And the nominees are ...

I have no doubt made mention of my son, Andy (www.andrewcissna.com), and the fact that he studied lighting design at (now) University of North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, graduating in 2006 and heading north to a fellowship at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

Liking his odds in the theater-heavy atmosphere of the District and nearby Maryland and Virginia, he stayed on, taking a job as the man in charge of the lighting equipment at the Atlas Performing Arts Center and designing, assistant designing and doing electrician work as a freelancer in a variety of theaters.

We have tried hard to see most of his work, particularly that on which he was the lead lighting designer. As such, last fall, we took in a very appealing (if you like that kind of thing) production of George Orwell's "1984," done at the Atlas by the Catalyst Theater Company, which had just moved to that location.

In Washington, the theater world has a set of awards for the region called the Helen Hayes Awards, with a localized level of prestige somewhat parallel to the Tonys at the national level. Imagine our pleasure and surprise to learn that, out of some 170 productions reviewed by Helen Hayes Award judges for the 2008 season, Andy was nominated as one of the six best lighting designs during the season for "1984" (which, he said with no bias, was pretty spectacular). And another nominee was for a show on which Andy worked as assistant. All in all, a pretty good year for our son, and we can't wait to hear how April 13th (awards night) works out!