessee Christmas, which returns to The Renaissance Center for two shows Nov. 20.

The Renaissance Center’s award-winning Multimedia Department videotaped the Jimmy Awards, which will be broadcast on the Renaissance Channel (Comcast 19 in Dickson County) in the coming weeks.

To learn more about the Renaissance Players and their 2004-05 season, contact Scott at (615)740-5551 or .

The Renaissance Center is an arts and technology education and performing arts center at 855 Highway 46 South in Dickson, just 35 miles west of Nashville on Interstate 40 at exit 172.

Visit the Theatre page for more about community and professional theatre.

News

Date Released	Expiration	Headline
No Press Releases to show...