We’re bringing back our Critics’ Pick Awards for the 2024 season. After reading our list of Theatre Nominees below, be sure to check out the nominees from our TV and Film branches as well.
A Note About This Year’s Awards
Today marks 15 years since this awards series expanded to include theatre (we started in 2007 with TV). Over the years, the awards have changed a lot. We’ve changed names, added and subtracted categories, hosted live events, and featured nearly a thousand artists in our ever-evolving Nominee Interview Series. For many years, our principal focus was to consider as many artists as possible (focusing our efforts on Toronto, Stratford, and Shaw) and for a few seasons there, with the help of a dedicated staff, we were able to come pretty close to that ideal of seeing everything before making our choices of what stood out. Things are very different now and we just want to acknowledge that before you continue reading.
Our staff is much smaller than it used to be, and our aims are slightly different. In the past two years, we’ve been expanding coverage to include out of town companies across Ontario while we’ve simultaneously seen a notable drop-off in media ticket availability from a few major Toronto players. We’re trying to be really strict about conflicts of interest and also adhere to a firm policy of not nominating any production that we did not formally review (either because we did not receive tickets or because we did not have the staff available to accept the invitation). The result is this list is missing lots of excellent artists who made excellent art this past year. Our nominations are not nearly as comprehensive as they used to be but we’re hoping you’ll take them in the spirit in which they’re intended. We didn’t see it all, but we did have the privilege of seeing lots of great theatre in 2024 across Ontario and we think those artists still deserve to be celebrated.
When Are the Winners Announced?
A full list of winners will be published on our website in February. Stay tuned to our Facebook and @MyEntWorld on Instagram and Twitter for updates.
The Anonymous Award for Outstanding Stage Management
A good stage manager’s work is difficult to appreciate from the audience; we can’t see how tight a ship they run in rehearsal or how many fires they put out along the way. So a few years ago we decided to create this award and turn it over to the people who do see those things- other theatre artists. If you worked with an incredible stage manager in Ontario during the 2024 season, we want to hear about them. Send an email to editors@myentertainmentworld.ca with the subject line “SM Nomination: NOMINEE’s NAME” and describe in 100 words why you think they deserve to win (*Please only submit one nomination and respect the word limit). Make sure to include the production details.
Fan Favourite
Email editors@myentertainmentworld.ca with the subject line “Fan Favourite: NOMINEE’S NAME” to vote for any of our nominees in any category to win our Fan Favourite award.
Nominee Interview Series
If you’re nominated this year (including ensemble and production categories), email editors@myentertainmentworld.ca to sign up for our annual Q&A series.
One Last Thing
Especially in technical categories, we are limited by program credits which are often incomplete, misleading or full of typos. If you find an error, please do not hesitate to let us know.
Without further ado, this year’s nominees are…
Outstanding New Work
Dinner with the Duchess by Nick Green (Here For Now/Crow’s Theatre)
Woking Phoenix by Aaron Jan, Bessie Cheng & Gloria Mok (Silk Bath Collective/Theatre Passe Muraille)
Desperate Measures by Rachel Moore & Catherine Teichman (Desperate Measures Collective/Toronto Fringe Festival)
Mad Madge by Rose Napoli (Nightwood Theatre/VideoCabaret)
13 Plays About ADHD All At the Same Time by Alec Toller (Circlesnake Productions)
Outstanding Opera Performance
Gordon Bintner in Don Giovanni (Canadian Opera Company)
Long Long in Faust (Canadian Opera Company)
Christopher Purves in The Cunning Little Vixen (Canadian Opera Company)
Sondra Radvanovsky in Medea (Canadian Opera Company)
Mary Elizabeth Williams in Nabucco (Canadian Opera Company)
Outstanding Supporting Performance in a Play
Matt Alfano in One Man, Two Guvnors (Shaw Festival)
