“We’re also a night where everybody in the theatre community comes together to celebrate the work which we’ve done throughout the year. And whether they’re nominated for a Betty or not – whether they win a Betty or not – we are all there to celebrate the outstanding work that has been done throughout the theatre season, because it’s a hard thing to create theatre. It’s a hard thing to create art. They are a celebration that we have a community and that we are a group of four hundred to five hundred people who have come together and decided that this is our life’s work – hence the professional thing – this is our life’s work, this is what I chose to do for a life and the gift of my art is something that has value.” – Braden Griffiths

On Monday, June 25th the Calgary Theatre community came together to celebrate the Twenty-first annual Betty Mitchell Awards.  I sat down with actor, playwright, and current President of the Betty Mitchell Board Braden Griffiths, who was just finishing his run as Sherlock Holmes in the Vertigo Theatre production of Sherlock Holmes and the American Problem, to talk about the awards and theatre in Calgary.

JAMES HUTCHISON

What is the purpose of the Bettys?

BRADEN GRIFFITHS

The awards were started by Grant Linneberg , Johanne Deleeuw, Mark Bellamy, Donna Belleville and Doug McKeag those five, and Diane Goodman might have been there as well. One of them joined in the second year. They started it as a way to recognize the excellence that they saw happening in this community and as a way to earmark that excellence in a more official way so that the Calgary theatre community could be a bigger player in Canadian Theatre either by exporting that excellence or by becoming a destination for excellence to be imported into Calgary.

JAMES

There’s a lot of recognition across the various companies in this year’s nominations.

BRADEN GRIFFITHS

We’ve considered splitting the second-tier and the first-tier theatres into separate categories, but there is something beautiful about having smaller theatre companies like Handsome Alice nominated or Verb Theatre recognized in the best production category this year alongside the artistic output from larger theatre companies like Theatre Calgary and ATP because I think when we boil all this down, all we’re trying to do in theatre is illuminate something about this messy existence we lead as human beings. We’re trying to illuminate something about what it means to be human and that can happen anywhere and you can be affected just as profoundly in the Motel Theatre as you can in any of the big theatres in Calgary. And so, I love how the Bettys safeguard this idea that we are a community of artists, and we all have the same goals regardless of whether we are working at TC or whether we are working at Handsome Alice or Sage or one of the smaller companies in town. We all have this same goal to tell a story and hopefully illuminate something about what it means to be human.

JAMES

What do you think the awards mean to the local theatre community?

BRADEN GRIFFITHS

The value of a Betty, at this point I think, is a thumbs up that you’re creating something that did affect somebody in some way. And then beyond that we hope that a Betty Mitchell award matters on a grant proposal let’s say, or we hope that a Betty Mitchell award nomination might help somebody get into an audition room that maybe they weren’t able to get into before, or maybe it helps a playwright to get a commission. It gives that one little extra push to get that commission that maybe they wouldn’t have been considered for before.

And I don’t think the Bettys are the only benchmark we have for excellence in theatre in this community, because there are a lot of people who aren’t on that list who did outstanding work this year, but I think every artist wants to be recognized in some way for what they do as an artist, and this is a nice official way that you can do that and put it down on a ledger and say, I was nominated for a Betty.

JAMES

And it means something now because we’re twenty-one years in. So, there is a history and a legacy to the Bettys that didn’t exist that first year. And the nice thing is, it does offer a certain record to the performance history of Calgary.

BRADEN GRIFFITHS

Without a doubt. I was going through all the past nominations and there were productions in 1998 when I would have been in grade ten, I believe, and I can remember going to at least two productions that were nominated for Bettys on that list. And it was a bit of a time capsule for me, so the Bettys end up being a marking of our history. It’s saying, we were here. And there are people who are nominated whose names I don’t recognize, which is shocking to me, because we are a fairly small community, so I do wonder what happened to them, but that person was an important part of our theatre community at some point. And they made a difference

JAMES

They’re remembered, in a way. Their work is acknowledged. And that’s not insignificant.

BRADEN GRIFFITHS

It’s not.  There’s a tradition in masonry of masons – when they build a big building or whatever out of stone – they’ll leave a little card with their name on it and the year that the building was built, and that card may never be found but its a little statement of I was here. And if theatre is about building a bridge between the artist and the audience then these artists who were nominated for their work but might not be here anymore are still an important stone in the bridge that the Calgary theatre community has been building to the audience of Calgary.

