Cluett, Bay Theatre win awards at drama fest

Fred Cluett has been participating in community theatre for more than 20 years, but this is the first time he's been honoured with an award.

He played Tom Duncan in Bay Theatre's production of Maggie's Getting Married at the recent 60th Provincial Drama Festival. When the winners were announced at the festival's closing ceremony, Mr. Cluett scored the Reg Harte Memorial Award for best supporting male performance.

"I was very excited, to say the least," he said. "I attribute my award, really, to the other cast onstage that were really supportive of me as a character, as an actor. We all really worked well together, so I think they had a hand in it as well."

Mr. Cluett has been a member of Stephenville's Bay Theatre for 11 years and was a member of Labrador West's Carol Players for ten years prior to that.

The local theatre troupe also won the award for Best Canadian Play, which was picked up by director Samantha Rotchford.

"The past few years, the plays that we've picked to suit our cast just so happened to be Canadian plays," said Mr. Cluett. "We've been doing a few Norm Foster plays [including Maggie's Getting Married], which seem to suit our membership."

He noted fellow cast member Germaine White was nominated in the Best Supporting Female Actor category, and Diane Morris was nominated for Best Costumes.

"Just to get a nomination is something too," he said. "We're a very small group, but we're still plugging along and hopefully we can build on our membership in the future."

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