Winners all around
Elizabeth Boardmore One-Act Festival 2017 a success by any measure
I managed to see three of the four sessions of this year’s Elizabeth Boardmore One-Act Play Festival over its three-day run from March 16 to 18. The reason why I missed the fourth session I’ll bring up later.
The variety of dramatic subject matter ranged from a hilarious comedy of forgetfulness to a heartbreaking memory play of love and loss, from a tense evocation of political oppression to a riotous “anti-play” breaking all the established rules of theatre. The one common thread was the high quality of presentation in each play and the high commitment to providing a unique stage experience each playmaker brought to their work.
This year’s adjudicator, Mary Vingoe, brought all of her years of making theatre across Canada to her critique of each production. Each of her analyses was an in-depth seminar in play building with many of the younger (and some older) theatre folk in attendance busy writing notes or, more often, keying them into their cellphones.
Perhaps Vingoe’s toughest assignment was apportioning out the various achievement awards within less than an hour after the lights went dark on the last production. I think she did a fine job and to honour these hardworking folk I present a list of the winners.
For Best Technical Design the winners were John Lingard, Ken Heaton and Clayton McNeil for “Party Time,” while Catherine Campbell took Best Stage Manager for “The Girl Out Back.” The cast of “Paul Bishop is Directing a Play” shared a trophy for Best Ensemble.
Josie Sobol won Best Supporting Actor (Female) for “The Top of the Tree” and “Party Time,” and her castmate Ron Williams won Best Supporting Actor (Male) for the same production. The Best Actor (Male) Achievement Award went to Aaron Corbett’s work in “The Girl Out Back” and, in a surprise
tie, Diana MacKinnon-Furlong and Cathy MacDougall shared the Best Actress (Female) award for their hilarious teamwork in “Lost.”
“The Top of the Tree” also took two major awards: Alison Crosby won Best Director, and Lindsay Thompson won Most Promising New Playwright.
Veteran playwright Ken Jessome’s new drama, “The Girl Out Back”, added two more awards to its total with trophies for Best Original Script and Best Overall Production.
With its major productions and One Act Festival completed, the Boardmore’s final production of its 2016-17 performance season is to host the ever popular Maritime Marionettes touring production of “Rumpelstiltskin” with three performances: on Thursday, April 20, at 10 a.m., and Friday, April 21, at 10 a.m. and 7 p.m.
Friday, April 21, also sees a popular annual event hosted by Sydney’s McConnell Library return a bit earlier in the year on a new date.
“The Teddy Bear Sleepover” allows young folk (and the occasional Star Wars-loving old folk without mentioning any names) to leave their favourite “stuffie” (or the less trauma-inducing second-favourite “stuffie”) overnight at the library.
The next morning, the children
are reunited with their fuzzy friends and get a candid picture of the hijinks their toys got up to on their own overnight in the library. For the last few years, over a hundred young folk enjoyed storytelling, songs, and snacks before heading home before tucking their buddies in for the night. Incredibly, it’s even cuter than it sounds.
And there are still two more
performances left in the run of the Highland Arts Theatre brand spanking new comedy musical “The Return of the C.B.L.A.”: tonight and Thursday, at 8 p.m. both nights.
I have a small role in this show (as homeless street musician “Ken Chisholm” and had to rehearse one evening of the oneact play festival) and it’s been a joy working with an incredibly talented cast who can do it all: act with heart, sing with conviction, dance with sprightliness, and stage fight with ferocity. I get to sit down a lot.
On opening night, we were
honoured to have several members of the original Cape Breton Regional Army — Paul “Moose” MacKinnon (creator of the original CBLA comics, “Old Trout Funnies”), Peyton “The SemiBarbarian” Chisholm, General Carl Nightingale, and Sgt. Stomper himself.
Tickets are going fast but there might be a few left at the HAT Box Office or by calling (902) 565-3637.