Shown from BCP's The Sunshine Boys production, left to right: Darren Olson, Clint Barrett, John Butler, Fraser Glen. Jeanna Walker, Gregory Kwong and, in front, Jim Walls. (Submitted photo/Theatre Saskatchewan Inc.)

By Angela Brown

TheatreFest success

Battlefords Community Players garners seven awards at provincial competition

Apr 27, 2022 | 5:23 PM

Bravo, Battlefords Community Players!

Battlefords Community Players (BCP) are being touted among the big winners in this year’s TheatreFest provincial competition for community theatre.

The troupe recently participated in TheatreFest, Saskatchewan’s competitive festival, and picked up seven awards on April 24 at the event for their performance of Neil Simon’s popular play The Sunshine Boys.

Here is the list of winners from BCP:

• Jim Walls received the Best Leading Actor award;
• Fraser Glen was honoured as Best Supporting Actor;
• Gregory Kwong picked up the award for Best Stage Manager;
• Bill and Doreen Wells took home the Best Set Design award;
• Darren Olson garnered two awards for Best Technical Design and Best Director.

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BCP’s also received the award for the Best Play for their performance. As a note, this was Jim Walls’ fifth award over the years as Best Leading Actor.

As well, BCP executive producer Donna Challis said one of BCP’s actresses, Jeanna Walker, received an honourable mention for her last minute portrayal of the Burlesque Nurse, “a part that has seen four different interruptions over the run of the show.”

Challis said this year BCP saw a “record breaking number of awards.”

“The board and all the volunteers of Battlefords Community Players are so proud of the success we have had, not just with the amazing production of The Sunshine Boys, but with our successful efforts to keep theatre alive in the Battlefords. To our patrons, our sponsors, our many volunteers and everyone who have supported us, we are so appreciative,” Challis said in a release.

TheatreFest was held in Melfort this year from April 20 to 23 for various community theatre groups in the province to perform and vie for awards.

BCP’s The Sunshine Boys director Darren Olson said it was an exciting time for the troupe to win so many awards this year.

“We swept it!” He told battlefordsNOW. “I don’t know if I was surprised or not. I just felt that the calibre of our production was at its peak. The actors that were cast in the various roles were at the top of their game. I think this performance could have been anywhere in the world. It was just that good.”

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Angela.Brown@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow