All three plays got their fair share of rewards, but it was the production from Williams Lake Studio Theatre (WLST) that went home with the decisive victory. Their edition of the mature-content puppet show Hand To God took top honours at the Central Interior Zone Drama Festival, edging out 12 Angry Jurors by Judy Russell Presents and God Of Hell by Pocket Theatre.
The full slate of 2018 zone festival awards are:
Best Backstage: Judy Russell Presents, 12 Angry Jurors
Best Props: WLST, Hand To God, Mimi Searles
Best Costumes: Judy Russell Presents, 12 Angry Jurors
Best Lighting: WLST, Hand To God, Curt Sprickerhoff
Best Music: WLST, Hand To God, Matt Grunland
Best Set: WLST, Hand To God, Curt Sprickerhoff and Sheryl-Lynn Lewis
Best Supporting Actor: Judy Russell Presents, 12 Angry Jurors, Dave Leach
Best Supporting Actress: Judy Russell Presents, 12 Angry Jurors, Melissa Glover
Best Actor: Pocket Theatre, God Of Hell, William Kuklis
Best Actress: Pocket Theatre, God Of Hell, Krista Dunlop
Best Director: WLST, Hand To God, Jay Goddard
Best Ensemble: WLST, Hand To God
Best Production: WLST, Hand To God
The latter trophy qualifies Hand To God to carry on to the Theatre BC provincial mainstage festival as the representative of the Central Interior zone.
That event happens in Vernon, this year, from June 29 to July 6 with the Central Interior's performance slated for July 5.
There are seven zones in the province, plus one Wild Card slot available for the mainstage competition.
"The awards were spread out quite well, which was a nice outcome," said Dominic Maguire, a Prince George theatre director and one of the organizers of this year's festival.
"The adjudicator (longtime film/stage actor and teacher Keith Digby) was pretty clear that in a lot of cases he had to think long and hard to pick certain winners which, for us as a zone, is great. It means the talent was really present and evident on stage. There were so many good performances up there and you always wonder how any adjudicator in that position can make those decisions."
Along with the three nights of performances, the zone festival also offered the casts and crews a chance for deeper conversation and knowledge at the workshops led by Digby. Adding these seminars came about only in recent years, and seems to be paying dividends as the participants have even more skill and motivation to bring back to their home communities and apply to future years.
This was the second year in a row that Prince George hosted the festival. Once a powerhouse of B.C. drama, the Central Interior zone regressed to barely functioning at times, now seems to be on a comeback. Prince George was a large part of the zone's past strength and likewise slid into a slow period that is on an uptick. Maguire said hosting the festival has been helpful for momentum here and overall across the region.
"Our planning started earlier, we had engaged members on the committee who did the things they promised they'd do, we got more bang out of the outreach we did to supporters like Judy Russell Presents and Russell Audio-Visual and the City of Prince George, and the attendance was bigger this year," he said.
"We just have to keep striving to get more people out to the theatre. The onus is on us to market it better, and that will come as we get better at this. It's not that people aren't interested, it's that people have to know it's happening and that takes us doing a better job of advertising. And that's actually something that's exciting for us. We look forward to that work."
Although the representative play is from Williams Lake, a community Maguire credits for saving the zone's drama fortunes during the downswing, there will be attendees at the provincial festival from here and elsewhere in the region.
Reestablishing a drama industry will take personal leadership and human networking, not just a few strong plays, he explained, and that is more work that feels exciting to local theatre enthusiasts.
