Stage Door News
Stage Door News
This year, over 15 categories, five shows managed to collect two prizes apiece. Spoon River (Soulpepper) was voted best production of a musical, with its director, Albert Schultz, winning best director of a musical; The Wild Party (Acting Up Stage Company in association with Obsidian) won awards for two of its performers: Darren A. Herbert as best actor in a musical and Susan Gilmour as best supporting actress.
Outside the musical category, Stephen Adly Guirgis’ The Motherf–ker with the Hat (Bob Kills Theatre Production) was voted best international play (it’s American) with Juan Chioran acclaimed as best supporting actor in a play; Blood Wedding (Modern Times Stage Company and Aluna Theatre) scored prizes for Soheil Parsa as best director of a play and for Beatriz Pizano as best supporting actress; and the six-person design team of Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play (Outside the March, in association with Starvox Entertainment and Crow’s Theatre) won for best design of a play or musical, while the show itself tied with Arcadia (a Shaw Festival production brought to Toronto by Mirvish Productions) for best production of a play.
Two other Mirvish shows picked up the best actress awards: Fiona Reid took the play honours for Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (Mirvish with the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre), while Trish Lindstrom won for music with her turn in Once.
The prize for best new Canadian play went to Michel Marc Bouchard’s Tom at the Farm (Buddies in Bad Times). David Ferry, who five years ago won the first-ever critics award for best actor in a play, won it again for his performance in Blackbird (FilmBoooth Productions). And best supporting actor in a musical went to Jacob MacInnis for his Earthworm in James and the Giant Peach (Young People’s Theatre).
For the 2014-15 season, the awards were decided in discussion by critics representing the National Post, the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, Now magazine, and Torontoist. They’ll be officially handed out on June 8 at the Spoke Club.
From Robert Cushman, http://www.nationalpost.com/
Photo: Frank Cox-O’Connell, Anthony MacMahon, Brendan Wall and Diego Matamoros. ©2014 Cylla von Tiedemann.
2015-05-27
Toronto: The 2015 Toronto Theatre Critics' Awards