Christopher Allen in Cymbeline (Stratford Festival)
Kevin Bundy in Sequence (Thousand Islands Playhouse)
Bessie Cheng in Woking Phoenix (Silk Bath Collective/Theatre Passe Muraille)
Jonathan Goad in The Diviners (Stratford Festival)
Andrew Iles in Romeo & Juliet (Stratford Festival)
Oyin Oladejo in Three Sisters (Soulpepper Theatre Company/Obsidian Theatre Company)
Nancy Palk in Mad Madge (Nightwood Theatre/VideoCabaret)
Steven Sutcliffe in The Bidding War (Crow’s Theatre)
Sophia Walker in The House That Will Not Stand (Shaw Festival)
Outstanding Leading Performance in a Play
Akosua Amo-Adem in Three Sisters (Soulpepper Theatre Company/Obsidian Theatre Company)
Jakob Ehman in Roberto Zucco (Buddies in Bad Times)
Jessica B Hill in Twelfth Night (Stratford Festival)
Dayna Lea Hoffmann in Rat Academy (Batrabbit Productions/Toronto Fringe Festival)
Phoebe Hu in Woking Phoenix (Silk Bath Collective/Theatre Passe Muraille)
Diego Matamoros in A Public Reading of an Unproduced Screenplay About the Death of Walt Disney (Outside the March Theatre Company/Soulpepper Theatre Company)
Rose Napoli in Mad Madge (Nightwood Theatre/VideoCabaret)
Adrian Pang in Salesman in China (Stratford Festival)
Monica Parks in The House That Will Not Stand (Shaw Festival)
Jan Alexandra Smith in Dinner with the Duchess (Here For Now/Crow’s Theatre)
Outstanding Performance in a Musical
Sean Arbuckle in La Cage aux Folles (Stratford Festival)
Damien Atkins in De Profundis: Oscar Wilde in Jail (Soulpepper Theatre Company)
Emma Bergin in Jekyll & Hyde (Doctor Bird Productions)
Gabi Epstein in Rosamund (Chaos & Light/Toronto Fringe Festival)
Sydney Gauvin in Merrily We Roll Along (Shifting Ground Collective)
Jeff Irving in As You Like It (Grand Theatre)
Jessie James in Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Bowtie Productions)
Taylor Long in Falsettos (Bowtie Productions)
Jackson Seib in Murder for Two (Neptune Theatre/Festival Antigonish/Thousand Islands Playhouse)
Mark Uhre in Something Rotten (Stratford Festival)
Outstanding Ensemble Performance
13 Plays About ADHD All At the Same Time (Circlesnake Productions)
The Bidding War (Crow’s Theatre)
The Diviners (Stratford Festival)
Get That Hope (Stratford Festival)
The House That Will Not Stand (Shaw Festival)
Interior Design (Tarragon Theatre)
Mad Madge (Nightwood Theatre/VideoCabaret)
One Man Two Guvnors (Shaw Festival)
Snow in Midsummer (Shaw Festival)
Three Sisters (Soulpepper Theatre Company/Obsidian Theatre Company)
Outstanding Design
Steve Lucas (Set & Lighting), Jayne Christopher (Costumes), Richard Feren (Music & Sound) for Sequence (Thousand Islands Playhouse)
Karyn McCallum (Set & Projections), Siobhán Sleath (Lighting), Judith Bowden (Costumes), Lyon Smith (Music & Sound) for Witness for the Prosecution (Shaw Festival)
Sir David McVicar & Hannah Postlethwaite (Set), Doey Luthi (Costumes), Paule Constable & Clare O’Donoghue (Lighting), S. Katy Tucker & Blake Manns (Projections) for Medea (Canadian Opera Company)
Joe Pagan (Set), Jeff Pybus (Lighting), Jayne Christopher (Costumes), Richard Feren (Music & Sound) for Mary’s Wedding (Thousand Island Playhouse)
Lorenzo Savoini (Set & Lighting), Ming Wong (Costumes), Olivia Wheeler (Sound), Frank Donato (Projections) for De Profundis: Oscar Wilde in Jail (Soulpepper Theatre Company)
Outstanding Direction
Chris Abraham for One Man Two Guvnors (Shaw Festival)
Donna Feore for Something Rotten (Stratford Festival)
Krista Jackson with Geneviève Pelletier for The Diviners (Stratford Festival)
Kathryn MacKay for Sequence (Thousand Islands Playhouse)
ted witzel for Roberto Zucco (Buddies in Bad Times)
Outstanding Production
13 Plays About ADHD All At the Same Time (Circlesnake Productions)
As You Like It (Grand Theatre)
Dinner with the Duchess (Here For Now/Crow’s Theatre)
The Diviners (Stratford Festival)
Goblin Macbeth (Spontaneous Theatre/Tarragon Theatre)
Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Bowtie Productions)
The House That Will Not Stand (Shaw Festival)
Rat Academy (Batrabbit Productions/Toronto Fringe Festival)
Snow in Midsummer (Shaw Festival)
Woking Phoenix (Silk Bath Collective/Theatre Passe Muraille)
Artist of the Year
Jan Alexandra Smith
Nicholas Eddie
Phoebe Hu
Steve Ross
Qasim Khan