South Surrey-raised Earl Marriott Secondary grad Emma Schellenberg, 20, is among nominees for this year’s Ovation! awards.
Created by the Applause! Musicals Society, the awards, honouring Lower Mainland musical-theatre performers and creators, are to be presented Sunday at the Vancouver Academy of Music.
Schellenberg, now in her third year in Capilano University’s musical-theatre program, is one of a group of four performers nominated for a special Ovation! Award for their work in URP’s production of Jesus Christ Superstar. She and fellow actors Kenneth Lai, Jennifer Lynch and Chantelle Ward played the four tormentors in the Andrew Lloyd Webber-Tim Rice rock opera, which played at North Vancouver’s Centennial Theatre last fall.
The show – which also received nominations for outstanding production (large theatre), direction (Richard Berg), set design (Berg and Robert Sondergaard), lighting design (Sondergaard), and female supporting performance (Jennifer Suratos) – cast many roles, outside of Jesus and Mary, as non-gender-specific.
It was a busy 2017 for Schellenberg.
She also appeared in Capilano’s Exit 22 production of Thoroughly Modern Millie in March and in The Drowsy Chaperone for Theatre Under The Stars during July and August.
Also up for an Ovation! is Surrey’s Carol Seitz, nominated for outstanding choreography for FVGSS’ A Day In Hollywood, A Night In The Ukraine, which played at Cloverdale’s Clova Theatre in May.