Harold Awards this Monday: May 25th
If the belligerent relative that showed up late to your cousin Dora’s wedding to shout out horrible truths to the dismay of the assembled guests was an awards show, it would probably be the Harolds. It’s sort of like the Doras in the way that the Moon is sort of like a football. It’s happening on Monday. 14 Harolds are awarded – the recipient of last year’s award choosing who to pass it on to next, and the real trick is you have to trick them into going without knowing they’re getting Harolded. It works to varying degrees. Visiting, dancing and heckling is strongly encouraged, and although Harold didn’t drink, you probably will.
I was at my first Harolds last night and it was fairly awesome. This community of theatre artists in Toronto never fails to impress me with its willingness to support and recognize one another. We also are very good at drinking alcohol and filling a space to capacity.
In particular, I think it is amazing that there is a way to publicly appreciate those people who will never qualify for a Dora, but are the cornerstone of our whole community.
Congrats to the organizers and the winners. (Who are now next year’s organizers.)
Here's the 2009 Haroldees:
Paula Forst
Chris Owens & David Gale
Paul Haferty
Justin Roddy
Jenny Ginder
Zoja Smutny
Diane Leah
Lindsay Anne Black
Glenn Davidson
Wayne Fairhead & Sue Daniel
Mike Ross
Ann & David Powell
Geoffrey Pounsett & Christopher Stanton
Bonnie Green
Ken McDougall Award for directing:
Evalyn Parry
Sadly, I didn’t get to drink (damn little sleep) but it was the first time I had gone in a while and I’m glad I did. It was a good time – even if David’s drinking game got tiresome REAL fast.
Michael, thanks for the update! Any chance you know what the folks won for? I’d like to include it with the list, which I plan to hijack from here and put on Mooney on Theatre. *grin*
Hey Megan,
They don’t particularly “win” for anything other than being awesome. Each award is passed on by the previous year’s winner and they give a little speech about why they’re giving it to this person, while trying not to reveal who the person is till the end of the speech. All in all, highly entertaining rhetoric!
There’s also a Facebook page for the Harolds, which explains in full detail.
Thanks for posting this Michael. I have included a link to your blog on the facebook site.
Cheers
No worries Rick. I should disclose that your fellow committee member Brendan Gall sent me the text for this post and then later the names of the winners.
You can tell because the writing is better than usual and it has a higher percentage of funny similes and metaphors. So in general you committee is doing a very good job.