While a Foothills acting group didn’t walk away with any awards last weekend, it did get some much-needed exposure.
Dewdney Players Group Theatre’s six nominations for the Calgary Alliance Community Theatre’s (ACT) Community Theatre Awards (CAT awards) for its spring production Macbeth is a great way to broaden its exposure in Calgary, said treasurer Ed Sands.
Nominations included Mark Huolt for best lead actor as Macbeth and best fight choreographer, Katie Fournell best directing and best light design, Fiorentina Maione for best lead actress as Lady Macbeth and Ben Seders and Sands for best sound design.
The ceremony was held at the University of Calgary’s Rosza Centre on Aug. 24.
“It raises the profile of Dewdney to show that we’re up there in some of the categories,” said Sands. “It raises the quality of actors we get as well. It brings in a broader spectrum of actors because they’ve seen our stuff. In Macbeth we had a number of Calgary actors. Some have acted for us before and some haven’t.”
Almost every year, Dewdney receives nominations for its plays at the CAT awards, but Sands said winning can be a challenge getting Calgary members to Okotoks to vote.
“If you’re a Calgary member and didn’t get out to see our play how can you vote for us?” he said. “We are one theatre group of 20. It’s tough when the voters don’t see our plays. We still need to lure the adjudicator team out to our shows.”
With its six nominations, Dewdney was invited by the ACT to perform a five-minute vignette of the play.
Sands said they put elements of two quintessential parts of Macbeth together for the scene, combining the iconic witch scene with a fight scene between Macbeth and Macduff.
“We were limited to five minutes so we tried to think, when people think of Macbeth what do they think about,” he said. “Over the whole rehearsal when we would tell people we’re doing Macbeth they would say “Double, double toil and trouble.”
For the witch scene, Sands said they stuffed the cauldron with dry ice and one of the witches poured hot water into it to create steam. It went over well with the audience.
“You could hear everybody in the audience saying ‘wow,’” he said. “There’s murmurs through the crowd as this steam comes boiling out of the kettle.”
Sands said aspects from all six nominations were featured in the vignette, including three minutes of fighting.
“We were looking at things that would have maximum effect in minimum time,” he said.
Dewdney has been invited in the past to perform vignettes at the awards event. The last two were for the musicals Lafferty’s Wake and Romeo & Julie-Ed.
Nominations are accepted from audience members and ACT’s adjudication team from September to June for eligible community theatre productions in the Calgary area.
“Even if you don’t win, it’s just nice to be nominated,” said Sands. “There’s a certain level of recognition. Maybe we’re doing things in the right way.”
Theatre groups were invited to recognize outstanding volunteers at the CAT awards ceremony. Dewdney recognized Brian Fea for his work as treasurer, producer and actor, Dale Fea for her work on set design, and Fraser Fea who frequently builds sets.
