PGC Announces Winners of 2014 Tom Hendry Awards
Submitted by rbnsokoloski on Tue, 10/28/2014 - 09:22
(TORONTO, ON - Tuesday, October 28, 2014) Last night, the winners of the
Playwrights Guild of Canada's Carol Bolt Award for Playwrights, Stage West
Pechet Family Comedy and Musical Awards were announced at the Tom Hendry
Awards ceremony at 401 Richmond Street West, Toronto.
CAROL BOLT AWARD WINNER - Colleen Murphy
Presented for the best work premiered by a PGC-member in the past year, the
2014 Carol Bolt Award was bestowed on Colleen Murphy for Pig Girl. Jury:
Yvette Nolan (Chair), Brian Dooley, Glenda MacFarlane and Jacob Zimmer.
STAGE WEST PECHET FAMILY MUSICAL AWARD WINNER - Amiel
Gladstone and Veda Hille
Presented annually to a PGC-member for best musical in development, the 2014
Musical Award was presented to Amiel Gladstone and Veda Hille for Onegin.
Jury: Jonathan Monro (Chair) Katrina Dunn, Bruce Ruddell, and Joseph Trefler.
STAGE WEST PECHET FAMILY COMEDY AWARD WINNER - Douglas E.
Hughes and Marcia Kash
Presented annually to a PGC-member for best comedy in development, the 2014
New Comedy Award was presented to Douglas E. Hughes and Marcia Kash
for Something Fishy. Jury: Elvira Kurt (Chair), Camyar Chai, Caleb Marshall
and Lib Spry.
Winning Play Synopses:
CAROL BOLT AWARD FOR PLAYWRIGHTS:
Pig Girl by Colleen Murphy - For eighty-five minutes a Killer holds a Dying
Woman captive in a secluded barn. Their names say it; there is no escaping the
horrific conclusion. In the empty space on either side are the Dying Woman's
Sister and a Police Officer. Their action spans nine years as the sister beats her
head against a police force agonizingly slow to investigate the disappearance of
marginalized sex workers. The play gives a fictional victim's story back to her as
she fights to refuse the inevitable. It will not help her, but her heroic defiance
gives voice to thousands of women whose lives or spirits have been lost to
violence.
STAGE WEST PECHET FAMILY MUSICAL AWARD:
Onegin by Amiel Gladstone and Veda Hille (composer) - The show is
immersive for performers and audience. The characters move throughout the
audience, and there isn't a traditional divide between stage and front of house.
The style is period costumes, but contemporary treatments. The sound uses
period instruments at times, but is very now - amplified, microphones visible. The
language mixes formal and colloquial. We identify with these characters - though
they come from a different period, they have the same thoughts and desires as
we do now. We are looking at our own time, but using 19th century Russia as
the way in. The focus is on music, performer and light. We want to include the
audience in the story and involve their imaginations.
STAGE WEST PECHET FAMILY COMEDY AWARD:
Something Fishy by Marcia Kash & Douglas E. Hughes - In the sleepy town
of Port Walmsley, Ontario, on the northern shore of Lake Erie, local hero
Raymond Bream is making his triumphant return to his hometown. Raymond's
running for Prime Minister, and he's come to town to make a major
announcement that promises to put his campaign over the top and win him the
majority he so fervently desires. Meanwhile, the incumbent Prime Minister has
sent a couple of henchmen to town to prevent Raymond from making his
announcement - by any means necessary. The showdown between the two
camps takes place on the stage of the local community centre, home of the Port
Walmsley Players, an amateur theatre troupe who are about to open their latest
production, a British bedroom farce. As the world of politics collides with that of
community theatre, everyone is forced to don disguises and take on new roles,
and suddenly no one is who they appear to be. Will Raymond make it to the
podium to make his speech, or will the Prime Minister's hatchet men win the
day? And will the five actors playing the fourteen characters in this play make it
to the final curtain before one of them keels over from exhaustion?
