Two Tysons-area theaters are recent recipients of the 36th annual Helen Hayes Awards.

Tysons-based 1st Stage Theatre and Falls Church-based Creative Cauldron were both nominated in several categories earlier this year. In total, 1st Stage Theatre has 18 nominations, while Creative Cauldron has nine this year.

While the awards show is slated for later this month, recent announcements revealed that the theaters have won some awards.

Award announcements began Aug. 31 and will continue until Sept. 11. So far, 1st Stage has won “Outstanding Lighting Design (Hayes)” for “The Brothers Size” and Creative Cauldron has nabbed the “Outstanding Lead Performers in a Musical (Helen)” award for Nora Palka in “On Air.”

Each year, Theatre Washington presents awards to over 90 theatres and artists around the D.C. area in honor of Helen Hayes, who is known as the “First Lady of American Theatre,” according to Theatre Washington. The year-long nomination process for the Helen Hayes Awards includes 40 judges attending around 200 productions.

An in-person Helen Hayes Awards Ceremony was supposed to be May 18th, but due to COVID-19, it was moved to a virtual ceremony. This year’s virtual ceremony will be held on Friday (Sept. 25).

People will have to wait to see if the two local theaters have more of their nominations turned into awards.

Photo via Rob Laughter/Unsplash

Several Tysons-area eateries are among the nominees for this year’s Rammy’s from the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington.

Announced yesterday (Monday), the nominees for several categories include restaurants in Tysons, Vienna, the Mosaic District and Falls Church.

Here are the nominations for local restaurants:

• Manager of the Year: Bethany Wagener of Alta Strada in the Mosaic District and Rizza Leguro of Founding Farmers Tysons
• Pastry Chef of the Year: Katherine Thompson of Thompson Italian
• Wine Program of the Year: Vienna’s Clarity
• Beer Program of the Year: B Side in the Mosaic District and Caboose Brewing Company in Vienna
• Restaurateur of the Year: Mark Fedorchak, Stephen Fedorchak and Brian Normile of The Liberty Tavern Group, which manages Northside Social in Falls Church, and Victor Albisu and Poca Madre of Taco Bamba Taqueria — a local chain with locations in Falls Church and Vienna

So far, the winners are expected to be announced at the awards gala in D.C. on July 26, but coronavirus-prompted closures and restrictions could alter the date.

“RAMW is considering an unspecified date later in the year with its partners at Events DC,” according to the announcement.

Congrats to the local nominees!

Photo via Thompson Italian/Facebook

Vienna officials want residents to nominate volunteers for upcoming awards.

Nominations for individuals are due March 30, while nominations for the 2020 Carole Wolfand Award, which celebrates a local business, are due March 9.

The Town Business Liaison Committee will select the finalist for the 2020 Carole Wolfand Award, according to the nomination form.

“Show your appreciation for the Town of Vienna’s hometown heroes by nominating one or more individuals or groups to be recognized,” the town said in a press release.

The awardees will be recognized at the annual Mayor’s Volunteer Reception at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 14, at the Vienna Volunteer Fire Department, according to the press release.

Local Vienna eatery Pure Pasty Co. won several international awards this past weekend for its food.

The 2020 World Pasty Championships took place in Cornwall, England, which is home of the traditional meat pocket. Pasties are a traditional English specialty and can come in a variety of flavors but are typically a savory snack filled with a variety of ingredients and encased with a flaky crust.

At a biodome venue called the Eden Project, the competition brought together chefs from Argentina, Canada, the U.S. and the United Kingdom, according to Michael Burgess, the Vienna eatery’s owner.

Burgess beat most of the other roughly 180 entries and took home a silver medal for his lamb jalfrezi pasty and a bronze medal for the cheese and onion flavor pasty, which were both in the savory category.

The lamb jalfrezi, which embodies a flare of Indian cuisine, is one of his favorite recipes since it has a good “flavor profile and heat,” Burgess told Tysons Reporter, adding that he credits one of his friends and customers for giving him the original recipe, which he tweaked.

In past years, the eatery at 128 Church Street NW has won other awards at the competition as well, and Burgess said attending the competition became a “pilgrimage” and “tradition.”

Many community members congratulated the eatery online after a shoutout on the Town of Vienna’s social media accounts.

“Wonderful! I’ve had the cheese onion one and it is scrumptious!,” wrote one Facebook user.

