Beggars Would Ride receives many Jessie nominations!

The show has been nominated for a total of eight Jessie Richardson Awards, including lead actor (Allan Morgan), lead actress (Karin Konoval), costume design (Barbara Clayden), composition and sound design (Patrick Pennefather), set design (Bryan Pollock), as well as for direction and production. In addition, it was nominated for the Critics' Choice Award for Innovation, which we won in 2004 for The Singer Falls Silent.

The Awards night is June 18; it's great to win, but just getting nominated is enough for me. If you think about it, there's really no such thing as the best in art: it's endlessly and inevitably subjective. I've often thought we should nominate people, have a big party, and then all go home. But, as a society, we can't seem to get away from this thing about winning; about who's the best. And if there are winners there have to be losers as well. Like all these sorts of nominations, there are many things that leave you scratching your head!

In addition to this, I've been nominated for a Dora Award in Toronto for my direction of this play for tap dancers and actors called i think i can, a production of the Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People. This very neat show is by playwright Florence Gibson and tap choreographer Shawn Byfield, a highly original piece that we workshopped numerous times over a period of two years or so.

I was brought in by Artistic Director Allen MacInnes to shape the story overall, given that it involved a scenario by a writer and was realized in tap sequences by a choreographer, and might have been a mess without an overall outside eye. It was a highly collaborative process that was at times frustrating, but the final product was super, especially the fantastic costume and set designs by Julia Tribe, the lighting by Rebecca Picherak, and sound design by Cathy Nosaty. The cast was great too, of course, including the hilarious Melody Johnson, who played the two non-tap speaking parts in the play. One of the leads was tap genius David Cox, who has appeared in all three locally produced Judith Marcuse mega-shows for youth: Ice, Fire and Earth.

Theatre is a collaborative art: hooray for collaboration!