It’s the quiet season right now for many of Tulsa’s community theatre artists. As in most other cities, locally produced plays and musicals here are spread across the calendar from September-ish through June, with impossible-to-see-it-all periods in the fall and spring. Even this annual “take a breather” moment is now filled by TPAC Produces, which is on its third year of delivering a banger of a late-summer musical (its Oklahoma! opens tonight), and the Tulsa Fringe Festival, happening this weekend.
Before long, actors and stage managers and set designers will be back on the community theatre boards across the city. But before that, these hardworking folks deserved to take a bow. Enter the Potate Awards, a ceremony whose name needs a little bit of explanation.
From 2008 to 2022, the end of each theatre season was marked by what was billed as “the Tonys of Tulsa”: the Tulsa Awards for Theatre Excellence (aka “the TATEs”), a George Kaiser Family Foundation initiative meant to incentivize excellence through an annual public awards ceremony complete with high-dollar prizes for the winners. Long story short, the TATEs generated some goodwill and some bad will through the years. Eventually, GKFF decided to deliver financial support for local theatre through the Theatre Development Fund, facilitated by the TPAC, instead of through a controversial awards ceremony, and the TATEs faded into the sunset.
The theatre community still wanted to celebrate at the end of the season, though, and an awards ceremony still sounded like it could be fun—so they set up a Google form for voting, bought booze for an open bar, and threw a party for themselves.
The fourth annual Potate Awards (note the play on “TATE”) was held at Theatre Tulsa Studios on July 12. You’ll find the full list of winners below. The level of specificity in the categories gives you a tiny glimpse into the unmatched vibe of this community. They point to, among other things, the incredible skills involved in theatre—organization, perseverance, initiative, collaboration, and problem-solving, to name a few—not to mention the ability to laugh while doing any and all of these things, sometimes across multiple shows, outside of day job hours.
This year, the “Sparkle Potato of the Year” award went to someone who’s pretty important to us at The Pickup, too: Alex Isaak, theatre critic! Alex has written 23 reviews for us in just over a year—I say “for us,” but it’s really for The Pickup’s performing-arts-savvy and theatre-curious readers, for the artists whose work Alex’s work takes seriously, and for Tulsa culture at large.
If you've been reading our arts coverage, you know that Tulsa’s theatre scene has been on a tear lately. Its capacity to celebrate and challenge itself is part of that dynamism. So, I'd like to suggest, is smart arts writing.
Serious, thoughtful, informed criticism can be a game-changer for an arts community. Alex is a practicing theatre artist herself, so her analysis and evaluation come from a place of empathetic understanding about what it takes to make a scene, a show, or a season successful. She makes critical judgments with care, and it speaks highly of Tulsa’s theatre groups that they’re keen to get her feedback even when it’s not all positive.
We’re stoked to have an arts writer like Alex among our roster of Pickup contributors. Here’s the full list of Potate Award winners, plus links to some of her reviews. Treat yourself to some theatre in the coming months. There’s something special going on out there.
2025-26 Potate Award Winners
Best Play
For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf (World Stage Theatre Company)
Best Actor (Play)
Angela McLaughlin, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (World Stage Theatre Company)
Best Director (Play)
Kathleen Hope, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (World Stage Theatre Company)
Best Fight Choreography
Steve Barker, Lord of the Flies (World Stage Theatre Company)
Best Supporting Performer (Play)
Jeremy Geiger, The Tempest (Tulsa Shakespeare Company)
Jasmine Perry, The Crucible (Theatre Tulsa)
Best Ensemble (Play)
For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf (World Stage Theatre Company)
Best Musical
Fun Home (Eclipse Theatre Collective)
Best Director (Musical)
Travis Guillory, Cabaret (Theatre Tulsa)
Best Choreographer
Travis Guillory, Cabaret and Gypsy (Theatre Tulsa)
Best Music Director
Jordan Andrews, Hairspray (Theatre Tulsa) & Fun Home (Eclipse Theatre Collective)
Best Lead Performer (Musical)
Kim Frie, Gypsy (Theatre Tulsa)
Best Ensemble (Musical)
Fun Home (Eclipse Theatre Collective)
Best Original Work
The Dead Guy in the Pool (Ben Morgan and Anna Puhl/Self Produced)
Best Adaptation
Meagan Mulgrew, Antigone & Ismene (RiffRaff)
Best Playwright
Meagan Mulgrew (general award)
Best Stage Manager
Evan Tansey, Frozen and Hairspray (Theatre Tulsa)
Best Lighting Design
Anna Puhl, To Kill a Mockingbird (World Stage Theatre Company)
Best Sound Design
Ben Morgan, The Dead Guy in the Pool (Self-Produced)
Best Costume Design
Pax Zeller, The Importance of Being Earnest (World Stage Theatre Company)
Best Prop Design
Lise Kiefer, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (World Stage Theatre Company)
Best Set Design
Rich Goss, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (World Stage Theatre Company)
Best Makeup Design
Suzy Spectre, The Dead Guy in the Pool (Self-Produced)
Best Show Photography
Andrew Nichols, To Kill a Mockingbird (also photographed 19 shows)
Best Show Videography
Joe James and Stephanie Alecia Rose
Best Promotion/Marketing
Individual Award: Ben Morgan and Anna Puhl (The Dead Guy in the Pool)
Company Award TIE: Theatre Tulsa and World Stage Theatre Company
Favorite Recurring Show - Once a Year
Hellerween (Heller Theatre Company)
Favorite Recurring Project - Many Times a Year
Second Sunday Serials (Heller Theatre Company)
Best Moment of the Whole Year
“Dropping the baby” (For Colored Girls…/World Stage Theatre Company)
Tater Tot Award
D’mi Johnson and Rowan Butler
Elise McGouran Award for Self-Promotion ("Write a blurb about why you’re great. Best one wins")
TIE: Aniq Zoha and Caitlin Morton
Year of the Sprout (for new artists)
Individual Award: Justine Prince
Company Award: Little Shop of Productions
Kelly and Joe James Parent Award
Melissa Johnson
Sparkle Potato of the Year
Alex Isaak
Audience Potato Award (best audience member)1
Ibrahim Buyckes
Best Spuds
Anna Puhl and Ben Morgan
Kathleen Hope Dead Body Award
Everett LeViness, The Dead Guy in the Pool
Overbaked Potato Award (overworked community member, needs to take a break)
Radar Bishop
Kara Staiger Flushed Down the Pipes Vocal Performance Award
Jennifer White for "Days and Days" (Fun Home/Eclipse Theatre Collective)
Revelation Tato Award (wow I didn’t know they could act that well)
Ben Morgan, The Crucible (Theatre Tulsa) and Mal Lindsay, Juliet and Her Romeo (Pembroke Players)
Heather Sams Fuck Cancer Award
Joe Merenda, who performed in all three of Pembroke's shows this season while undergoing intense cancer treatment. "He said knowing he had to show up for rehearsals and the shows is what motivated him," Alex Isaak said. "It was a really sweet moment."
Footnotes
- Alex clarifies: "If the award is won by the same person twice, then it's officially named after them. The Audience Potato will become the 'Ibrahim Buyckes Audience Potato Award' next year. This applies to all except the self-promotion award, which changes every year to the previous year's winner(s). This year, Caitlin wrote about how she insanely decided to do Hairspray and Frozen while planning a wedding/getting married/going on a honeymoon (which she did in the two week space between Hairspray closing and Frozen rehearsal beginning). Aniq wrote about showing up and giving his best while his father faced immense health challenges this spring." Return to content at reference 1↩
