Carlton wins every award but Best Play at regional theatre competition

Carlton Comprehensive High School’s Mad Hatter Theatre Company won every award except for best play at the Saskatchewan Drama Association Region 11 Drama Festival at Walter Murray Collegiate Institute in Saskatoon over the weekend. That award went to the host school.

“I’m not really sure of the reasoning behind it but the one thing I am certain is that these students performed fabulously and the recognition we received was wonderful,” Carlton drama teacher and Mad Hatter artistic director David Zulkoskey said.

“I know we’re not going on to provincials but the idea of taking this diverse group of students, putting on a play of this level and having the calibre of performance that they did and then to receive the awards that they did really does recognize the uniqueness of our group in terms of being able to take something very challenging and bring it to stage and do a very good job.”

Carlton’s production of the 1972 play Canadian Gothic by Saskatchewan-born playwright Joanna Glass won the awards for Best Technical Production, Best Visual Production and Best Technical Crew.

Among individual awards Ellora Haukenfrers won Best Stage Manager, Samantha Paradis won the Mary Ellen Burgess Award for Individual Excellence in Acting, Darci Haydukewich and Coral White shared the Bob Hinet Award for Individual Excellence in Technical Theatre for make-up and costumes, Nicole Stocki won a medallion for Individual Excellence in Acting, Riley Atkinson won a medallion for Individual Excellence in Technical Theatre for Set Design and Construction Leadership, Nicole Stocki and Reece Tolley shared a medallion for Individual Excellence in Technical Theatre for Original Music Composition and Recording and Jordan Slaunwhite was honoured for his “positive spirit and contribution to the ensemble.”

“In all seriousness the play went right over the top. We peaked when we needed to peak in terms of performance quality. The wonderful thing is that students that had done exceptional individual work received those awards that were designated for individuals,” Zulkoskey said.

“It was a clean sweep. We won every single award except for best play and we can’t seem to figure that one out because by winning every single award, you would then think we would be best play, but we’re not. I guess we’re the La La Land of Prince Albert this time around.”