Congratulations to Vienna’s own Pure Pasty Company, which took two of the top three spots in the open savoury category at this weekend’s 2020 World Pasty Championships in Cornwall, England! pic.twitter.com/zmSI3nlltA

— Town of Vienna, VA (@TownofViennaVA) March 2, 2020

Originally living in the United Kingdom, Burgess worked in a banking firm and used to visit the U.S. with friends on snowboarding trips, he said. He and his friends used to talk about the lack of pasty options, and after Burgess said he saved up some money, he decided to open his own business.

“We have spent years honing our craft, and these results show that we are getting it right,” a press release said. “We do our best to give all the ex-pats in the D.C. area a real taste of home.”

The group plans to return to Vienna shortly, he said, adding that “we have a lovely certificate to hang on the wall when we get back.”

For anyone wishing to try one of the award-winning pasties, the restaurant is open on Sunday-Monday from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m., Tuesday-Friday from 11 a.m. until 7 p.m. and on Saturdays from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m.

Besides pasties, the eatery also offers pies and sausage rolls, desserts, soups and salads according to its online menu. Prices for individual dishes are about $8.

Though the store doesn’t deliver small orders for individual meals, it does catering for events and the British Embassy in D.C. is a regular client, Burgess said.

Photos courtesy Pure Pasty Co. 

Several companies in Tysons made job site Monster’s list of the best places for veterans to work, ahead of Veterans Day (Nov. 11).

Monster recently published the list in collaboration with Military.com, ranking 10 companies across the United States as the “2019 Best Companies for Veterans.”

DynCorp International, a global government services provider for flight operations support, training and mentoring, topped the list. DynCorp is headquarters at 1700 Old Meadow Road near the McLean Metro station.

“The company recognizes the leadership and life experiences that veterans bring to the workforce; therefore, they accept military training for civilian credentials and acknowledge the importance these skills bring to the success of their business model,” the ranking says.

Logistics Management Institute — or LMI — nabbed the fifth spot on the list. The consulting firm is dedicated to improving government management and has a location at 7940 Jones Branch Drive in the Tysons Central neighborhood.

Falls Church-based IntelliDyne got the ninth spot. IntelliDyne focuses on information technology consulting services and moved to its current spot at 3110 Fairview Park Drive in June 2018 to expand.

Outside of the Tysons area, several companies in Northern Virginia made the list as well, including CACI in Arlington and Intelligent Waves, LLC in Reston.

Monster and Military.com worked with a panel of veteran hiring experts to identify the list, describing the employers as “demonstrating an extraordinary commitment to veteran hiring and retention,” according to a press release.

Two McLean and one Falls Church public schools are recent recipients of a statewide education award.

Five schools statewide earned the 2019 Governor’s Award for Educational Excellence, according to a press release from Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS).

The local schools to receive the award include:

• Chesterbrook Elementary School (1753 Kirby Road)
• Cooper Middle School (977 Balls Hill Road)
• Longfellow Middle School (2000 Westmoreland Street)

One other FCPS school — Carson Middle School in Herndon — received the award. The fifth school was Jamestown Elementary School in Arlington.

“The schools and school divisions that have earned these awards are not only the highest-performing schools in our Commonwealth, but are among the best schools in the nation,” Gov. Ralph Northam said in a press release.

The Governor’s Award for Educational Excellence is the highest recognition in the Virginia Index of Performance awards for advanced learning and achievement, according to the press release.

Image via Google Maps

Tysons’ 1st Stage Theatre won five Helen Hayes Awards at last night’s ceremony — scoring four of its wins for its “Fly by Night” production last spring.

The theater’s production of the rock-fable “Fly by Night” racked up nine nominations, while the father-son story “Swimming With Whales” and Aaron Sorkin’s “The Farnsworth Invention” each earned six nods. One nomination for “A Civil War Christmas” brought 1st Stage up to a total of 22 nominations — the second most for any theater, trailing Arena Stage’s 25.

Named after the “First Lady of American Theatre” Helen Hayes, the awards recognize excellence in professional theatre in the D.C. area and are split into two main categories: the “Hayes” for productions featuring a majority of theater union members and the “Helen” for productions with fewer union members.