JAMES

When the awards started in ninety-eight the world population was 5.9 billion. Jean Chrétien was Prime Minister. Bill Clinton was President. The Tony Award for best musical was The Lion King. And on September 4th, 1998 Google was founded. Here are the type of plays that Calgary was producing at the time. A Delicate Balance, Glengarry Glen Ross, Assassins, Fiddler on the Roof, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)…

BRADEN GRIFFITHS

…which I’ve done four times…

JAMES

…and A Christmas Carol.

BRADEN GRIFFITHS

There you go.

JAMES

Let’s jump twenty-one years. The world population is now 7.6 billion. Almost two billion more in twenty-one years.

BRADEN GRIFFITHS

Holy moly.

JAMES

Justin Trudeau is Prime Minister. Donald Trump is President.

BRADEN GRIFFITHS

Oh, man.

JAMES

The Tony Award for best musical – just decided – The Bands Visit. Google’s Brand value is 120.9 billion. They’re behind Apple and Amazon. And so here are the plays we’re seeing this year. We saw The Humans, The Last Wife, Inner Elder, Much Ado About Nothing, Blackbird, The 39 Steps, and A Christmas Carol.

BRADEN (Laughs)

Christmas Carol, our one big constant.

JAMES

So, how do you think the plays we’re producing at a particular time reflect the times we live in?

BRADEN GRIFFITHS

I’m always mystified by how Christmas Carol just sells out every year, but at its core, Christmas Carol, is a simple message about man’s ability to change and so there is still a desire for that simple hope. So, Christmas Carol or shows of that ilk and ilk sounds like a negative word but it’s not, I love Christmas Carol. I adore it. I wouldn’t have done it for seven years if I didn’t. But there is still a desire, and I think there always will be a desire, for that simple human message of hope. And yet theatre is starting to change. We are starting to be a more interactive society because of platforms like YouTube and Twitter where you can send a Tweet to Brad Pitt and he might respond to that Tweet.

BRADEN GRIFFITHS

And so, there’s a desire for more interactivity in the art or the media that we indulge in. I think to a certain degree, the magic of a play like The 39 Steps is that we’re all in on the joke. That this is just two ladders and a bunch of crates on a stage and yet those things will become a plane chasing someone through a field, or the crates will become the boxcars in a train or whatever it is, and so we’re all in on the joke and so there’s a greater sense of interactivity. Which is why I think 39 Steps, even though it’s an old play now, has great relevance because the audience is involved in creating that joke.

And then you have things like Inner Elder by Michelle Thrush which talks about what it means to be a first nations member of the Canadian Zeitgeist. What it means socially to be a first nations member. And to actually hear that story told by the person who should be telling that story. The first nation’s experience is not my lived experience. Their lived experience informs my lived experience, and it may not shine the most desirable light on my lived experience, but I need to know as a person who’s a six-foot-tall white male, and I live with such great privilege that it’s insane, but that is my lived experience, and sometimes I can’t see it. And so, if theatre is holding a mirror up to nature then by watching Inner Elder I learn something about what it means to be Braden by watching and hearing the story of someone who is living with much, much, much, less privilege than I. And then hopefully, if I’m open to that…if my ears are open to that…and if the theatre companies are providing a platform for those stories to be told then I will become a more complete human, and a I will become a better community member, and by community, I mean the community of the world by understanding the stories of those who are around me and understanding something greater about myself.

JAMES

Well that’s what art does, doesn’t it? It makes us look in the mirror. It reflects who we are as a people, culture and society and it looks at both the good and the bad.

BRADEN GRIFFITHS

Hopefully. I was doing, Alls Well That Ends Well, with Peter Hinton at The Shakespeare Company two years ago, and this isn’t a name drop, I just want to give credit where credit is due. He said, at some point in that rehearsal process, “There’s not a lot of plays out there where two people sit on a bench both enjoying their own sandwiches, and then they go home. There’s a lot of plays out there where two people are sitting on a bench where one person has a sandwich and the other person is starving. There aren’t a lot of plays out there where we see mankind at peace. We’re always meeting these people in these stories at a time of crisis. At a life-defining moment.”

BRADEN GRIFFITHS

And I feel that’s a really apt quote because, speaking personally, I’ve always much preferred playing the very flawed individual, because we spend so much time in our lives hiding those flaws that we have from the rest of society because that’s the social agreement that we make. We all have our own shit and everybody’s life is complicated, but if you and I are not best friends we’re not going to throw our complications at the other person or that’s the hope of the social agreement we make every day.

