Three of television’s brightest actors were tapped to unveil nominees for the 19th Annual NAACP Theatre Awards on Tuesday in downtown L.A., but it was the words of an unexpected guest that struck a chord in a full house gathered in downtown Los Angeles.

“If you don’t have a strong foundation, then you have nothing,” Rohan Marley, an event sponsor and son of reggae legend Bob Marley, told the audience of thespians at the New LATC. “I am happy to be a part of the NAACP Theatre Awards especially as the NAACP celebrates its 100 years of existence. … I know my father would have loved to be right here where I am right now.”

Scheduled for Aug. 31 and again preceded by a two-day Theatre Festival (Aug. 29-30), the awards celebrate the theatrical achievements of people of color over the past year.

With 30 categories ranging from Best Choreography to Best Set Design, topping this year’s nominees are “Two Trains Running,” “Emergency” and “Of Equal Measure” — each earning seven nods. Six nominations apiece went to “Ragtime,” “Gem of the Ocean” and “Once On This Island.” Sloan Robinson’s one-woman show, “Bananas!,” tied “Atlanta” with four nominations.

Executive producer Tia Boyd said this year’s quality of work is exceptional, adding that with each passing year — 2009 marks her fourth at the helm of the awards show — the bar is raised. “I didn’t get a chance to see of a lot of the work nominated this year, but what I did see was excellent,” she said. “There are truly amazing, talented people out there.”

For Black Gents of Hollywood player Layon Gray, up for an acting award for his role in “Black Angels Over Tuskegee,” “it’s just an honor to be nominated against such great talent.”

Having seen some of his competitors’ work — he singled out Yves Lola St. Vil’s thrice-nominated “The Bones of a Lesser Man,” which he called an “excellent play” — Gray considers the annual awards a linchpin for the Black arts scene. “It’s more like a family reunion,” he said in a post-press conference interview. “I know a lot of people here, and each and every one of them is a great talent. … So for me, it’s wonderful to be nominated. If there was any award that I would just love to be nominated for, it would be an NAACP Theatre Award.”

Actor Hosea Sanchez, who joined Brian White and actress Elise Neal to unveil the nominations, joked with the audience that the NAACP Theatre Awards were “[the] Oscars” for African-Americans working on stage.

“Being nominated for this award has an extra special meaning for me because of the long history of the NAACP and what it has done for the African-American community and for the world,” said Thom Scott, a founding member of Black Gents of Hollywood. “So yes, this is our Oscar as far as theater is concerned … that’s why it has a sentimental value to be nominated.”

Four-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald and NAACP Image Award winner Tichina Arnold will receive this year’s Trailblazer Award and Spirit awards, respectively. “Audra McDonald is amazing,” Boyd said, “and Tichina Arnold is a huge talent — her recognition is long overdue.”

Wren T. Brown, founder of the Ebony Repertory Theatre Company — whose “Two Trains Running” is a leading nominee — tipped his hat to the success of L.A.’s Black theater community. “I have seen a lot of the work that was nominated here today,” he said, “and I have to say that I am very proud of [how] theater is developing in Los Angeles … it’s growing in a wonderful way, and I’m very proud to be a part of that.”

Calling theater “the heartbeat of the human condition,” festival director Clarence Williams III said the slate of nominees embodies “what the media is calling the resurgence of theater in Los Angeles.”

“The work nominated here today represents just that,” he said. “The variety in the writing and the artistry that we see here today has raised the bar. Theatre is the real training ground for talent. There’s a brand new excitement to know that studios have recognized that. What is wonderful about the NAACP Theatre Festival and Awards show is that we can show the world that … we can take an idea, a thought, and create magic with it. That’s the real artistry here. That’s what I believe the NAACP Theatre Awards honor.”

The NAACP Theatre Awards take place Aug. 31 at the Directors Guild of America in Hollywood. The Theatre Festival takes place Aug. 29-30 at The New LATC, 514 S. Spring St., Los Angeles. For information, call (323) 464-7616.