NAC French Theatre comes out a winner Capital Critics Circle presents awards for Best French-Language Productions, 2002-2003
October 14, 2003 -
Ottawa (Ontario) -- Last night at the National Arts Centre (NAC), just before the opening of Wajdi Mouawad's latest play, Incendies, the Capital Critics Circle (the regional branch of the Canadian Theatre Critics Association) presented its awards for the best French-language productions presented in the National Capital Region during the 2002-2003 season. The NAC French Theatre was involved in three of the winning productions.
The award for Best Production by a theatre in the National Capital Region went to L'Éden Cinéma, produced by the NAC French Theatre in coproduction with the Festival de théâtre des Amériques and Sibyllines. Written by Marguerite Duras and directed by Brigitte Haentjens, L'Éden Cinéma ran in the NAC Studio from May 14-17, 2003. Featured in the cast were Pascal Contamine, Denis Gravereaux, Christiane Pasquier, Paul Savoie and Sonia Vigneault. The production also won the Best Professional Design award for designer Anick La Bissonnière, whose sets, costumes and props were built in the NAC workshops. This production was also presented in Montreal at the Festival de théâtre des Amériques from May 30 to June 7, 2003.
The award for Best Outside Production presented in the National Capital Region went to Unity, mil neuf cent dix-huit, produced by Théâtre PàP and directed by Claude Poissant, in a French translation by Paul Lefebvre (Associate Artistic Director of the NAC French Theatre) of the original English script by Canadian playwright Kevin Kerr. The play was presented in the NAC Theatre on March 27, 28 and 29 and April 4 and 5, 2003.
The award for Best Director was presented to Joël Beddows for Le Testament du couturier by Michel Ouellette, produced by the Théâtre la Catapulte in association with the Centre culturel d'Orléans (MIFO) with the support of the National Arts Centre. As well, Annick Léger, who performed the play, tied (with Benjamin Gaillard in 15 secondes by the Théâtre du Trillium) for the Best Actor award.
The members of Capital Critics Circle are Caroline Barrière (Le Droit), Alvina Ruprecht (CBC Radio One), Anick Charette (Week-end Outaouais), Anne Michaud (Première Chaîne de Radio-Canada) and Marthe Blouin (Chaîne culturelle de Radio-Canada).
