Oldies but goodies and new productions will vie for accolades this evening at the National Drama Festival 2013 awards production billed for the National Cultural Centre.
The event which starts at 18:00 hrs will see Paloma Mohamed’s Anybody See Brenda come up against Watch de Ride 2 – Justice and When Chocolate Melts in several categories: Costuming, Set, Lights and Cast. The three plays’ directors: Theatre Guild Workshop Team, Ronald Hollingsworth and Sheron Taylor-Cadogan and Neaz Subhan also go head to head. In a few of the categories, the plays are joined by Berbice Uprising and Pantomime.
Best actor in a lead role nominees are Chris Gopaul, When Chocolate Melts; Mahadeo Shivraj, Watch de Ride 2 – Justice; Mark Luke Edwards, Anybody See Brenda and Sean Thompson, Pantomime.
Supporting actor nominees are Clinton Duncan, Brenda; Mahadeo Shivraj, Chocolate; Mark Kazim, Ride; Max Massiah Berbice Uprising and Sean Thompson, Ride.
Brenda, Ride and Chocolate also dominated the lead actress category with
Leslyn Fraser, Melissa King and Nirmala Narine going head to head. Chocolate and Ride also feature in the actress in a supporting role category with nominations going to Keisha Narine and Leslyn Johnson, Nirmala Narine and Sonia Yarde vying for that honour.
Guyana Prize for Literature award winner Mosa Telford’s Before Her Parting is nominated in the Open Short Plays category along with Tashandra Inniss’s A Darker Side and multiple prize winning actress turned playwright Sonia Yarde’s Mommy. In the Debutante category there are: Mara’s Faith by the Bethel Gospel Hall Youth Group and Third Degree Graduate by Vanessa Hinds.
The nominees for the Best New Guyanese stage play in the Junior category are: A Twist of Faith by Taneka Caldeira, All or Nothing by Randolph Critchlow, Creative Burial Ground by Rae Wiltshire, Deep Wounds by Melinda Primo-Solomon, Duplicity by Keron Bruce and Planned to Perfection by Mark Luke-Edwards. Some of these plays were also given the preliminary nod in the production, set, lights and sound categories along with the Farepicker.
Yarde (Farepicker), is up against Ayanna Waddell (Mommy) and Tivia Collins (Before Her Parting) for best director in this category.
Kijana Lewis (Parting) vies with Nickose Layne (Farepicker), and Sean Thompson (Darker Side) for best actor, while Colleen Humphrey (Farepicker), Leslyn Fraser (Darker Side), Melissa King (Parting), Nicola Moonsammy (Mommy) and Nuriyyih Gerard (The Professor).
There are also several veteran and new actors nominated for supporting and lead roles in this open category as well as the debutante, schools and junior categories.
