Nominees for the 2017 Henry Award from the Colorado Theater Guild were announced Tuesday. The local results are as follows:
Thunder River Theatre Company received its first ever Henry Award nomination Tuesday. And then it’s second and it’s third, in fact, the total number of times the company was nominated this year comes in at 11.
Resident designer and technical director Sean Jeffries became the first person ever to receive five stand-alone nominations in one year. He joined Thunder River Theatre Company a little over a year ago and is being recognized for his lighting, scenic and sound design chops.
Thunder River’s executive artistic director Corey Simpson assumed his role almost a year ago and was nominated specifically for three awards. He’s up for for his production and direction of last fall’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and for a supporting actor role in The Tempest.
“Corey Simpson and I just started laughing to the point of falling down in the hallway,” Jeffries said of when Simpson and he heard the news.
The company was designated “Best Regional Theatre Company,” in 2012 by the Colorado Theater Guild, which was the company’s first Henry Award win. But the judging process was different back then. The Colorado Theater Guild, which typically kept the Henry awards in the Denver metro area, has migrated into other regions of the state in recent years.
Supporting actors from the company’s recent production of The Tempest, Nathan Cox and Owen O’Farrell, were also nominated. And Thunder River is being recognized for its “Outstanding Season for a Theatre Company.”
Winners will be announced at the award ceremony in Parker, Colorado on July 17.
