The week-long festival of plays by community theatre groups around Saskatchewan concluded on Saturday evening with an awards ceremony at the Cugnet Centre, and the final play adjudication was held on Sunday morning.
Adjudicator Gordon Portman provided comments on each award as they were presented, including a tribute to the players killed in the team bus crash of the Humboldt Broncos, along with a moment of silence, just prior to presenting an award to the full cast of the Crocus 80 play.
He acknowledged he has never been on a hockey team bus, but he has been on innumerable bus trips for choirs and band, and travelling to various events such as TheatreFest, and like the players, they travelled “having adventures and going down the road to new possibilities. … A hockey team is really not a lot different from a team of people putting on a show, pursuing a common goal of excellence.”
He said there is a sense of community for a group like that, and the community shares alike in suffering, grief and in providing support for one another.
With the loss of young lives, said Portman, there is a “loss of potential and loss of possibilities with the loss of young lives.”
In this instance, with that loss of potential, “there is still potential and possibility with the young lives we have with us,” he said, going on to name the cast of the Crocus 80 play, “And A Child Shall Lead”, as the winners of the Margaret Corbett Aspirant Award.
This award is offered to a novice participant at TheatreFest, who in the opinion of the adjudicator showed remarkable progress as a performing production team member. This award is not presented every year, but only when outstanding achievement on the part of a newcomer to the theatre experience is judged to merit such recognition.
Portman acknowledged this award is usually presented to an individual, but after seeing the Crocus 80 play on opening night of TheatreFest, on April 1, he felt strongly the entire all-youth cast was deserving of this recognition and checked with Theatre Saskatchewan about making this exception.
A member of the host Crocus 80 committee for TheatreFest, Brittany Nightingale, was named to the SaskEnergy Volunteer Champion Award, for her tireless efforts behind the scenes in helping to organize TheatreFest.
In the other awards presented, the Battlefords Community Players took home some hardware as their play, “For the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again” won as the Best Entry overall at TheatreFest, and director Donna Challis was named Best Director, while Jim Walls was named Best Supporting Actor. In addition, Lynda Lyon Walls, who played “Nana”, was given an honourable mention for Best Actress. The Battlefords players were also recipients of the Stan Danbrook Technical Merit Award.
The Regina Little Theatre was named to the William R. Hubbard Memorial Plaque for excellence or meritorious enterprise, presented to the theatre group which best displays attributes of community involvement, sharing the love of theatre.
The runner-up to the winning entry was “The Melville Boys”, put on by the Moose Jaw Community Players, and they also won the Best Visual Entry Trophy. Actor Jarrod Jeanson from this play won the McIntyre Trophy for Best Characterization, for his portrayal of Owen Melville, and actress Crystal Milburn won as Best Supporting Actress as Loretta.
The runner-up for best director was Wendy Mokelki for the play, “Exit Laughing”, put on by the Tumbleweed Theatre of Balgonie. The winner of the Best Actress Award was Sharon Pope from “Exit Laughing”.
The Best Actor Award went to John Kort, for his portrayal of David Kilbride in “On A First Name Basis”, put on by Indian Head’s Stage Left Players.
The attendance for the plays through the week ranged from 173, the largest audience for Crocus 80’s play on opening night on April 1. The attendance on Monday was 117, on Tuesday was 121, with 131 on Wednesday, 109 on Thursday, 127 on Friday and 135 on closing night on Saturday.
