written by Tom Stoppard won
top prize at the Quonta Regional Drama
Direction 'extraordinarily creative': Howard
Posted By By Brian
Kelly, The Sault Star
Updated 2 days ago
Theatre SMC’s production of Rosencrantz
and Guildenstern Are Dead
proved full of life at the Quonta Regional Drama Festival.
The surreal comedy
earned awards for best production, direction,
technical production and visual production Sunday in Elliot Lake.
“We
won. We did it,” said co-director Loretta Durat in a telephone
interview.
“We’re very happy.
We didn’t know which way it was going to go.
There was some strong groups here.”
Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern Are Dead now advances to the
Theatre Ontario Festival in North Bay in May.
Theatre SMC has advanced
to the provincial event twice in just
three appearances at Quonta since 2005.
Their latest production also won
two adjudicator awards for
musicians Conor Doan, Bill Murphy, Bill Webb and Claryssa Webb
and youth actor Andrew
Lorimer.
"The direction, which the company was able to follow and do,
was extraordinarily creative,"
said adjudicator Richard Howard in
an interview.
"It was a burst of creative energy from the director's
point-of-view
and the company was able to do that . . . Everybody felt the same
way. They couldn't get over
the creative thrust of Loretta and Joe."
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead was nominated for best
supporting
actor (John Hawke, Josh Morin), adjudicator’s youth
award (Chris Woodcock), special moment and ensemble playing.
The latest batch of awards “humbled” Theatre SMC founder,
and play co-director, Joe Lauzon.
“Our theatre company has always tried our best to put on quality
work,” he said.
“We work hard. We focus on the craft.”
Auditions were held in November so the two leads could learn
their
extensive dialogue. Rehearsals started when the show went up at
St. Mary’s College.
Lauzon
and Durat dedicated themselves to the production and
deserved their joint win, said Lorimer.
“(They) probably
did times 10 the most work out of anyone inside t
his entire production,” said the Grade 12 student.
“They
totally deserved it. They had a clear vision right from the
beginning and they went out and achieved it. Now, we’re
going to
Theatre Ontario.”
Lorimer started reading Tom Stoppard’s script in the spring of 2007
after he wrapped up work in Theatre SMC’s production of Much Ado
About Nothing.
“I pretty much
fell in love with it right then,” he said.
“The writing by Stoppard is just amazing. The play is unlike
anything I
’ve ever read in my life.”
Howard praised the show's lighting, sound, music
and costumes by
Lisa Dinel.
"The costumes, we don't have costumes like that
in Sault Ste. Marie,"
he said.
"It was as professional as you would see anywhere."
Lauzon expects the show will be remounted in the Sault for two nights
to help raise money to pay for 30
members of the show’s cast and
crew to travel to the Gateway City in mid-May.
“It will be a costly
trip,” he said.
“I think we’re going to need a lot of money.”
Other plays appearing
at Quonta were Sylvia (Elliot Lake Amateur
Theatre Ensemble), Apple (Gateway Theatre Guild), The Love List
(Gore
Bay Little Theatre) and Office Hours (Espanola Little Theatre).
• Joey LeBlanc received the Elsie McLeod Bursary.
He’ll attend Theatre
Ontario training this summer. Previous Sault winners include
Danial O’Brien
and Courtney Larkin.
LeBlanc has a long line of credits including The Bald Truth,
The Lion, The Witch and The
Wardrobe and
Variations on the Death of Trotsky.
