Not "Everyone On Stage" Should Get A Tony Nom

As I'm sure some of you may know a few months ago Actors' Equity Association president, Kate Shindle, released a statement that she along with AEA are going on a campaign for two new

Kate Shindle

Tony Award Categories and according to Playbill.com "The proposed Best Chorus in a Musical or Play category would celebrate singers/dancers in often unnamed tracks, while Best Ensemble in a Musical or Play would go to the collective cast, from leads to featured performers to the chorus." While, yes, I agree the ensemble is an extremely crucial part of the show do they really need a Tony? To me, this feels like another "everyone deserves a trophy" moment and I really hate those kind of awards and how those type of awards have turned the Emmy's and the Grammy's into a joke. However, more importantly, how would you judge the nominees using what criteria? Now, I'm not even going to talk about my personal reasons of why I'm not for this award, so I'm just going to focus on the "criteria" that they might use for these awards and how they are faulty or how they are along the same guidelines as other awards. First and foremost trying to compare ensemble work is like comparing apples and oranges. What I'm trying to say is that the requirements for each show vary from show to show. For example, in a show such as The Phantom of the Opera, you are going to need a lot more classically trained actors/actresses, I.E. people with 

Gina Beck, Simon Bailey and Ensemble
The Phantom of the Opera

more ballet and people who have opera training and very rich full tones in their voice. However, for a show such as Hamilton, you need people with more modern training and hip-hop/rap skills. These two shows require very different people, but they are each demanding in their own way. How would you compare the two? Would you compare it based on how the ensemble dances? Well, you can't because that's what Best Choreography is for. Would you compare it based on the songs they sing? We have Best Original Score for that. Would you compare them based on the acting of the ensemble? Well, that is what the already established acting categories are for. There are some shows that have the actors play instruments would you judge it based on that? Well, that is what the Best Orchestrations Tony is for. I'm not even going to go into the fact that there are shows where the ensemble does next to nothing except standard amounts of singing and dancing. Now, before you start freaking out, I'm not trying to dis the ensemble in any way I love them and I do agree they do not get enough recognition at times, but I don't think this is the kind of

Leslie Odom, Jr. and Ensemble
Hamilton

recognition they need. I personally think that instead of honoring the ensemble we need to honor the people backstage who are ignored even more than the ensemble. We only just got the Best Sound Design back, but the American Theatre Wing should add Best Hair/Makeup design because that, at least in my opinion, is one of the most egregiously ignored parts of the design elements. (Don't even get me started on props, but that is another post for another time.) Now to wrap things up, I just want to state that I am not anti-ensemble I support them and I do think that there should be more awards to recognize them, but I don't think that one of them should be a Tony.