Gregory Award for "Outstanding Actor (Play)"

Elijah was awarded "Outstanding Actor (Play)" at the 2015 Gregory Award ceremony, for his role as Bashir in the “The Invisible Hand” at ACT Theatre in Seattle, WA. 

ACT's production swept a slew of Gregory Awards as well, including Outstanding Production, Outstanding Director, Outstanding Scenic Design, & Outstanding Sound/Music Design.  Cast-mate Allen Nause also received Outstanding Supporting Actor.  

See a full list of Gregory Award recipients here. 

Elijah to play 'Amir' in "DISGRACED" at Arizona Theatre Company

This fall 2015, Elijah will be playing the role of 'Amir' in the Arizona Theatre Company's production of Ayad Akhtar's play Disgraced, which won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

From the ATC website:
"There are some topics you just shouldn’t discuss at a dinner party. Disgraced is the critically acclaimed, Pulitzer Prize-winning current Broadway hit about the stories we tell our friends, the secrets we tell our lovers, and the lies we tell ourselves. Written by one of the most astonishing new voices in American theatre, this provocative tale dares to face the truth hiding just below the deception. In Disgraced, what begins as polite table conversation explodes, leaving everyone’s relationships and beliefs about race and identity in shards. We are thrilled to bring you the regional premiere of this blistering Broadway hit."

See full cast list here

Show run:
Tucson : 10/17/15 - 11/07/15
Phoenix : 11/12/15 - 11/29/15
Full schedule & ticket information on the ATC website

2015 Gregory Awards Nominee - Outstanding Actor (Play)

2015 Gregory Awards presented by Theatre Puget Sound
Elijah Alexander
Nominee - Outstanding Actor (Play)
“The Invisible Hand” - ACT Theatre

"When we first meet Bashir, he is an angry brute, uneducated and seemingly incapable of any empathy. By the play’s end, he has become a sophisticated manipulator and financial genius. Alexander is so skillful that this evolution seems completely natural; he helps us to understand the root cause of Bashir’s fury without making him an overly sympathetic character. At play’s end, when Bashir has evolved into a different kind of monster we are horrified by the scale of the damage he can do." - Alice Kaderlan, Seattle P-I Blog

Award Ceremony: October 26. 2015 in Seattle

Elijah Nominated for Gypsy Rose Lee Award

The Seattle Theater Writers critics' circle just announced the nomination slate of the fourth annual Gypsy Rose Lee Awards (2014), and Elijah was nominated for "Excellence in Performance in a Play as a Lead Actor", along with co-star Connor Toms, for their roles in The Invisible Hand last fall.  The cast of four was nonimated for an "Excellence in Performance as an Ensemble", and the play itself was also nonimated for "Excellence in Production", as well as director Allen Nause for "Excellence in Direction".  

Elijah to play 'Gentleman' in World Premiere of "Fingersmith" @ OSF

Elijah will be playing the role of 'Gentleman' in the World Premiere of Fingersmith at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, which opens March 1st, 2015 and runs through July 9th, 2015.   Adapted by Alexa Junge, based on the 2002 novel by Sarah Waters. Directed by Bill Rauch, who won a Tony for the Broadway production of All the Way, starring Brian Cranston.  

About the play: 

A wild ride of a Victorian crime thriller
At first, the job seems simple: All pickpocket Sue Trinder has to do is help a con man cheat a gullible young heiress out of her fortune. But nothing is quite what it seems in this gritty mystery set in 19th-century England. As the twisting story sends Sue spiraling through squalid London streets, madhouses and a stifling mansion with a ghastly secret, it leads her to the most dangerous landscape of all: awakening sexuality, love and betrayal. 

Elijah named "Best Leading Actor in a Play" - Critic's Pick Award, BroadwayWorld Seattle

BroadwayWorld Seattle has announced their CRITIC'S PICK AWARDS (by critic Jay Irwin). Not only was "The Invisible Hand" named BEST PLAY OF 2014, and ACT awarded THEATRE OF THE YEAR, but Elijah was also named BEST LEADING ACTOR IN A PLAY for his performance as 'Bashir', in a tie with Jack Willis ("All The Way/The Great Society" at Seattle Repertory Theatre).  Kudos all around!

Elijah receives 2014 Footlight Award for 'Bashir'

Elijah was recognized with a 2014 Footlight Award by Seattle Times theatre critic Misha Berson, awarded in the category of GREAT PERFORMANCE for his role as 'Bashir' in The Invisible Hand. 

Elijah Nominated for BroadwayWorld Seattle Awards

Elijah has been nominated for BEST LEADING ACTOR IN A PLAY for the BroadwayWorld Seattle viewer's choice awards, for his role as 'Bashir' in Ayad Ahktar's The Invisible Hand.  

You can vote for him here!  (Voting closes on December 31st, 2014)

Read what reviewers had to say about Elijah's performance here and here. 

