Results of The Coast's Best of Halifax Reader's Survey

The results are in...

Best play, Winner
Marion Bridge
Email: info@metamorphic.ca
You might say that the success of Metamorphic Theatre's first production was all in the family. Marion Bridge was written by our Best Playwright Daniel MacIvor and directed by Best Actor Anthony Black. Presented around the province and at the Atlantic Fringe Festival, the three actors---Amanda Jonz, Samantha Madore and Jennifer O'Brien---are convincing as three sisters coping with their mother's pending death, especially considering the three are much younger than the characters they play. Madore thinks it was all meant to be. “We were looking for a strong female play. There were three of us. We all have dark hair. The sets were minimal. We had Anthony Black on board. And Daniel MacIvor!”

Best play, 1st runner up
Evita
Address: Neptune Theatre, Halifax, NS B3J 7070

Best play, 2nd runner up
Satchmo Suite
Address: Eastern Front Theatre

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Best theatre company, Winner
Neptune Theatre
Address: 1593 Argyle, Halifax, NS B3J 7070
Phone: 429-7070
Email: Neptune.pr@ns.sympatico.ca
Creatively and financially, Neptune Theatre, king of the Best Theatre category, had a stellar year. “To Kill a Mocking Bird really touched a lot of hearts,” says Devon Elke, the theatre's assistant artistic director. “It was also entertaining but it raised a lot of questions too.” Elke says that Neptune, under the leadership of Ron Ulrich, always aims to balance popular stories with those that appeal to youth, mixing in shows such as Frozen, which “require more from the spectator.” She gives credit to her boss Ulrich, who she says uses a combination of instincts, conversations and numbers to predict what Nova Scotian theatre audiences will want to see.

Best theatre company, 1st runner up
Shakespeare by the Sea

Best theatre company, 2nd runner up
Metamorphic Theatre
Email: info@metamorphic.ca

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Best theatre actor (female), Winner
Martha Irving
“She's a warm talented, intelligent performer,” is just some of the gushing praise that Neptune's assistant artistic director, Devon Elke, gives to one of the “pillars of the theatre community.” She can sing, she can dance, and in Mary Ellen MacLean's hit Velocipede, Irving proved she can do it all while riding a bicycle. Back on two feet, Irving is now directing the Neptune Youth Performance Company's Pirates of Penzance. That's not all, Elke says, “Martha's a wonderful person in the day-to-day, and I think comes across on stage too.”

Best theatre actor (female), 1st runner up
Samantha Madore

Best theatre actor (female), 2nd runner up
Sue Leblanc-Crawford

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Best theatre actor (male), Winner
Anthony Black
Address: 2b Theatre
“I don't really think of myself as an actor,” Anthony Black laughs. “I would find it hard just to act. I get bored easily, but everything I work on informs other things, and acting makes me a better director.” Last year Black had no time to be bored: In February his independent company 2b Theatre received critics' praise for Soul Alone, a co-production with Neptune Theatre about a young girl who begins acting strangely after her twin sister suffers a brain aneurysm. Invisible Atom, written and performed by Black and directed by wife Ann-Marie Kerr, was considered one of the best at Toronto's Summerworks Festival. Oh yeah, and he directed this year's Best Play, Metamorphic Theatre's Marion Bridge.