Sterlings
Last night, Edmonton's theatre community celebrated another season with the Sterling Awards. Congratulations to all the winners, especially the playwrights. Collin Doyle took home the award for Outstanding New Play for The Mighty Carlins (Workshop West Theatre) and Chris Craddock won Outstanding New Fringe Play for Poptart.
I was also thrilled to see Vimy win Outstanding Production. This new play by Vern Thiessen was produced at the Citadel Theatre, and serves to give the Citadel yet another reason to continue developing and producing new plays. At the end of the night, the artistic associate James MacDonald threw down the gauntlet and invited Edmonton's writing community to approach the Citadel with their new play ideas. If they haven't already, I certainly hope that the first two people they approach are Collin and Chris.
Thanks to the booming economy, it gets harder and harder for producers to put on independent productions of new works. Truth is, the venture is financially risky. I'd like to see Workshop West have a five-show season of all new plays by Edmonton and Alberta playwrights. I'd be thrilled to see Theatre Network take more of the gems from Nextfest and put them on their mainstage season. I'm glad to see Shadow and Teatro reaching out to other playwrights in the community to fill out their stable. And now that the Citadel has committed to producing two new plays in a season, the future for a playwright is looking a little better. The road is still pretty tough and lonely, but at least there's a few more stops along the way.
Anyway, the highlight of the whole evening was Patricia Casey's acceptance speech for Outstanding Contribution to Edmonton Theatre. She talked of the importance of being a part of the community. She essentially gave a primer to new artists on how to make a life-long career in theatre. I hope the younger artists in the room were paying attention.