Elijah was recognized with a Southern California "Scenie Award" by Steven Stanley's StageSceneLA.com for "Best Performance by a Lead Actor" for his role as 'MacBeth' in the production at A Noise Within in Pasadena, California.  

THE INVISIBLE HAND: "Play of the Year ..."

"Elijah Alexander … is electric."

"… this is The Play of the Year. It has high theatricality, great acting, solid technical support and a terrifically smart script. It's a memorable event and topical, contemporary, and politically charged. "

Review of Ayad Ahktar's "The Invisible Hand" by Miryam Gordon. 

 Read the full review here

The Invisible Hand: "Powerful, relevant, moving …"

"I can guarantee that you will not find a more powerful, relevant or moving drama in any Seattle theater."

"All of these characters are rich and thoroughly genuine. There is not a false moment in the entire play and never an obvious or simple word uttered by any of them.  Their interactions feel spontaneous and thoroughly believable, their hopes and fears thoroughly rooted in the reality of their lives."

"Elijah Alexander is … compelling and powerful as Bashir.  Balancing brutality with a sense of civilized hope, his enormous stage presence becomes all of the power that shackles Nick in this forgotten place.  What I liked best about Bashir was the sense that he would do anything, anything to advance his cause, but that it must already have been justified in his own mind and to his own morality.  Entrance to that dark and forbidding place is as captivating and dangerous as the cell where Nick is held."

Review of Ayad Ahktar's "The Invisible Hand" by Jerry Kraft for SeattleActor.com.  

 Read the full review here. 

"THE INVISIBLE HAND" GRIPS MORALITY BY THE THROAT

"As usual, ACT offers the highest quality acting, stage design, lighting, sound, and special effects, but the gem in that setting that sparkled most brightly for me was the performance by Elijah Alexander, as Bashir …"

"Alexander's natural and spellbinding acting brings Bashir to life as someone we will not forget."

Read the full review by Candace Brown at Good Life Northwest

At ACT, “The Invisible Hand” delivers

"One of the most potent, provoking and timely theatre productions I’ve ever seen."

"Elijah Alexander deserves lots of credit for this performance."

Read Chris Burlingame's review of "The Invisible Hand" for the SunBreak

The Invisible Hand: "performance of astonishing range and subtlety"

"The four-person cast is terrific starting with Elijah Alexander as Bashir. This Yale Drama School graduate offers a performance of astonishing range and subtlety. When we first meet Bashir, he is an angry brute, uneducated and seemingly incapable of any empathy. By the play’s end, he has become a sophisticated manipulator and financial genius. Alexander is so skillful that this evolution seems completely natural; he helps us to understand the root cause of Bashir’s fury without making him an overly sympathetic character. At play’s end, when Bashir has evolved into a different kind of monster we are horrified by the scale of the damage he can do."

Read the full review here. 

Broadway World's Review of "The Invisible Hand"

Excerpts from Broadway World's review of "The Invisible Hand", by Jay Irwin:  

"There are moments, Dear Reader, when you can encounter a work that can completely revitalize your love of good theater.  Such was a moment for me the other night when I was lucky enough to catch ACT's production of 'The Invisible Hand' 

 Elijah Alexander turns in a performance that I could not keep my eyes off.  He completely owns the stage when he's on and manages to deliver a truly layered and complex portrait of a man stuck in between his religion, his duty, his drive and his friendship. 

And each and every one of the ensemble are so tight and together that they almost feel like one performer as the power dynamic shifts around the stage with grace."

The Huffington Post also reviewed the play from a political perspective: 
"a behind-the-scenes look at what might really be happening in the Mid-East, and I have no doubt that it will leave audiences thinking and rethinking their beliefs."

Seattle Times Review of 'The Invisible Hand'

Elijah Alexander as "Bashir" in Ayad Akhtar's "The Invisible Hand" at ACT Threatre in Seattle, WA. 

Excerpts from Seattle Times review of Ayad Akhtar's 'The Invisible Hand', reviewed by theatre critic Misha Berson. 

"… Alexander is outstanding as Bashir, a jumpy, mercurial British-born Muslim caught between two cultures and philosophies. He clearly articulates the conditions that might turn a disaffected man into a fundamentalist revolutionary."

"Three men. One room. A stack of virtual money. Amazing how they can add up to a gripping tale that is so much more than the sum of its parts."

"There’s suspense aplenty in Nick’s race against time. Indeed, 'The Invisible Hand' jolts along like a well-made caper flick, its short, punchy dangling scenes tightly paced by director Allen Nause and a first-rate cast."

"… the taut plot is also a great setup for a fierce psychological match, and a useful colloquy on the American dollar as a force for good and evil."

Read the full review here. 

Show runs through September 28th at the ACT Theatre in Seattle, WA.  Tickets on sale here.