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Theatre: Jessie Awards nominations announced

‘Meryl Streep’ of production design leads way with seven individual nominations
drew facey
Drew Facey competes against himself at the 32nd annual Jessie Awards, June 23 at the Commodore Ballroom.

There are few certainties in life — death, taxes and Drew Facey receiving a Jessie Award.

Facey was tapped for seven nominations this week, the most by a single individual, for the 32nd annual Jessie Richardson Theatre Awards, which recognizes achievement in professional theatre in Vancouver. But the 33-year-old wunderkind, who’s previously racked up Meryl Streep-like numbers with 13 Jessie nominations and six wins over his eight-year professional career, doesn’t recite eloquent monologues or direct unruly casts wrestling with complex scripts. This week Facey received four Jessie nominations for Outstanding Set Design in the Large Theatre category (Art, The Seafarer, Des fraises en janvier, The Romeo Initiative), a nomination for Outstanding Set Design in the Small Theatre category (Penelope) and two nods for Outstanding Costume Design, also in the Small Theatre category (Penelope, Cool Beans).

“My role is creating the visual world for the show,” says Facey the morning after nominations were announced. “I always think it’s exciting for set design that it’s almost always the first hit that audiences get when they come into a theatre to see a show.”
As for the other nominees, Bard on the Beach led the way in the Large Theatre category, earning 15 nominations from its four productions, with Hamlet receiving five nominations, including Jonathon Young for Outstanding Lead Actor. Young was also nominated in the Supporting Actor category for his work in Twelfth Night.  

Pacific Theatre received 14 nominations, with The Seafarer hauling in eight nods, including Ron Reed and John Emmet Tracy, both for Outstanding Lead Actor.

The Arts Club received 13 nominations with Armstrong’s War garnering five, including Outstanding Script by Colleen Murphy.

ITSAZOO Production’s site-specific trashy trailer park play Killer Joe kicked butt in the Small Theatre category with seven nominations, including Outstanding Direction, Production, Set Design and Supporting Actor.   

In the Theatre for Young Audiences category, Carousel Theatre for Young People received 10 nominations, including six for Busytown and three for Wondrous Tales of Old Japan.

Although Facey says he’s proud of all the productions he’s nominated for, he’s particularly excited about the recognition his work for Rumble Theatre’s Penelope received.

“It was a hugely challenging, really unconventional script that the director, Stephen Drover, brought to me last summer and said, ‘We’ve got to put a [swimming] pool in the Cultch,’” Facey says. “So it became this really exciting opportunity to think about that space in a really different way. So it was fun to create that, but then there was also a massive amount of fire… Fire and water and a lot of blood and four guys in Speedos.”

The Jessie awards will be doled out June 23, 6:30 p.m. at the Commodore Ballroom. For a full list of nominees, go to jessies.ca.  

mkissinger@vancourier.com

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