Best Actor or Actress

It's not surprising that Sam Cordes has a gallon of greasepaint in his genes -- his father, Scott Cordes, is one of Kansas City's best actors, and his mom, Lisa Cordes, is an arts activist and playwright. Sam confidently played a Cockney thug -- a role not written for a kid -- in the Coterie's summer 2003 production of 101 Dalmatians and quite movingly portrayed a troubled teen in Everyday Heroes at the same theater last spring. But it was his dual role in the Unicorn's The Mineola Twins in December that proved there was nothing nepotistic involved in his casting. The Lincoln Prep student showed an uncanny ability to slip into his characters' psyches, whether smoking dope with his lesbian aunt or, as that character's cousin, salivating about shirtless construction workers, in a closeted, Young Republican sort of way.