Stage Door News
Stage Door News
The eighth annual Toronto Theatre Critics Awards (TTCAs) this year will see honours shared among more companies than ever, owing to a record three ties in high profile categories, including one award shared by three performers in the same character role.
Canadian Stage’s production of Stephen Karam’s The Humans won for Best Production and Best International Play, while Theatre Passe Muraille and Buddies In Bad Times Theatre’s co-production of Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory and Evalyn Parry’s Kiinalik: These Sharp Tools earned Williamson Bathory a Best Actress citation, and Erin Brubacher a Best Director nod. (Jani Lauzon will also receive the Best Director award for her work on Factory Theatre’s revival of The Monument, by Colleen Wagner.)
The rest of the awards in the general theatre category were shared amongst six different productions, including a tie in the Best New Canadian Play category between Matthew MacKenzie’s Bears, and Hannah Moscovitch’s Bunny. Relative Toronto stage newcomers Lovell Adams-Gray (Levee in Soulpepper Theatre Company’s production of August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom) and Maxwell Haynes (Evan Shelmerdine in Coal Mine Theatre’s production of Annie Baker’s The Aliens) took Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor, respectively, while stage veteran Carolyn Fe won Best Supporting Actress for her role as Precy in Nightwood Theatre and Sulong Theatre production of Audrey Dwyer’s Calpurnia. Outside the March/Company Theatre/Starvox Entertainment’s production of Jez Butterworth’s Jerusulem won Best Design for the immersive experience set in an English forest.
In the musical categories, the awards were split between Mirvish Productions and The Musical Stage Company’s production of the Tony Award winning musical Fun Home, an adaption of cartoonist Alison Bechdel’s memoir, and Macau Experimental Theatre, Music Picnic, and Point View Art Association’s production Mr. Shi and His Lover, inspired by the same story behind M. Butterfly.
Fun Home won Best Production of a Musical, Best Director of a Musical for Robert McQueen, Best Supporting Actress in a Musical for Cynthia Dale, and Best Actress, split three ways between Laura Condlln, Sara Farb, and Hannah Levinson, who played Bechdel at three different ages. Mr Shi and His Lover won Best New Musical, and Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor for Jordan Chang and Derek Kwan, respectively.
Lastly, a special citation will recognize Bob Nasmith for his body of theatrical work spanning a half century, including his recent starring role in Krapp’s Last Tape, as part of Theatre Passe Muraille’s 50th anniversary celebrations.
The Toronto Theatre Critics Awards were founded in 2011 and are given out on an annual basis by a loosely affiliated group of theatre critics, whose outlets include The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, NOW Magazine, Stage Door, and The Slotkin Letter. These critics, who see the great majority of professionally produced Toronto theatre, choose their nominations from shows given a stand alone run in the previous twelve months, regardless of the producing company’s professional affiliations. This year’s voting critics were: Robert Cushman, Steve Fisher, Karen Fricker, Christopher Hoile, Carly Maga, Martin Morrow, J. Kelly Nestruck, Lynn Slotkin and Glenn Sumi.
The 2018 Toronto Theatre Critics Awards will be given out at an invititation-only ceremony on June 18th, 2018 at The Robert Gill Theatre, with a public reception to follow after.
Toronto Theatre Critics Awards 2018
Best Production of a Play
The Humans by Stephen Karam, directed by Jackie Maxwell
A Canadian Stage production
Best New Canadian Play
TIE:
Bears by Matthew MacKenzie
An Alberta Aboriginal Performing Arts and Punctuate! Theatre in association with Native Earth Performing Arts and Theatre Centre
and
Bunny by Hannah Moscovitch
A Tarragon Theatre production
Best International Play
The Humans by Stephen Karam
A Canadian Stage production
Best Director of a Play
TIE:
Jani Lauzon
The Monument by Colleen Wagner
A Factory Theatre production
and
Erin Brubacher
Kiinalik: These Sharp Tools by Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory and Evalyn Parry
A Buddies in Bad Times Theatre and Theatre Passe Muraille production
Best Design
Nick Blais (sets), Lindsay Dagger Junkin (costumes), Andre du Toit (lighting), and Richard Feren (music and sound)
Jerusalem by Jez Butterworth
An Outside the March and Company Theatre production, in association with Starvox Entertainment
Best Actor in a Play
Lovell Adams-Gray as Levee in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom by August Wilson
A Soulpepper Theatre production
Best Actress in a Play
Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory in Kiinalik: These Sharp Tools by Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory and Evalyn Parry
A Buddies in Bad Times Theatre and Theatre Passe Muraille production
Best Supporting Actor in a Play
Maxwell Haynes as Evan Shelmerdine in The Aliens by Annie Baker
A Coal Mine Theatre production
Best Supporting Actress in a Play
Carolyn Fe as Precy in Calpurnia by Audrey Dwyer
A Nightwood Theatre and Sulong Theatre production
Best New Musical
Mr. Shi and his Lover by Wong Teng Chi and Njo Kong Kie
A Macau Experimental Theatre/Music Picnic/Point View Art Association production
Best Production of a Musical
Fun Home by Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori
A Musical Stage Company production presented by David Mirvish
Best Director of a Musical
Robert McQueen, Fun Home by Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori
A Musical Stage Company production presented by David Mirvish
Best Actress in a Musical
TIE:
Laura Condlln, Sara Farb, and Hannah Levinson as Alison Bechdel in Fun Home by Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori
A Musical Stage Company production presented by David Mirvish
Best Actor in a Musical
Jordan Chang as Mr. Shi in Mr. Shi and his Lover by Wong Teng Chi and Njo Kong Kie
A Macau Experimental Theatre/Music Picnic/Point View Art Association production
Best Supporting Actress in a Musical
Cynthia Dale as Helen Bechdel in Fun Home by Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori
A Musical Stage Company production presented by David Mirvish
Best Supporting Actor in a Musical
Derek Kwan as Boursicot in Mr. Shi and his Lover by Wong Teng Chi and Njo Kong Kie
A Macau Experimental Theatre/Music Picnic/Point View Art Association production
Special Citation
Bob Nasmith, “for his untraditional, decades-long theatre career, and his spirit of adventure and enquiry, which he brings to his unforgettable stage work.”
Photo: Bob Nasmith in Krapp’s Last Tape. ©2018 Graham Isador.
2018-05-23
Toronto: 2018 Toronto Theatre Critics Awards announced