Stage Door News
Stage Door News
After an electric and inspiring 11-day festival marking its 27th year, SummerWorks Performance Festival revealed the winners of the 2017 SummerWorks Awards last night at its Closing Night Party. At the Festival’s official daytime hub, the Factory Theatre, artists and audiences gathered in celebration of a year dedicated to coming together through art.
Sponsored by local organizations, the SummerWorks Awards are adjudicated by a jury of four performance professionals, with the exception of the NOW Magazine Audience Choice Award.
This year’s SummerWorks Awards jury members were Christopher House, Nidhi Khanna, Newton Morales, and Andrea Scott.
The 2017 winner of the SummerWorks Award for Production, announced by Festival Artistic and Managing Director Laura Nanni, Curatorial Associate Tina Fushell, Producer Cathy Gordon, and Manager of Patron Services and Outreach Gloria Mok, was given to The Smile Off Your Face from Re:Current Theatre. Originally Created by Ontroerend Goed, the Canadian Premiere directed by Brian Postalian, invited one audience member at a time through a guided, blindfolded, immersive, sensory performance experience. The work was performed by Benjamin Wardle, Jajube Mandiela, Shira Leuchter and Andrew Pimento, scenography by Claire Hill, and produced by Ruthie Luff with Brian Postalian.
The NOW Magazine Audience Choice Award, determined by audience members who vote for their favourite performance by placing their ticket stub in a ballot box as they leave the performance, was awarded to Pearl Harbour's Chautauqua, presented by NOW Magazine’s Associate Entertainment Editor Glenn Sumi.
The Canadian Stage Award for Direction, presented by Canadian Stage Producer Sherrie Johnson, was awarded to director/choreographer D.A. Hoskins for his work Portrait.
Acknowledging the loss of beloved veteran NOW theatre critic Jon Kaplan, who distinguished himself during his lengthy career as a discoverer and nurturer of new talent, Laura Nanni fittingly announced the renaming of the Spotlight Award as The Jon Kaplan Spotlight Award, which was then awarded to the cast of Boys in Chairs, Andrew Gurza, Frank Hull, and Ken Harrower.
Indigenous writer and performer Darla Contois was chosen for the Theatre Centre Emerging Artist Award for White Man's Indian.
“A key focus for the Festival this year was finding new ways in which SummerWorks can bring artists and audiences together,” says Artistic and Managing Director Laura Nanni. “A big part of that was extending the Festival's relationships with partner organizations and I am so grateful for the community support we found in those partnerships and what they helped us to achieve. It is also vital for SummerWorks to continue to create convergence between genres and ideas. This year the jury's decisions reflect new steps made towards that goal, with an immersive work that defies all categorization winning the production award, Pearl Harbour's unique play-meets-revival-meets-manifesto winning the audience award, and again this year another director/choreographer winning the direction award. We are also all very proud of the steps we made towards accessibility. This year, in addition to all our venues being physically accessible and the added relaxed and ASL interpreted programs, we saw our highest attendance ever at our free programming events and at the SummerWorks Intensive Leadership Program workshops. We all feel truly galvanized by the successes of 2017.”
Other awards handed out last night included the Buddies in Bad Times Vanguard Award for Risk and Innovation and The Contra Guys Award for New Performance Text.
A complete list of awards and recipients follows. The 2017 SummerWorks Performance Festival ran in Toronto from August 3-13, 2017.
For more information or to request photos or interviews please contact:
Suzanne Cheriton, suzanne@redeyemedia.ca, 416.805.6744
Jennifer Perras, jenn@redeyemedia.ca, 416.525.7625
2017 SummerWorks Awards winners:
SummerWorks Prize for production
Winner: The Smile Off Your Face, Re:current theatre
Honourable Mention: Dolphin, Rock Bottom Movement
The NOW Magazine Audience Choice Award
Winner: Pearl Harbour's Chautauqua
Canadian Stage Award for Direction
Winner: D.A Hoskins - Portrait
Honourable Mention: Alyssa Martin - Dolphin
Theatre Centre's Emerging Artist award
Winner: Darla Contois -White Man's Indian
Honourable Mention: Kevin Matthew Wong -Chemical Valley Project
Jon Kaplan Spotlight Award
Winner: The Cast of Boys In Chairs, Andrew Gurza, Frank Hull, and Ken Harrower
Honourable Mention:
Shaista Latif -The Archivist
Jasmyn Fyffe -What do you see?
Contra Guys award for New Performance Text
Winner: Shannon Yee - Reassembled, Slightly Askew
Honourable Mention:
Ghost Days -Terrance Houle and Simla Civelek
The Nails -Jason Maghanoy
Buddies In Bad Times Vanguard Award for risk/ innovation
Winner: ICÔNE POP - Mayday Danse
Honorable Mention: Explosions for the 21st Century, Pressgang Theatre
Website: SummerWorks.ca
Twitter: @SummerWorks
Facebook: SummerWorks Performance Festival
Instagram: @SummerWorks_Festival
About SummerWorks Performance Festival:
Founded in 1991, the SummerWorks Performance Festival is widely recognized as one of the most important platforms for launching new and experimental works - locally, nationally, and internationally. This year SummerWorks hosted over 500 artists, in 50 performance projects. 2017 marks SummerWorks’ 27th year as one of the country’s most preeminent multidisciplinary hubs featuring a wide variety of artistic programming including, music, dance, theatre, live art – and everything in between.
Photo: Brian Postalian accepts the 2017 SummerWorks Production Award for The Smile Off Your Face.
2017-08-14
Toronto: SummerWorks announces 2017 SummerWorks Award winners