And so, the flaws are where the real meat of storytelling and theatre happens. Sherlock Holmes, for example, who is a superhero in terms of his mental acuity is also a morphine addict and a cocaine addict. That I think is where theatre becomes accessible – it’s in the flaws. So, if theatre is holding a mirror up then we can see something of those things we are struggling with in these people on stage. Braden Griffiths as Sherlock Holmes is not dealing with the same things that Sherlock Holmes is, but I become a conduit to talk about those flaws, and I think that’s why theatre is valuable, because it provides a safe space for us to look at the worst and then to ruminate on the worst and know that at the end of the night we’re all going to get in our car and we’ll all safely drive home.

JAMES

What are your ambitions for the Bettys?

BRADEN GRIFFITHS

The board is always trying to safeguard the most unbiased process possible. That’s really what the guidelines are there for. So that we can award these 18 to 20 statues and it is representative of the twelve voices on the jury as opposed to one single voice. It’s a big thing to try and create a list of twelve that has a range of ages, that has a range of sexuality, and has a range of artistic niche. We try to have actors, directors, playwrights, educators, technicians and designers. We want that twelve ideally to be representative of the whole community so that it can be the most unbiased it possibly can be. That’s always going to be, for the board, at the top of the list.

BRADEN GRIFFITHS

There’s also a responsibility for the Bettys to be as inclusive as possible as production models change and as the equity guidelines change to include different types of theatre being created. There are different contracting forms now that weren’t available seven or eight years ago where theatre companies can gather an ensemble of seven and create a show and be protected by equity and be considered a professional show. And so, there is a responsibility for the Bettys to foster a growth in the community by being as inclusive as possible so that those smaller companies that are trying to make their name in the theatre community are included within the professional theatre community. The more inclusive we can be, I think, the greater array of theatre production we’re going to see in this town.

BRADEN GRIFFITHS

We’re also a night where everybody in the theatre community comes together to celebrate the work which we’ve done throughout the year. And to a certain degree that is sacred as well, because as we’ve seen unofficial community meeting places like the Auburn disappear building that sense of community has become more difficult in some ways, and so the Bettys are a night that’s guaranteed to happen every year where two hundred or so of our theatre community will come together. And whether they’re nominated for a Betty or not – whether they win a Betty or not – we are all there to celebrate the outstanding work that has been done throughout the theatre season, because it’s a hard thing to create theatre. It’s a hard thing to create art. They are a celebration that we have a community and that we are a group of four hundred to five hundred people who have come together and decided that this is our life’s work – hence the professional thing – this is our life’s work, this is what I chose to do for a life and the gift of my art is something that has value.

JAMES

That’s what the Bettys are doing for the artist but what about the Bettys in terms of their ability to be an ambassador to the city for our arts community.

BRADEN GRIFFITHS

Well, I don’t know that the community at large knows what the Bettys are. And I think the work of the Bettys in the future is, how can we as the awarding body in town support those producing companies in town over the course of the season as opposed to just on that one night? That’s a conversation that needs to happen between us and the producing companies.

JAMES

So, one of the challenges is how do we get new audiences in there. How do we foster that? How do we reach these people?

BRADEN GRIFFITHS

I think people are more liable to go see themselves, and so I think part of the reason we see a lot of white middle-class, upper-middle-class human beings in theatres is partially because it requires a certain amount of disposable income to go to theatre and partially because those are the stories that for a very – very long time were being told. And so, when we talk about Inner Elder I think it’s more likely that someone of first nations decent might go and see Inner Elder because they see something very specifically that is their story being told in a theatre. And once somebody has seen something in a theatre that has affected them profoundly it’s far more likely that they’re going to go to the next show that may not tell a story that specifically speaks to their lived existence, but like I said earlier, me seeing Inner Elder speaks to my existence whether it speaks to it specifically or not. I think we need to do a better job of telling a wider array of stories in the theatre and if we’re producing Shakespeare we need to start casting artists that come from different lived experiences. And I think the fact that we’re seeing Michelle Thrush direct Honor Beat by Tara Beagan as the first show of the season at Theatre Calgary means we’re moving in the right direction, but we need to continue to do the hard work of providing those opportunities so that we can create a theatre community that is representative of the greater community and the Bettys is a part of that, I think.

