| Let me warn you right now: this year’s Betty Mitchell Awards could get ugly. You’ve got feisty little Bat Boy ready to rumble with the big, bad Jets and Sharks of West Side Story. And Jesus Himself will be duking it out with no less than Glenn Gould and Pinocchio.
But seriously, folks, the nominations for the 2005 Bettys, announced on July 5, have provided plenty of underdogs to root for. Sure, the two biggest theatres that do the most producing –Alberta Theatre Projects and Theatre Calgary – have the majority, with 16 and 11 nominations, respectively. But the little guys aren’t far behind. Mob Hit Productions and Blacklist Theatre Project each have six nominations: Mob Hit for two shows, Bat Boy: The Musical and Elizabeth Rex, and Blacklist for one – its staging of the Gould biography Glenn.
This year’s list of 75 nominations in 15 categories is proof not just of the quality coming out of Calgary’s smaller professional companies, but also of how much co-producing and presenting have become a staple of local theatre activity. And 2004-05 was the season when Edmonton made a big impact on the scene, both through joint ventures like the Theatre Calgary-Citadel Theatre West Side Story and One Yellow Rabbit’s remount of Shadow Theatre’s Underneath the Lintel, and via direct imports such as November Theatre’s The Black Rider, brought to us by Ground Zero and Calgary Opera. (Personally, I’ve always thought the Calgary-Edmonton rivalry should be confined to sports, so it’s great to see more give and take between the two cities’ theatre communities.)
The Black Rider, that infernal Tom Waits-William S. Burroughs musical, is the production with the most nominations, at seven, closely followed by West Side Story and Glenn, which both have six, and the ATP holiday show Pinocchio with five.
This was a banner year for musical variety, as the nominees for outstanding musical attest, ranging from the offbeat Black Rider and Bat Boy to the classic West Side Story, the cult classic Rocky Horror Show (as revived by Stage West) and the Lunchbox Theatre revue Blues in the Night.
Up for outstanding play production are Glenn, Underneath the Lintel, the touring Bigger Than Jesus (presented by OYR), and two ATP shows: Stones in His Pockets and Pinocchio, the latter a collaboration with the Old Trout Puppet Workshop.
ATP has once again cornered the new-play category, with nominations for Pinocchio as well as the playRites festival shows Get Away and The Leisure Society, but little Ghost River Theatre’s dedication to new work has paid off, with Pamela Boyd’s I Love Mondays and the collectively written X-Ray rounding out the nominees.
In the running for outstanding female lead are Elinor Holt (ATP’s Marion Bridge), Karen Johnson-Diamond (The Leisure Society), Adrienne Smook (Sage Theatre’s The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek), Valerie Planche as Elizabeth Rex and Barbara Gates Wilson as a charming encyclopedia hawker in Lunchbox’s The Exquisite Hour.
Nominations for male lead actor include a couple of soloists, Andy Curtis in Underneath the Lintel and David Trimble in Sage Theatre’s Drinking in America, as well as a role-juggling Shaun Smyth in Stones in His Pockets, a creepy Patrick Galligan in Get Away and a lovable Christopher Hunt in I Love Mondays.
Unlike the actors, most of the directors nominated for this season are out-of-towners, including Toronto’s Maja Ardal (Stones in His Pockets) and Daniel Brooks (Bigger Than Jesus), and Edmonton’s Ron Jenkins (The Black Rider) and James DeFelice (Underneath the Lintel). The lone homeboy is Kevin McKendrick, for Glenn.
Space prevents a complete rollcall of nominees, but you can get that at www.bettymitchellawards.com, along with information about the awards gala on August 29 at Stage West. And be sure to vote for the Fast Forward Readers’ Choice Award for best show of the season. Watch these pages in August for details. |
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