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Arts Club dominates nominations for 2015 Jessie Awards

Pi Theatre, ITSAZOO earn multiple noms in Small Theatre category

The finalists for the 2015 Jessie Richardson Theatre Awards, Vancouver’s answer to the Tony Awards, were announced at a party yesterday at the Vancouver TheatreSports League Improv Centre on Granville Island.

The Jessies are split up into three categories -- Large Theatre, Small Theatre, and Theatre for Young Audiences – and also include a number of special awards. As usual, the Arts Club Theatre Company dominated the Large Theatre awards, this year picking up a total of 19 nominations with the Stanley Theatre’s fiery staging of Saint. Joan up for seven of them with Kim Collier for best director, Meg Roe for lead actress, Dean Paul Gibson for supporting actor, Jon Webber for lighting, Pam Johnson for set design, and Alessandro Juliani for sound design.

The Arts Club’s production of One Man, Two Guvnors earned three more performance nominations for lead actor (Andrew McNee), supporting actor (Andrew Cownden) and supporting actress (Lauren Bowler), while their recent hard-boiled collaboration with Calgary’s Vertigo Theatre for Farewell, My Lovely earned four nominations in the design category with Scott Reid earning one for both light and set, Jamie Nesbitt for production design and  Deitra Kalyn for costumes. The remaining Arts Club nominations were for the Monty Python comedy Spamalot (best actress for Terra C. MacLeod and a second best actor nod for Cownden), 4000 Miles (best actress for Nicola Cavendish) and Red Rock Diner for outstanding musical ensemble.  

Fittingly, French theatre company Théâtre la Seizième earned 16 nominations in all, eight nominations for À toi, pour toujours, ta Marie-Lou in the Large Theatre category, and eight more for Selfie in Theatre for Young Audiences.

Despite only having 128-seats in their alley-style theatre beneath Holy Trinity Anglican Church, Pacific Theatre nonetheless picked up 11 nominations in the Large Theatre category, including outstanding production, direction (Anthony F. Ingram) and two for best actor (Carl Kennedy and Tom Pickett) for its productions of The Whipping Man as well as two best supporting actor noms for Robert Salvador for his work in both Espresso and The Rainmaker.

In the Small Theatre category, the most overall nods were earned by Pi Theatre’s Blasted’s (eight nominations include best actor for Michael Kopsa, best actress for Cherise Clarke, best director for Richard Wolfe and outstanding production) and ITSAZOO’s The Competition is Fierce (seven nominations include best actor for Chris Cochrane, best supporting actor for Andrew Wheeler, best director for Chelsea Haberlin and outstanding original script for Sebastien Archibald).  

The 33rd annual Jessie Awards will be held at the Commodore Ballroom, on June 22. Click here to see the complete list of nominees