MOON on a Rainbow Shawl , a production by the Edna Manley School of Drama, took the lion’s share of statuettes at the Actor Boy Awards held at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston on Monday.

The play won five of the evening’s 21 categories: Best Production (Pierre Lemaire), Best Director (Eugene Williams), Best Ensemble (Pierre Lemaire), Best Set Designer (Eugene Williams), and Best Drama (Pierre Lemaire).

Lemaire, dean at the institution, was upbeat about the wins.

“I feel good about it. It shows we’re doing what we’re supposed to do. We’re teaching students what professionalism is all about,” he told told the Jamaica Observer.

Moon on a Rainbow Shaw had 18 nominations going into the awards.

Lemaire said the school is gearing up for its next production which is set to open in two weeks.

“It’s called Ti-Jean And His Brothers by St Lucian playwright Derek Walcott and it’s directed by Eugene Williams,” he told the Observer.

Walcott was the Nobel Prize winner for Literature in 1992.

The evening’s other highlight was the Best Actor in Lead Role winner, Desmond Dennis.

“It’s a great feeling and somewhat of a relief,” he told the Jamaica Observer. “It feels surreal.”

The 26-year-old was lauded for his role in the play Heist. He played the multiple-personality character TIGS.

“I do my very best to ensure all my characters are a different experience… But in Heist it was challenging having to learn pseudo-Italian, French, Southern accents, an alien “sound”, and sound like a stereotypical FBI investigator. It was about seven different personalities and I had to assign a different physicality to all the personalities while ensuring the audience saw that TIGS was still at the core of it all,” he said.

Dennis, who works at the Jamaica Observer, was nominated in 2016 for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in Dahlia Harris’ Ol Fyah Stick and a double nomination last year in Dahlia Harris’ Same Difference and Michael Holgate’s Garvey: The Musical.

He dedicated his win to his late mother.

“I lost my mother in January…and it dawned on me that she would have loved to see me at my finest hour, as she always wanted all five of us to be the best at whatever we decided to do. She would have been proud…,” he said.

The occasion’s other winners were:

Best Special Effects — Heist — Designed by Maya Wilkinson and Nadia Roxburgh;

Best Sound Design — Heist — Michael Sean Harris, Maya Wilkinson and Renee Lynch;

Best Original Song — Jamaica Sweeter (reprise) — Song and lyrics by David Tulloch;

Best Original Score — Jamaica Sweeter — David Tulloch;

Best Costume Designer — Queen Esther — Greg Thames and Clayton Gidden;

Best Choreographer — Queen Esther — Paula Shaw;

Best Musical — Queen Esther — Father Ho Lung and Friends;

Best Children’s Theatre — Wiz — Jamaica Musical Theatre Company;

Best Comedy — Matey Chronicles — Jambiz International;

Best New Jamaican Play — Matey Chronicles — Jambiz International;

Best Revue — Telling Tales — University Players;

Best Actress in a Supporting Role — Nadean Rawlins — Telling Tales;

Best Actor in a Supporting Role — Glen Campbell — Right Girl, Wrong Address, and;

Best Actress in a Lead Role — Deon Silvera — Country Wedding.

Organised by the International Theatre Institute Jamaica Chapter, the Actor Boy Awards recognises excellence in local theatre.