26 June 27- July 3, 2024 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com New Times b e s T o f m i a m i ® 2 0 2 4 OCEAN DRIVE (940) • OCEAN DRIVE (1410) • LINCOLN ROAD ESPAÑOLA WAY • PEMBROKE PINES WWW.HAVANA1957.COM company’s season finale at the Fillmore Miami Beach this year featured four Cuban dancers who left the National Ballet of Cuba while visit- ing Puerto Rico. When Peña formed his com- pany in 2006, it was to preserve the style of Cuban ballet outside the island. His openness to deserters seeking a better life in the U.S. has been a great gain for Miami audiences. And many go on to work with the country’s top ballet compa- nies. Peña’s company also draws in dancers from other countries around the world for the cele- brated International Ballet Festival of Miami. BEST THEATER COMPANY Juggerknot Theatre Company juggerknottheatrecompany.com Sisters Tanya and Natasha Bravo are the found- ing forces behind the magical Juggerknot The- atre Company. Year after year, production after production, the team delivers one helluva unique theater experience. Known for their immersive shows, Juggerknot knows how to engage and en- tertain an audience. Their latest production, Conjuring the King, is a raw, communal journey and one-woman show that follows the story of an Elvis Presley fan-club president. Taking care of business and takeovers are kind of their thing. The company put on exciting productions that took over motels (Miami Motel Stories) and even a house in Little Havana (The Blues Opera). We’re sure the Bravo sisters will continue to find creative ways to stay fresh and engaging. BEST ALT THEATER COMPANY Lakehouseranch- DotPNG Main Street Players 6812 Main Street Miami Lakes, 33014 lakehouseranchdotpng.com This absurdist, experimental troupe’s odd name was inspired by the title of a Google image of southwest Florida’s Lakewood Ranch. Founded by three FIU theater grads during the height of the pandemic, LakehouseranchDotPNG found a surprisingly eager audience while working out of a second-floor rented space in Kendall. The group is committed to showcasing new work, much of which is written by the company’s local resident playwrights. This season, they’re aban- doning Kendall for Miami Lakes, but they aren’t straying from their commitment to innovative big-thinking: season three includes a horror play about creeper vines in West Virginia and a cou- ple on the hunt for a cryptid known as Mothman. BEST ACTING STUDIO Tcherkin Studio 4471 NW 36th Street, Suite #206 Miami Springs, 33166 786-592-8446 tcherkinstudio.com Instagram.com/TcherkinStudio Larger-than-life acting coach Violet Tcherkin is Miami’s only accredited instructor of the Chub- buck technique. It’s a 21st-century evolution of the widely studied Stanislavski method, which countless Hollywood A-listers have used to hone their craft. Tcherkin’s students swear not only by her prowess as a world-class instructor of thespians but also by her empathy and in- sights into the human condition. While she helps her students prepare for the rigorous and highly competitive acting industry, she also of- fers them what some call a life-changing jour- ney of self-discovery and personal growth. BEST ACTOR IN A FEMALE ROLE Lela Elam Easily going from glam to gritty, Miami actress Lela Elam is nothing if not convincing. As Mor- gan Wright in Zoetic Stage’s Clark Gable Slept Here, she originated the role of the Hollywood diva pissed to be called away from the Golden Globes to help clean up a murder mess. Elam seamlessly juggled multiple roles in the Actors’ Playhouse production of A Rock Sails. And she killed it as no-nonsense Coach Odessa Hicks in this season’s The Girls of Summer with M En- semble Company. The role, which hearkened the 1992 classic film A League of Their Own, had the actress leading a team of Black female base- ball players in the ‘40s. Her range and convinc- ing portrayals make it pretty clear that as an actress, Elam is herself in a league of her own. BEST ACTOR IN A MALE ROLE Elijah Word Elijah Word has finesse. He can transform an iconic role that audiences have seen over and over again. Characters ingrained in our psyche are re-created entirely when he plays them on stage. Superstar Eddie Murphy defined James “Thunder” Early in Dreamgirls, but when Word played the role in Broward Stage Door’s Car- bonell-winning production, there wasn’t an ounce of Murphy in the character. Likewise, there was not even a nod to Broadway’s legend- ary Billy Porter when Word played the drag ar- tiste Lola in Slow Burn’s Kinky Boots. But where he truly proved his knack for originality was in Zoetic Stage’s Cabaret. His master of ceremo- nies was born anew — a love child of a contes- tant in RuPaul’s Drag Race and torch singer Billie Holiday. BEST LOCAL PLAYWRIGHT Nilo Cruz Nilo Cruz left behind his homeland at nine years old when he boarded a Freedom Flight from Cuba to Miami in 1970. But the island would stay with him as he developed into a playwright. His play Anna in the Tropics was commissioned by the now-defunct New The- atre in Coral Gables. He was the first Latino to win the Pulitzer Prize in Drama in 2003 for the play, but Cruz never forgot where he got his start. For the 20th anniversary of the play last year, Cruz chose to direct the show for the first time himself at Miami New Drama. In March 2024, only a month after he wrote Sed en la Calle del Agua, he staged it at Miami Dade County Auditorium. Talk about commitment! He was also just named by the president of the Carbonell Awards as the 2024 recipient of the prestigious George Abbott Award for Outstand- ing Achievement in the Arts. Cruz is a national treasure, but lucky for local theater lovers, his roots remain in Miami. BEST PLAY The Museum Plays Miami New Drama miaminewdrama.org Audiences got up close and personal with famed collectors Don and Mera Rubell’s art when Mi- ami New Drama artistic director Michel Haus- mann launched his take of a night at the museum with The Museum Plays. He orchestrated six original ten-minute plays by six different play- wrights. Each was tied to art in different rooms at the Rubell Museum in Allapattah. Ingenious and inventive, Hausmann had success with an unconventional venue in the past, albeit born out of necessity during the pandemic. He delivered Seven Deadly Sins, short plays by seven writers, in storefronts on Lincoln Road to keep audiences socially distanced. That endeavor made national news. The Museum Plays followed the same for- mat, shuffling five different groups of 30 people throughout the museum at the same time. It was theater worthy of a museum. BEST DIRECTOR (THEATER) Bari Newport The Lehman Trilogy GableStage 1200 Anastasia Avenue Coral Gables, 33134 305-445-1119 www.gablestage.org GableStage’s producing artistic director Bari Newport was hell-bent on bringing The Lehman Trilogy to South Florida for the theater’s 2024 season. She wanted it here so badly that she sent a giant cookie to the rights-holders of the play to give them a nudge to accommodate her request. Maybe it was the cookie or her persistence, but it would be only the fifth time that the play — with just three actors telling the story of the Lehman Brothers bankers — would get a staging in the country. It was no small feat. The actors play between 50 and 75 roles in a show clocking