***

2018 Betty Mitchell Awards Nominees

Winners in Bold.

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY AN ENSEMBLE

• Glory – Alberta Theatre Projects, in association with Western Canada Theatre
• The Humans – Theatre Calgary
• inVISIBLE – Handsome Alice Theatre
• Touch Me: Songs for a (Dis)connected Age – Forte Musical Theatre Guild, presented by Theatre Calgary
• Undercover – Vertigo Theatre & Tarragon Theatre

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

• Kathryn Kerbes – Sherlock Holmes & the American Problem – Vertigo Theatre
• Helen Knight – The Last Wife – Alberta Theatre Projects
• Chantelle Han – Ai Yah! Sweet & Sour Secrets – Lunchbox Theatre
• Esther Purves- Smith – Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery – Stage West

OUTSTANDING LIGHTING DESIGN (Tie)

• T. Erin Gruber – Easter Island – Verb Theatre
• Jessie Paynter – Extremophiles – Downstage
• Anton de Groot – Nine Dragons – Vertigo Theatre, Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre & Gateway Theatre
• Narda McCarroll – To the Light – Alberta Theatre Projects
• Bonnie Beecher – The Secret Garden – Theatre Calgary

OUTSTANDING SET DESIGN

• The Old Trout Puppet Workshop – Twelfth Night – Theatre Calgary
• David Fraser – Sherlock Holmes & the American Problem – Vertigo Theatre
• Scott Reid – Nine Dragons – Vertigo Theatre, Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre & Gateway Theatre
• David Fraser – Constellations – Alberta Theatre Projects
• Caitlind r.c. Brown and Wayne Garrett – Extremophiles – Downstage

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

• Trevor Rueger – Much Ado About Nothing – The Shakespeare Company with Hit & Myth Productions
• Mark Bellamy – Legislating Love: The Everett Klippert Story – Sage Theatre
• Stafford Perry – The Lonely Diner – Vertigo Theatre
• Kevin Rothery – Sherlock Holmes & The American Problem – Vertigo Theatre
• Nathan Schmidt – Sherlock Holmes & The American Problem – Vertigo Theatre

OUTSTANDING PROJECTION OR VIDEO DESIGN

• Jamie Nesbitt – Nine Dragons – Vertigo Theatre, Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre & Gateway Theatre
• Remy Siu – Empire of the Son – Alberta Theatre Projects, part of the 32nd Annual High Performance Rodeo, a Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre Production
• T. Erin Gruber – Easter Island – Verb Theatre
• Corwin Ferguson – Julius Caesar – The Shakespeare Company, Ground Zero Theatre, and Hit & Myth Productions
• Amelia Scott – To the Light – Alberta Theatre Projects

OUTSTANDING COSTUME DESIGN

• The Old Trout Puppet Workshop – Twelfth Night – Theatre Calgary
• Heather Moore – The Last Wife – Alberta Theatre Projects
• Cory Sincennes – The Secret Garden – Theatre Calgary
• Cindy Wiebe – Glory – Alberta Theatre Projects, in association with Western Canada Theatre
• Mérédith Caron – Sisters: The Belles Soeurs Musical – A Copa de Oro Production Ltd. And Segal Centre for Performing Arts production, presented by Theatre Calgary

OUTSTANDING SOUND DESIGN OR COMPOSITION

• Steve Charles – Glory – Alberta Theatre Projects, in association with Western Canada Theatre
• Peter Moller – The 39 Steps – Vertigo Theatre
• Andrew Blizzard – Nine Dragons – Vertigo Theatre, Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre & Gateway Theatre
• Andrew Blizzard – Sherlock Holmes & The American Problem – Vertigo Theatre
• Bryce Kulak – To The Light – Alberta Theatre Projects

OUTSTANDING CHOREOGRAPHY OR FIGHT DIRECTION

• Tracey Power – Glory – Alberta Theatre Projects, in association with Western Canada Theatre
• Phil Nero – Legally Blonde: The Musical – Stage West
• John Knight – Julius Caesar – The Shakespeare Company, Ground Zero Theatre, and Hit & Myth Productions
• Laryssa Yanchuk – Sherlock Holmes & the American Problem – Vertigo Theatre
• Linda Garneau – Sisters: The Belles Soeurs Musical – A Copa de Oro Production Ltd. And Segal Centre for Performing Arts production, presented by Theatre Calgary

