HAROLD Bascom’s drama Makantali grabbed most of the awards at the 2011 Theatre Guild Awards ceremony, hosted last Sunday evening at the Theatre Guild Playhouse in Kingston. The full-length play captured the award for Best Guyanese Play, beating A New Beginning which was also nominated in that category.
The Best Actor award went to Gerald Gilkes, who played the title role in Makantali, and Nataya Whaul, who played his wife, won the “Best Actress” award. The Best Supporting Actor award went to Randolph Critchlow for his role in the drama.
On a truly winning streak Makantali won the Best Costume and Best Production award in a full-length play.
Shadows also took a large slice of the prizes and the one-act play won for Best Production, while the Best Director in a one-act play award prize went to Tivea Collins.
The award for Best Actor in a one-act play went to Kijuana Lewis for his role in Shadows; Best Supporting Actor went to Lynus Adams.
For her role in Shadows, Lisa Punch won the Best Supporting Actress award.
In the full-length category, Nirmala Naraine claimed the Best Supporting Actress award for her role in A New Beginning.
The one-act play Swingers on the Playground won the Best Set and Best Costume awards in that category.
The event was also an occasion to honour two veterans of the theatre, and Lifetime Achievement awards went to Jermonica Walcott and Francis Quamina Farrier.
Dramatic presentations added flavour to the award ceremony and the audience was particularly delighted with a performance of the opening act of Makantali.
At the event, head of the judges panel, Al Creighton, said that the Theatre Guild has made the single greatest contribution to theatre in the history of the country; and he gave an overview of theatre in Guyana, noting that theatre rests on tradition and tradition becomes important to theatre because of the nature of the form.
He added that the Awards ceremony has become one such tradition that is important to theatre in Guyana.
To those who were nominated but did not win an award, Creighton urged that the nomination should be seen as an honour, noting that the committee did not nominate anyone that they considered unworthy of the honour.