THEATRE NEWS:
Toronto Theatre Critic's Awards unveiled
6 JUN/11

JOHN COULBOURN - QMI Agency

TORONTO - Theatre critics for Toronto’s four major daily newspapers have banded together to create a new awards program aimed at honouring their 
choices for the best in Toronto theatre. And the first winners of those awards were announced Monday at 6 p.m. 

The awards are called the Toronto Theatre Critics’ Awards and winners will be decided annually by John Coulbourn, theatre critic for the Toronto Sun; Richard Ouzounian, theatre critic for the Toronto Star; Robert Cushman, theatre critic for the National Post and Kelly Nestruck, theatre critic for The Globe and Mail. The possibility of expanding the circle of voting critics is to be discussed at a later date.


In addition to 13 annual awards, the participating critics involved in the TTCAs will also award special citations, when merited, to individuals within the theatre community who have made a significant contribution to theatre in Toronto.


Consideration for the first year’s awards was given to all shows that opened and were reviewed in the city of Toronto between the dates of June 1, 2010 and May 31, 2011. While all remounts are ineligible for design, direction, production and Canadian play awards, new actors cast in remounts are eligible for all acting awards. 

Winners of the Toronto Theatre Critics’ Awards for 2010/11 are as follows:



Best Canadian play
: The Clockmaker by Stephen Massicotte (Tarragon Theatre)



Production of a play:
 The Middle Place (Theatre Passe Muraille/Canadian Stage)



Production of a musical: 
South Pacific (produced by Lincoln Centre Theatre, presented by Dancap)



Director of a play or musical: 
Gina Wilkinson (Tarragon Theatre’s Wide Awake Hearts)



Design: Studies in Motion: The Hauntings of Eadweard Muybridge (produced by 
The Electric Company Theatre; presented by Canadian Stage; set, light 
and video design by Robert Gardiner)



Actress in a play
: Yanna McIntosh (Ruined, produced by Obsidian Theatre in association 
with Nightwood Theatre)



Actor in a play: 
David Ferry (Blasted, Buddies In Bad Times)



Supporting actress in a play: 
Cara Ricketts (Eternal Hydra, produced by Crow’s Theatre in association 
with Factory Theatre)

Supporting actor in a play: Richard McMillan (After Akhmatova, Tarragon Theatre)



Actress in a musical:
 Louise Pitre (A Year With Frog and Toad, Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for 
Young People)



Actor in a musical: 
Tony Sheldon (Priscilla: Queen of the Desert, Mirvish Productions)



Supporting actress in a musical: 
Kate Hennig (Billy Elliot the Musical, Mirvish Productions)



Supporting actor in a musical: 
Oliver Dennis (The Fantasticks, Soulpepper)



Voting members of the TTCA also chose this year to honour Factory 
Theatre’s longtime artistic director Ken Gass, with a special 
citation for his contribution to Toronto theatre, not simply in 
founding the theatre he now runs but for returning to it when it fell 
on hard times and thereby ensuring the survival of a “place where 
some of the best Canadian playwrights debut, develop and grow.”


Winners of the TTCAs will receive certificates recognizing their 
excellence, hopefully at a reception later in June which is currently 
being planned.