WINNER,  BEST ACTRESS: JO HOWARTH

   Meet Gloria Dickey, a delightful storyteller and observer of pop culture.  Gloria once dreamed of opening her own “kinderkennel”, a day care facility for children and their pets.  But that was before the freak accident that led to her being confined to the sofa in her living room during her convalescence.  Her weight ballooned to more than five hundred pounds, and now it’s been six years since she left the couch.

  Inspired by the true story of a Florida woman who “became her couch”, Gloria attempts to answer the most common question about her life:  How did this happen?  In doing so, she shares her thoughts on God, love, family, Katie Couric, the Sex and the City finale, and a nation that loves food, but is terrified of fat.

"(Payne's) dialouge is compelling and funny and ultimately moving...  Let's contemplate Ms. Howarth's achievement for a moment here. Here is an actress trapped in a fat suit, unable to move an inch, who must grab our attention and hold it for what is essentially a 60-minute monologue.  She must make us not only understand this woman, but to finally like her and actually care about her fate. That she succeeds so well is not only commendable, but remarkable. This will be the performance to beat come award time next summer."    Brad Rudy, Atlanta Theatre Buzz

"Syndicated programs are so wonderful, because when you see one you already saw, it’s like hearing your best friend tell someone a story you already know. It’s still funny, but now you’re in on the joke. Sometimes I see Friends on 36, and Monica and Chandler will be married wanting a baby, and then I’ll see it on 17, and she’ll still be dating Tom Selleck, and I’ll think, “Oh, honey, I know what’s gonna happen.” Then I can’t remember if I know because I’ve seen it before, or because I have a sense about these things. Rachel and Ross are going to have a baby. Anna Nicole will die, and that makes me sad because even though she was crazy as a shithouse rat, when she first came around they said she was pretty even though she was the same size I was in high school. I was pretty, too, then. Not because I was thinner, just because I was young. I think it’s so unfair that you don’t know you were beautiful until later, and you think, what would I have been, if I’d known it when I needed to?"

- GLORIA, Don't Look at the Fat Lady