Actor Boy Awards pays tribute to those we lost - Event goes online Saturday
Published:Sunday | May 17, 2020 | 8:45 AM
Choreographer and designer Barry Moncrieffe; actress Lois Kelly Miller; New York-based broadcaster Gil Bailey; and actor and teacher Carl Samuels will all be remembered with a special tribute at Saturday’s staging of the annual Actor Boy Awards. The event, which is scheduled to start at 8 p.m. sharp, will be streamed live on the entity’s Facebook page, and the tribute will take the form of a video montage.
An entire segment of the little over one-hour-long event will be dedicated to the stalwarts who all made their transition this year. Moncrieffe passed away in January after ailing for some time; Samuels was shot dead at school in January; Kelly Miller died at her Gordon Town home in April at 102 years old, and Bailey succumbed to complications from the coronavirus COVID-19, also in April.
“For our 25th anniversary, we paid tribute to our technical team and musical theatre. This year, we are honouring this special group. In addition to the video montage, we will be doing blurbs about our honourees, and this is important, especially since we will be utilising an online platform and, therefore, our audience should be much bigger and more diverse that when we stage the awards in a hotel ballroom,” producer of the event, Maurice Bryan, shared with The Gleaner.
Bryan admitted that he is excitedly anticipating the unfolding of the Actor Boy Awards on Saturday and is pulling out all the stops to ensure a great production, and also one which starts on time. “With the coronavirus changing the way we do things, everything is moving online. Even American Idol and The Voice are staging their shows this way. As well as streaming on Facebook, we will be using Zoom. There will be live performances and we want to give the winners an opportunity, if they so desire, to make their acceptance speeches. After all, it’s their shining moment and we don’t want to take it away from them,” Bryan said. He added that post-event, arrangements will be made to have the engraved trophies delivered to the winners.
A PROMISE
On April 11, Bryan announced the list of nominees for the 2019 theatre season, on Facebook, with the promise that “if Miss Rona decides to stick around, and we have to still entertain ourselves via social media, we won’t leave you out. We will bring you the awards live.”
Topping the nominations for 2019, with all of 15 nods, is Quilt’s Re’Ashored, while other multiple nominees include JamBiz’s Straight Jacket with 11; Father Ho Lung and Friends’ Isaiah with nine; Dahlia Harris’ Case of the Ex received eight; Edna Manley College School of Drama’s Shango-Tales of the Orishas received seven, and Ananda Alert is nominated in six categories.
Grabbing four nominations each are A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 56 East Avenue, Windscream Posse, and Common Sense, while Behind the Pulpit, Once a Man Twice a Wife, Seville and the Bone Tribunal, Force Ripe, and Annie have received three nominations.
Jesus Christ Superstar and Feminine Justice are up for two awards apiece, and in the singles category are Face the Truth, It Stops Here, A Child’s Cry and No Good Deed.
The host of this year’s show is Nadine Rollins, and live performances will come from Mario Evans, who will do a song in the segment dedicated to those who have passed; Michael Sean Harris, as well as two of the nominees in the Best Original Song category.