OUTSTANDING MUSICAL DIRECTION

• David Terriault – Sisters: The Belles Soeurs Musical – A Copa de Oro Production Ltd. And Segal Centre for Performing Arts production, presented by Theatre Calgary
• Jacques Lacombe – Tosca – Calgary Opera
• Konrad Pluta – Legally Blonde: The Musical – Stage West
• Joe Slabe – Touch Me: songs for a (Dis)Connected Age – Forte Musical Theatre Guild, presented by Theatre Calgary
• Don Horsburgh – The Secret Garden – Theatre Calgary

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A COMEDY OR MUSICAL

• Jamie Konchak – Miss Caledonia – Lunchbox Theatre
• Myla Southward – Much Ado About Nothing – The Shakespeare Company with Hit & Myth Productions
• Anna Cummer – Twelfth Night – Theatre Calgary
• Anna Cummer – The 39 Steps – Vertigo Theatre
• Bracken Burns – Legally Blonde: The Musical – Stage West

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A COMEDY OR MUSICAL

• Tyrell Crews – The 39 Steps – Vertigo Theatre
• Tyrell Crews – Much Ado About Nothing – The Shakespeare Company with Hit & Myth Productions
• Devon Dubnyk – The Santaland Diaries – Lunchbox Theatre
• Christopher Hunt – Twelfth Night – Theatre Calgary
• Eric Wigston – The Secret Garden – Theatre Calgary

OUTSTANDING NEW PLAY

• Glory – Tracey Power
• Nine Dragons – Jovanni Sy
• Flight Risk – Meg Braem
• Inner Elder – Michelle Thrush
• Legislating Love: The Everett Klippert Story – Natalie Meisner

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A DRAMA

• Michelle Thrush – Inner Elder – Lunchbox Theatre
• Myla Southward – The Last Wife – Alberta Theatre Projects
• Camille Pavlenko – Blackbird – Verb Theatre
• Makambe K. Simamba – A Chitenge Story – Handsome Alice Theatre
• Jamie Konchak – Constellations – Alberta Theatre Projects

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A DRAMA

• Christopher Hunt – Flight Risk – Lunchbox Theatre
• Stephen Hair – Blow Wind High Water – Theatre Calgary
• Curt McKinstry – Blackbird – Verb Theatre
• Braden Griffiths – Julius Caesar – The Shakespeare Company, Ground Zero Theatre, and Hit & Myth Productions
• Michael Tan – Constellations – Alberta Theatre Projects

OUTSTANDING DIRECTION

• Jillian Keiley – Twelfth Night – Theatre Calgary
• Ron Jenkins – The 39 Steps – Vertigo Theatre
• James MacDonald – Glory – Alberta Theatre Projects, in association with Western Canada Theatre
• Glynis Leyshon – The Last Wife – Alberta Theatre Projects
• Vanessa Porteous – The Humans –Theatre Calgary

OUTSTANDING PRODUCTION OF A MUSICAL

• Sisters: The Belles Soeurs Musical – A Copa de Oro Production Ltd. And Segal Centre for Performing Arts production, presented by Theatre Calgary
• Legally Blonde: The Musical – Stage West
• Touch Me: Songs for a (Dis)connected Age – Forte Musical Theatre Guild, presented by Theatre Calgary
• Tosca – Calgary Opera
• Murder for Two – Stage West

OUTSTANDING PRODUCTION OF A PLAY

• Glory – Alberta Theatre Projects, in association with Western Canada Theatre
• Inner Elder – Lunchbox Theatre and One Yellow Rabbit
• Twelfth Night – Theatre Calgary
• The 39 Steps – Vertigo Theatre
• Blackbird – Verb Theatre

