One Ounce Opera Lands 11 Nominations at B. Iden Payne Awards

One Ounce Opera has received 11 nominations in the 2025-26 B. Iden Payne Awards, all of them tied to its annual short opera showcase "Fresh Squeezed Ounce of Opera (FSOO) 2026." For a company that stages operas measured in minutes rather than evenings, that is a serious haul.

The nominations are split between two works from the showcase — "Forever" and "Mud Girl" — plus several production-wide categories. Both operas are up for Outstanding Production of a Short Play. Julie Fiore is nominated for Outstanding Direction of a Short Play for FSOO 2026 as a whole, a nod that covers the entire showcase rather than a single piece.

Who is nominated, and for what?

The individual category breakdown runs as follows:

• Outstanding Original Score: Elizabeth Gartman for "Forever"; Omar Najmi for "Mud Girl."
• Outstanding Short Script: Christine Evans for "Mud Girl."
• Outstanding Ensemble: Avery LaRue and Anneliese Sandoval, for their roles as Poly I and Poly II in "Mud Girl."
• Outstanding Performer in a Short Play: Liz Cass, as Tardigrade in "Forever"; Andrea Ochoa, as River in "Mud Girl."
• Outstanding Media Design: Matt Smith, for FSOO 2026.
• Outstanding Makeup Design: Carol Brown, for FSOO 2026.

That is three acting nominations, two score nominations, one script nomination, one directing nomination, two design nominations and two production nominations across the board — a distribution that suggests the awards panel found the showcase strong across disciplines rather than carried by a single performance.

What is "Mud Girl," and what is "Forever"?

Both works emerged from One Ounce Opera's Fresh Squeezed Ounce of Opera format, the company's annual showcase of short operas. "Mud Girl" accounts for the larger share of the individual honors: original score by Omar Najmi, short script by Christine Evans, ensemble work by Avery LaRue and Anneliese Sandoval as Poly I and Poly II, and a performer nomination for Andrea Ochoa in the role of River. "Forever" counters with Elizabeth Gartman's score and Liz Cass's turn as Tardigrade. The character names alone — Tardigrade, River, Poly I and Poly II — hint at the imaginative territory these miniature operas occupy.

Where does the company go from here?

One Ounce Opera is now entering its 15th season, and it is already preparing FSOO 2027, the next edition of the showcase that produced this year's nominated work. The project is supported in part by an Elevate Grant from Austin Arts, Culture, Music and Entertainment — public money, in other words, doing visible work.

The B. Iden Payne Awards honor excellence in Austin theatre, and a short-opera company taking 11 nominations in a single cycle puts the format itself in the spotlight. If FSOO 2027 matches this year's showing, "short" will stop sounding like a limitation in Austin and start sounding like a competitive advantage.