Tuesday, June 20, 2000
Popcorn's hot at Sterlings
Citadel has big night with 3 works
By STEVE TILLEY, EDMONTON SUN
The Elizabeth Sterling Haynes Awards are about outstanding achievement in live theatre, but with all the Popcorn floating about last night, one would be forgiven for thinking the action was taking place at the local multiplex.
The Citadel Theatre's production of the edgy, sexy and bloody Ben Elton play Popcorn scarfed down a double handful of Sterlings last night, as the awards were given out in a glittering and laugh-filled ceremony at the sold-out Mayfield Inn dinner theatre.
Popcorn's cast nearly swept the main acting categories, with Tara Hughes winning for outstanding actress in a leading role, Steve Pirot for actor in a leading role and Jan Alexandra Smith for supporting actress.
Popcorn also gobbled the awards for outstanding production of a play, outstanding director (Citadel artistic director Bob Baker) and outstanding set design (the multitalented Bretta Gerecke, who also won the lighting design Sterling for the Citadel's A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Jeff Haslam won for outstanding supporting actor in another of the night's big winners, the Citadel's Little Shop of Horrors.
The play about love, dreams and giant man-eating plant life also won for outstanding musical, outstanding musical director (Janice Flower) and outstanding choreography (Krista Monson).
Another big winner was Bent Out of Shape Productions' massive Fringe fave The Drowning Girls, which won for outstanding Fringe production, outstanding Fringe performance by an actress (Daniela Vlaskalic), outstanding Fringe director (Charlie Tomlinson) and outstanding Fringe new work, presented to writers Vlaskalic, Tomlinson and Beth Graham.
The awards ceremony itself continues to be a much more entertaining ticket than any Oscar telecast in recent history, and hosts Peter Brown and the fetching Davina Stewart pulled off their duties with aplomb and laughs aplenty.
Jeff Page, who would go on to win outstanding Fringe performance by an actor for Piledriver!, nearly brought the house down when accepting Jan Alexandra Smith's supporting actress Sterling, simply by reading her acceptance speech e-mail out loud.
You could hire this man to recite a phone book and have them rolling in the aisles.
While there was the odd technical glitch with lighting and display screen cues, for the most part the night was both entertaining and glamorous.
And while the 13th annual awards saw the Citadel getting lucky over and over with heavy hitters, other companies made their presence felt, including the Big Mama Co-op's win for outstanding production of a collective (Mama Mia! Me a Mama?) and Concrete Theatre's win for outstanding production for young audiences (Are We There Yet?).
As well, Paula Benson was honoured with the first Margaret Mooney Award for outstanding achievement in administration, presented by the grand dame Mooney herself.
A complete list of Sterling Award winners will appear on the Web at members.home.net/sterlings
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