Submitted by rbnsokoloski on Tue, 10/28/2014 - 09:22
(TORONTO, ON - Tuesday, October 28, 2014) Last night, the winners of the
Playwrights Guild of Canada's Carol Bolt Award for Playwrights, Stage West
Pechet Family Comedy and Musical Awards were announced at the Tom Hendry
Awards ceremony at 401 Richmond Street West, Toronto.
CAROL BOLT AWARD WINNER - Colleen Murphy
Presented for the best work premiered by a PGC-member in the past year, the
2014 Carol Bolt Award was bestowed on Colleen Murphy for Pig Girl. Jury:
Yvette Nolan (Chair), Brian Dooley, Glenda MacFarlane and Jacob Zimmer.
STAGE WEST PECHET FAMILY MUSICAL AWARD WINNER - Amiel
Gladstone and Veda Hille
Presented annually to a PGC-member for best musical in development, the 2014
Musical Award was presented to Amiel Gladstone and Veda Hille for Onegin.
Jury: Jonathan Monro (Chair) Katrina Dunn, Bruce Ruddell, and Joseph Trefler.
STAGE WEST PECHET FAMILY COMEDY AWARD WINNER - Douglas E.
Hughes and Marcia Kash
Presented annually to a PGC-member for best comedy in development, the 2014
New Comedy Award was presented to Douglas E. Hughes and Marcia Kash
for Something Fishy. Jury: Elvira Kurt (Chair), Camyar Chai, Caleb Marshall
and Lib Spry.
Winning Play Synopses:
CAROL BOLT AWARD FOR PLAYWRIGHTS:
Pig Girl by Colleen Murphy - For eighty-five minutes a Killer holds a Dying
Woman captive in a secluded barn. Their names say it; there is no escaping the
horrific conclusion. In the empty space on either side are the Dying Woman's
Sister and a Police Officer. Their action spans nine years as the sister beats her
head against a police force agonizingly slow to investigate the disappearance of
marginalized sex workers. The play gives a fictional victim's story back to her as
she fights to refuse the inevitable. It will not help her, but her heroic defiance
gives voice to thousands of women whose lives or spirits have been lost to
violence.
STAGE WEST PECHET FAMILY MUSICAL AWARD:
Onegin by Amiel Gladstone and Veda Hille (composer) - The show is
immersive for performers and audience. The characters move throughout the
audience, and there isn't a traditional divide between stage and front of house.
The style is period costumes, but contemporary treatments. The sound uses
period instruments at times, but is very now - amplified, microphones visible. The
language mixes formal and colloquial. We identify with these characters - though
they come from a different period, they have the same thoughts and desires as
we do now. We are looking at our own time, but using 19th century Russia as
the way in. The focus is on music, performer and light. We want to include the
audience in the story and involve their imaginations.
STAGE WEST PECHET FAMILY COMEDY AWARD:
Something Fishy by Marcia Kash & Douglas E. Hughes - In the sleepy town
of Port Walmsley, Ontario, on the northern shore of Lake Erie, local hero
Raymond Bream is making his triumphant return to his hometown. Raymond's
running for Prime Minister, and he's come to town to make a major
announcement that promises to put his campaign over the top and win him the
majority he so fervently desires. Meanwhile, the incumbent Prime Minister has
sent a couple of henchmen to town to prevent Raymond from making his
announcement - by any means necessary. The showdown between the two
camps takes place on the stage of the local community centre, home of the Port
Walmsley Players, an amateur theatre troupe who are about to open their latest
production, a British bedroom farce. As the world of politics collides with that of
community theatre, everyone is forced to don disguises and take on new roles,
and suddenly no one is who they appear to be. Will Raymond make it to the
podium to make his speech, or will the Prime Minister's hatchet men win the
day? And will the five actors playing the fourteen characters in this play make it
to the final curtain before one of them keels over from exhaustion?