Patrick Stewart, filmdom's Linda Hamilton and "Will & Grace's" Megan Mullally (a 2000 Ovation nominee) head the star presenters at Los Angeles' Ovation Awards, being given Oct. 30 at the Ahmanson Theatre. Joining them will be Amy Hill, songwriter Billy Barnes, Diana Bellamy, Ellen Geer, Eva Marie Saint, director and producer Garry Marshall, Geo Hartley, Gordon Davidson, Jane Kaczmarek, Jeffrey Hayden, Kathryn Joosten, Mako, deaf actress Marlee Matlin ("Children of a Lesser God"), and Phyllis Frelich.

With the Oct. 30 ceremony only weeks away, Los Angeles' Ovation Awards have announced the creative team dedicated to putting the night together. Michael Michetti, a double Ovation winner for his A Midsummer Night's Dream, directs the event with Eileen T'Kaye and Farrell Hirsch as executive producers and Michael Seel as producer.

There are smiling faces and happy hands over at Los Angeles' Deaf West Theatre. The company, which uses American Sign Language and hearing and hearing-impaired actors to perform classic dramas and now, for the first time, a musical, won a staggering 17 nominations, the highest number for a musical production (10 for Oliver!) and the most for a play (7 for A Streetcar Named Desire). The Ahmanson Theatre and the Mark Taper Forum both earned 18 nominations each, but for several productions (Amadeus, Jitney, The Dead, Space, etc.) than Deaf West's two.