WRITER/director of the production Catherine Mulgrave, Dr Brian Heap, is feeling nothing but gratitude for the nine Actor Boy nominations the play recently received.

Brought to the stage by the University Players, the drama follows an enslaved African, Catherine Mulgrave, her travels and triumphs over the course of a lifetime.

The production garnered recognition for lighting design, set design, ensemble cast, new Jamaican script, choreography, actor in a supporting role (Jean-Paul Menou), actress in a supporting role (Nadean Rawlins), directing (Brian Heap), and for Best Production.

“It is always a privilege to be nominated particularly for a work like Catherine Mulgrave, which was not a commercial production… meaning it was not part of the popular form of theatre. It is especially welcomed to get recognised when the work is not mainstream. I also am grateful for the nominations when I reflect on the research and painstaking effort which was put in to bring this original work to life. It is one of the things I am striving for — opening up the space to so many of these great Jamaican stories which are not being told,” Heap told the Jamaica Observer yesterday.

The director is particularly pleased with the the nomination for Best Ensemble.

“I am always pleased for the actors when the work they do get recognised, and with Catherine Mulgrave, the actors were really part of the process of developing the story. But they truly worked as a group and were an ensemble in every sense of the word. Everyone played multiple roles except Catherine (played by Nadean Rawlins); they were really fantastic and I am happy they have been recognised in this manner.”

Heap is now in the early stages of preparing another script for the University Players. This time the subject is Mary Seacole, the Jamaican nurse likened to Britain’s Florence Nightingale.

“I really want to challenge the stereotypes of passive and subservient under the plantation system and humanise the African presence in this period. Right now we are doing the early research on Mary Seacole and hoping to start writing the script soon.”

Actor Boy Awards are scheduled for Sunday, March 27, at the Phoenix Theatre in New Kingston.