Rosebud graduates recognized

Laureen F. Guenther
Times Contributor

 

Rosebud School of the Arts graduates won numerous 2016 Critter Awards at the annual awards night, June 6. Eleven nominations had been directed to the school’s graduates and to productions they’d been involved in.
Heather Pattengale, a 2011 graduate of Rosebud School of the Arts (RSA), won Best Actress in a Play for her role in Rosebud Theatre’s Outside Mullingar.
Karl H. Sine, a 2004 graduate, won Best Supporting Actor for his role in The Boy’s Own Jedi Handbook, produced by Ground Zero Theatre and Hit and Myth Productions. Sine also played the lead in Theatre Calgary’s The Crucible, which won Best Production of a Play. Graduates Jesse Lynn Anderson (2013), Justin Born (2010) and Lennette Randall (2012) were also in The Crucible’s cast and crew.
Amy Burks (2013) won Best Supporting Actress in a Play for her role in Romeo and Juliet produced by The Shakespeare Company and Hit and Myth Productions.
“Big congrats to all the nominees and especially to the RSA grads who won in their categories — Karl, Amy and Heather. I was so proud of them!” wrote Paul F. Muir, RSA’s Education Director, in an e-mail. “The whole evening was really honoring to Rosebud and all the work we do here.”
Muir observed that graduates Cassia Schramm and Laura Gillespie, who’d been nominated as Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress in a Musical for their roles in Rosebud Theatre’s Wizard of Oz, lost to “musical theatre icons” Susan Gilmour and Louise Pitre.
“If you’re going to lose, you may as well lose to icons!” he said.
“I was in a state of complete disbelief,” Pattengale wrote about the moment she was announced as winner. “I thought to myself, ‘Wait. That was my name. Heather Pattengale is my name.’… The people around me were clapping and looking at me and it sunk in. I was absolutely delighted!”
Sine and Burks had similar feelings.
“When the announcer said my name, I was super surprised,” Sine said in an e-mail. “To be acknowledged for your work and by your community always means a great deal.”
“I was overwhelmed, relieved and stunned. A wonderful mix!” Burks e-mailed. “Afterward I was filled with such a sense of gratitude to be honoured, when truly it was a host of amazing artists who made that performance happen.”
The awards night was a time of celebration and thanksgiving for everyone in the theatre community, they said.
“What struck me was the deep sense of community in that room, and the camaraderie,” Burks wrote. “The room was very lighthearted, supportive, and full of celebration and it made me proud to be a part of it.”
“It was great to get to cheer for all my fellow Rosebud Theatre nominees and to celebrate when fellow RSA grads and friends won awards,” wrote Pattengale. “Once the ceremony was finished we all got to mingle and catch up with one another. A celebration of course, but also a moment to stop and look around and give thanks for the work we get to do and the wonderful people we get to work with.”
“It’s great to see the critics honour the work that’s going on in our community,” Sine wrote. “Equally, I think it’s really important to acknowledge the work of the critics, because they are the ones that often generate buzz and excitement about our shows and then in turn get people out to see them.
“I can’t really say I know what kind of impact an award like this has. It would be my hope that events like this bring a greater awareness to the public about the theatre community and the talent that exists right here in their own city.”
“I hope that it will generate interest in the work that I do, and also in Rosebud Theatre. I hope that perhaps it will encourage directors I haven’t worked with before to take a chance in hiring me,” Pattengale said. “But … it doesn’t affect the nitty-gritty of acting work. Each new role is still a challenge, both exhilarating and terrifying.”
“My hope is that it will have a positive effect,” Burks wrote. “However, all I can control is my own work ethic. I will continue to strive to be the best I can be.”