Thu May 31, 2012
Theatre

TTCA celebrate the best of Toronto theatre

Kim’s Convenience, Ins Choi’s wise and witty tale of a Korean-Canadian family, won over Toronto audiences this season. Now it has also won Best Canadian Play in the second annual Toronto Theatre Critics Awards. The show, currently back onstage at Soulpepper Theatre, also grabbed the TTCA’s Best Actor in a Play award for its star, Paul Sun-Hyung Lee. Best Production went to Tarragon Theatre’s haunting update of the Bluebeard fairy tale, The Small Room at the Top of the Stairs, which also clinched the awards for Best Actress (Nicole Underhay) and Best Director (Weyni Mengesha) in the play category. In the musical category, the prizes were evenly divvyed up between the Civil Rights-era drama Caroline, or Change and the macabre teen comedy Ride the Cyclone. Each show won three awards, including Best Musical Production (Caroline) and Best New Musical (Cyclone). The TTCA also gave a special lifetime-achievement citation to beloved actor Eric Peterson. The awards were decided by theatre critics from five of Toronto’s major publications: the Toronto Star’s Richard Ouzounian, the Globe and Mail’s J. Kelly Nestruck, the National Post’s Robert Cushman, Glenn Sumi of NOW and yours truly at The Grid, A full list of winners is below.

Best Canadian Play

Kim’s Convenience by Ins Choi (Soulpepper Theatre)

Best International Play

The Golden Dragon by Roland Schimmelpfennig (Tarragon Theatre)

Best Production of a Play

The Small Room at the Top of the Stairs, Tarragon Theatre

Best Director of a Play

Weyni Mengesha, The Small Room at the Top of the Stairs

Best Design

War Horse creative team (National Theatre of Great Britain/Mirvish Productions)

Best Actress in a Play

Nicole Underhay, The Small Room at the Top of the Stairs