***

• Alberta Theatre Projects:  Contemporary, clever & cutting edge live theatre in the heart of Calgary.
• Birnton Theatricals: Producing theatre that will entertain and show the world from a different view.
• Calgary Opera: Our BOLD new 2018-19 season starts with Roméo & Juliette, followed by the Canadian premiere of Everest, and ends with Rigoletto.
• Downstage:  Canadian theatre that creates meaningful conversation around social issues.
• Forte Musical Theatre Guild: A Canadian not-for-profit company dedicated to the professional development and production of new musical theatre works.
• Green Fools Theatre: Not-for-profit Theatre specializing in masks, puppets, stilts.
• Handsome Alice Theatre Company: Devoted to unleashing the female voice through the development, creation, and production of inclusive, curious, and rebellious theatre works.
• Lunchbox Theatre: One of the most successful noon hour theatre companies in the world.
• One Yellow Rabbit: Performance artifacts for the seriously curious.
• Quest Theatre:  An Award-winning Theatre for Young Audiences company based in Calgary.
• Sage Theatre:  Creates bold, intimate, thoughtful plays exploring the human condition. We showcase talented Albertan artists.
• The Shakespeare Company: Calgary’s lean and mean classical theatre company
• Stage West Theatre Restaurants: We bring you the greatest entertainers from the stage, the screen and the music world along with our 120-item gourmet buffet! Play With Your Dinner!
• Theatre Calgary: Our 2018-19 season includes Honour Beat, Mary and Max – A New Musical, A Christmas Carol, BOOM X, The Scarlet Letter and Billy Elliot The Musical
• Verb Theatre: Tomorrow’s theatre, today.
• Vertigo Theatre: The only professional theatre in Canada producing a series of plays based on the mystery genre.

***

BETTY MITCHELL:  After working for ten years in Calgary schools, the University of Alberta graduate moved to Western Canada High School in 1934. Drama was introduced into the curriculum in 1936 and the former biology teacher found herself Director of the Drama Department. Betty had discovered the great love of her life.

She received the Rockefeller Fellowship in 1942, an M.A. from the State University of Iowa in 1944, followed by a National Research Fellowship from the Cleveland Playhouse. That same year, Betty and her students founded their infamous Workshop 14 which would go on to win nine Dominion Drama Awards and become a training ground for future theatre professionals.

Throughout the fifties and sixties, Betty was a force behind MAC 14 (after a merger of Workshop 14 and the Musicians’ and Actors’ Club), which eventually became Theatre Calgary. As producer, director, and teacher, Betty helped to build a vibrant stage community in Calgary and became sought after as an adjudicator and speaker across Canada.

As achievements mounted, so too did awards, including a City of Calgary citation for her contribution to culture and art. She received an Honourary Doctor of Laws Degree from the University of Alberta in 1958 for her achievements in amateur theatre, the only such doctorate awarded in Canada. Anyone for whom theatre is a passion owes a huge debt of gratitude to Calgary’s first lady of theatre.

BRADEN GRIFFITHS: Braden Griffiths has been an actor and playwright in Calgary for 14 years. He has performed in over 60 professional productions predominantly in Calgary but also, on various stages in Western Canada and occasionally, when he’s very fortunate, in Asia and Australia. His play My Family and Other Endangered Species, written with Ellen Close, was published by Playwright’s Canada Press. He has multiple Betty Mitchell Award Nominations for both acting and playwriting, taking home the Betty in 2015 for his performance in The Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst. This is his 11th year on the Betty Mitchell Awards Board.

THE BETTY MITCHELL AWARDS: The Betty’s were founded by Grant Linneberg, Mark Bellamy, Donna Belleville, Johanne Deleeuw and Dianne Goodman. Named after one of the great arts educators and a pivotal member of the community of artists that founded Theatre Calgary (just over 50 years ago) the Betty Mitchell Awards were started in order to celebrate the excellence of Calgary’s theatre community 21 years ago. Many aspects of the Betty Mitchell Awards have remained constant over the years: the Board (formerly called the Steering Committee) has always been peopled by volunteers from within the community; the Nominating Committee has always been comprised of a group of twelve individuals and that jury changes every year; the guidelines have remained remarkably intact from the first year of the Betty’s (the semantics have evolved but, their spirit remains the same) and (until this year) the Awards have always been disseminated in August. However, as the Calgary Theatre Community continues to change and grow so too have the Betty’s: multiple Awards have been added over the years (most recently Outstanding Projection Design and Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble); the Awards venue has recently moved away from it perennial home at Stage West and they are now presented in the Vertigo Playhouse; since the closing of the Auburn, the after party has officially become a part of the Betty’s Board planning and arrangements for the night. As much as the Bettys (the statues themselves) are a professional theatre Award, the Bettys (the evening of the awards) have become the one night a year where the community comes together to celebrate all that we have been, all that we are and all that we hope to become.

***

This interview with Braden Griffiths has been edited and condensed for clarity.

This article has been updated to include the winners in each category. The opening has been rewritten slightly to reflect that the awards happened. The initial article was written before the awards and linked to tickets for the event.