Here is 1st Stage Theatre’s full list of wins:

• Outstanding Direction in a Musical (Helen): Kathryn Chase Bryer for “Fly by Night”
• Outstanding Ensemble in a Musical (Helen): “Fly by Night”
• Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Musical (Helen): Caroline Wolfson in “Fly by Night”
• Robert Prosky Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Play (Helen): Matthew Wilson in “Swimming With Whales” (also shared with Josh Adams in Theater Alliance’s “The Events”).
• Outstanding Production in a Musical (Helen): “Fly by Night”

Yesterday’s awards ceremony boosted the theater in nominations and wins from last year.

In 2018, 1st Stage won two of its 10 nominations. Frank Britton took home the Robert Prosky Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Play (Helen) for 1st Stage’s production of “Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train.” Also, Jose Guzman received the James MacArthur Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Play (Helen) for the same show.

Photo via Twitter

Tysons’ 1st Stage Theatre will find out tonight if it gets to take home awards for any of its nearly two dozen Helen Hayes Awards nominations.

Named after the “First Lady of American Theatre” Helen Hayes, the awards recognize excellence in professional theatre in the D.C. area. The awards are split into two main categories: the “Hayes” for productions featuring a majority of theater union members and the “Helen” for productions with fewer union members.

The Tysons theater racked up 22 total nominations in the Helen categories and trailed Arena’s 25 nominations for the most for any theater, along with the second most for a single production — nine for rock-fable “Fly by Night” — behind 13 for “The Wiz” at Ford’s Theatre.

The father-son story “Swimming With Whales” and “The Farnsworth Invention” by Aaron Sorkin — the screenwriter and director behind “The West Wing” and “The Newsroom” — both received six nominations for the theater, while “A Civil War Christmas” earned one.

Here is 1st Stage Theatre’s full list of nominations for each show:

• “Fly by Night” — Musical Direction, Direction in a Musical, Ensemble in a Musical, Supporting Actor in a Musical, Supporting Actress in a Musical (2), Lead Actor in a Musical (2), Production in a Musical
• “Swimming With Whales” — Costume Design, Sound Design, Direction in a Play, Ensemble in a Play, Robert Prosky Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Play, Production in a Play
• “The Farnsworth Invention” — Direction in a Play, Ensemble in a Play, Supporting Actress in a Play, Robert Prosky Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Play (2), Production in a Play
• “A Civil War Christmas” — Musical Direction

Last year, 1st Stage won two of its 10 nominations. Frank Britton took home the Robert Prosky Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Play (Helen) for 1st Stage’s production of “Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train.” Also, Jose Guzman received the James MacArthur Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Play (Helen) for the same show.

The winners for this year’s nominations will be revealed tonight (May 13).

Photo by Ryan Maxwell Photography 

Hopeful photographers planning to enter Vienna’s Photography Contest and Exhibit have a narrow window over the next two days to submit their entries.

All amateur photographers throughout the area are invited to participate in the contest and exhibit at the Vienna Community Center. Participants must submit their photos in person with their application either from 5-8 p.m. tomorrow (Thursday) or 12-3:45 p.m. on Friday (March 15).

Each participant is allowed a maximum of three photo submissions across seven categories, with ribbons and awards given to top photographs in each category. The total entree fee is $10, which includes three photos per person.

Submissions are set to be displayed from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. on Saturday (March 16) and from 12-3 p.m. on Sunday (March 17).

The event is hosted with support from the Vienna Photographic Society.

Photo via Vienna Photographic Society

(Updated 10:45 a.m.) — Lieutenant Eddie Payne, a firefighter at Station 1 in McLean, was recognized by the Sons of the American Revolution’s George Washington Chapter on Monday, Oct. 15 with a Fire Safety Award for his role in a dramatic rescue this summer.

On June 20, the Beltway came to a standstill as a tractor-trailer driver crashed into construction vehicles working on the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. The driver was killed and four of the vehicles caught fire, closing the bridge and clouding the sky with smoke.

Three construction workers were in a bucket under the bridge, attached to a boom truck that was caught in the accident, and were trapped as several local fire departments worked together with boat crews to rescue them.

Payne was off-duty at the time but stepped in to help coordinate the rescue of the workers. Bill Delaney, a public affairs officer for Fairfax County Fire and Rescue, said Payne happened to see the chaos and was one of the first to try to get everyone organized.

“He called it in and was in communications with the 911 center to let them know what they were coming into,” said Delaney. “He was helping to coordinate what was going on while he was off-duty.”

Firefighters from Fairfax Station 11 near Alexandria and stations in Washington, D.C. and Prince George’s County also received awards for their efforts.

“He took control of a very chaotic scene and kept a level head,” said the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department in a Facebook post.