SummerWorks celebrated its 25th anniversary with a festival that made the move from a juried to a curated event. The result was a rich 11 days of shows (from August 6 to 16) in all sorts of genres, much of the work multidisciplinary.
The closing-night party at Factory Theatre, the fest’s hub, was the occasion for the annual SummerWorks Awards, this year adjudicated by Mitchell Cushman, Mel Hague and –Heidi Strauss. The awards are presented in collaboration with English Theatre – National Arts Centre.
The SummerWorks Prize for Production, which gives the company a free slot in next year’s festival, went to Call Me Scotty’s Better Angels: A Parable, written by Andrea Scott.
Jill Connell’s The Tall Building and Katherine Cullen and Britta Johnson’s Stupidhead! (A Mucisal Cmoedy) split the Contra Guys Award for New Performance Text. The $1,500 prize, sponsored by two of the festival’s co-founders-, Benj Gallander and Ben Stadel-mann, is a fine way of giving the festival a sense of continuity.
The SummerWorks Award for -Design, which gives the winner a gift pass to the 2016 festival, was picked up by The Marquise Of O– and the team of Camie Koo, Amanda Wong, CJ Astronomo, Christopher Stanton and Wesley Mckenzie. Honourable mention went to Ayelen, designed by Shalak Attack, Bruno Smoky, André du Toit and Brandon Valdivia.
The Buddies In Bad Times Vanguard Award For Risk And Innovation, with a cash prize of $500, went to Are You Still Coming Tonight?, with honourable mentions to Performance About A Woman and Like There’s No Tomorrow.
Amanda Acorn and Ines Buchli shared the $500 given with the Cana-dian Stage Award For Direction the former directed multiform(s) and the latter The Living.
Multiform(s) tied for best festival direction award.
The Spotlight Award For Performance went to Ngozi Paul for The Emancipation Of Ms. Lovely, the actor/writer receiving a pass to next year’s fest. Honourable mention went to This Is Where We Live’s Jenna Harris and Tim Welham.
The choice for The Theatre Centre Emerging Artist Award was clearly hard to make honourable mentions went to the ensemble of MacArthur Park Suite, Genevieve Adam (Deceitful Above All Things) and Philip Nozuka (The Tall Building). The $500 award went to Ximena Huizi (Ayelen).
The NOW Audience Choice Award, worth $2,000 in free advertising in NOW, went to Colleen Wagner’s The Living, a powerful play we’d like to see developed further.
Here are NOW’s picks for the best of SummerWorks:
OUTSTANDING NEW PLAYS
Better Angels: A Parable Deceitful Above All Things The Emancipation Of Ms. Lovely The Living The Marquise Of O– Seams
OUTSTANDING PRODUCTIONS
Beautiful Man Better Angels: A Parable Counting Sheep Deceitful Above All Things The Emancipation Of Ms. Lovely The Living The Marquise Of O– Seams Offending The Audience Stupidhead! (A Mucisal Cmoedy) This Is Where We Live
Counting Sheep was one of the fest’s best productions.
OUTSTANDING DIRECTION
d’bi.young anitafrika (The Emancipation Of Ms. Lovely) Erin Brandenburg (Deceitful Above All Things) Ines Buchli (The Living) Mikaela Davies (Seams) Andrea Donaldson (Beautiful Man) Lauren Gillis and Ted Witzel (The Marquise Of O–) Taryn Jorgenson (This Is Where We Live) Nigel Shawn Williams (Better Angels: A Parable) Aaron Willis (Stupidhead! [A Mucisal Cmoedy])
OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCES
Ngozi Paul (The Emancipation Of Ms. Lovely) Dima Alansari and Émilie -Monnet (Return Home) Philip Nozuka (The Tall Building) Liz Peterson (Performance About A Woman)
OUTSTANDING ENSEMBLES
Ayelen Beautiful Man Better Angels: A Parable Counting Sheep Deceitful Above All Things Lac/Athabasca Like There’s No Tomorrow The Living The Marquise Of O– Moderato Cantabile Seams This Is Where We Live
Stupidhead! (A Mucisal Cmoedy) split the prize for best text.
OUTSTANDING DESIGN
Shalak Attack, Bruno Smoky, André du Toit and Brandon Valdivia (Ayelen) Matthew Cherkas, Pedro Bonatto, Kaitlin Hickey and Oksana Hawrylak (Counting Sheep) Shawn Kerwin, Elizabeth Asselstine and James McKernan (The Living) Camie Koo, Amanda Wong, CJ Astronomo, Christopher Stanton and Wesley Mckenzie (The Marquise Of O–) Shannon Lea Doyle, Nicholas Potter, Steve Vargo and Jackie McClelland (Seams) Anahita Dehbonehie and Jennifer Lennon (Stupidhead! [A Mucisal Cmoedy]) Joe Pagnan (The Tall Building) Jenna McCutchen, Adrien Whan and Alicia Porter (This Is Where We Live)
DOUBLE DUTY HONOURS
Kaleb Alexander (actor, The Marquise Of O– and The Living), André du Toit (lighting designer, Ayelen & Like There’s No Tomorrow)
See our SummerWorks reviews from this year’s fest here.
