Electric Company Theatre

Electric Company Wins Twice for Studies in Motion

By Colin Thomas 

The Georgia Straight

Jessie, the little bronze statuette, leaned toward edgy shows this year. At the Jessie Richardson Theatre Awards, held June 19 at the Commodore Ballroom, the Firehall Arts Centre's production of Urinetown won best production in the large-theatre stream (so to speak), and Donna Spencer was chosen best director for her work on it. In the small-theatre competition, Diane Brown's interpretation of the darkly satirical The Leisure Society won both the direction and production races. Boca del Lupo's eccentric Vasily the Luckless was chosen as the best production in the theatre-for-young-audiences field. Vasily also won the Critics' Choice Innovation Award, and its lead actor, Jonathan Young, took home an outstanding-performance prize.

After the awards, Spencer commented: “Musical theatre doesn't always carry a message, but Urinetown talks about water shortages, and frankly, that's where we're going.” The wildly camp production will be back at the Firehall November 2 to December 10.

Bob Frazer's Hamlet won him the best-actor nod in large theatre and gave Bard on the Beach its only trophy of the night. Frazer was also named best supporting actor, large theatre, for his performance in Prodigal Son, which was coproduced by Pacific Theatre and Touchstone Theatre. Pacific Theatre bagged a total of four prizes, more than any other company. Shawn Macdonald's script for Prodigal Son was considered this year's best new play. In the small- theatre competition, Kyle Rideout's comic turn in Pacific Theatre's The Farndale Christmas Carol snagged him the supporting-actor nod, and Nicole Bach's costumes for Farndale scored a piece of hardware too.

The Jessies honoured both leads in Overdrive Productions' minimalist mounting of How I Learned to Drive, Paula Vogel's play about the sexual abuse of a minor. In the small- theatre category, Eileen Barrett and Allan Morgan were chosen as best actress and actor for their portraits of the perpetrator and survivor.

“It's very heartening that Vancouver recognizes small, small, small theatre,” Barrett told the Straight. “You don't get much smaller than this.”

Folks from the Playhouse went to the podium three times. Caroline Cave grabbed best actress, large theatre, for her performance in The Syringa Tree, beating out the play's author, Pamela Gien, who also performed the show here. Two Playhouse designers also took honours: John Ferguson (set) for I Am My Own Wife, and Leslie Frankish (costumes) for A Little Night Music.

Gina Chiarelli pocketed the supporting-actress prize in large theatre for her performance in The Diary of Anne Frank, garnering the Arts Club its only Jessie.

Rounding out the large-theatre category, the Electric Company won twice for Studies in Motion (Robert Gardiner's lighting and Patrick Pennefather's sound), and the Only Animal Theatre Society took the significant-artistic-achievement prize for expanding the scope of site-specific performance with Other Freds.

In small theatre, Annabel Kershaw was considered the best supporting actress (The Elephant Man, Five Bob Equity Co-op), Owen Schellenberger won for lighting (A la Gauche de Dieu, Théatre la Seizieme), and Noah Drew scored in the sound-design race for Pound of Flesh Theatre Company's Macbeth. Western Theatre Conspiracy triumphed twice with A Skull in Connemara: David Roberts won for set design, and a significant-artistic-achievement award for skull-and-bone design and construction went to Carol Sykes, Rob Parker, and Genevieve Phillips.

In young people's theatre, Carole Higgins took the directing prize, and the acting ensemble shared the significant-artistic-achievement award for The Big League. Arnt Arntzen's sanded-down 1965 Thunderbird for Miscellaneous Productions' e-race netted him a set-design trophy.

Special awards went to Jack Paterson (emerging director), Caryn Fehr (Mary Phillips Prize for behind-the-scenes achievement), Conrad Alexandrowicz (John Moffat and Larry Lillo Award), Tara Jean Wilkin (outstanding script by an emerging playwright, My Father's House), Ryan Beil (Sam Payne Award for most promising newcomer), Lucia Fragione (Gordon Armstrong Playwrights Rent Award), and Industrial Alliance Pacific (Georgia Straight Patron of the Arts Award). Vancouver theatre pioneer Thor Arngrim took home the Greater Vancouver Professional Theatre Alliance Career Achievement Award.