Gary Bugden Wins Merritt Award

Gary Bugden wins Theatre Nova Scotia Merritt Award for Volunteer of the Year!

The Nomination
The Award Ceremony

The Nomination

As Bedford Players celebrate their 25th Anniversary this season, we are pleased to have the opportunity to recognize Gary Bugden's over 25-year contribution to our group by nominating him for the Volunteer of the Year Award.

Gary has been actively involved with community theatre in Bedford for close to 30 years, beginning with the Basin Players (which merged with All Saints Bedford Players, which then evolved into Bedford Players). He was one of their founding members, helped with a variety of backstage roles and was even known, on occasion, to direct as well as to tread the boards.

With Bedford Players, his contribution has not only spanned 25 years, but has been particularly valuable this year as we plan our 25th Anniversary Gala, reprise a past-production, revamp our website, mentor a flood of new members - and sadly - prepare for Gary's eventual retirement from our group, which he has suggested may be at the end of this season.

Highlights of Gary’s many contributions to Bedford Players:

• He has single-handedly managed our light and sound equipment, including equipment purchase and maintenance, for over 18 years.
• He has single-handedly handled technical design and set-up for all our productions, for over 21 years.
• With the assistance of a small pool of technicians who come and go, Gary has also run the technical for all our productions for the past 21 years.
• He has served on our Executive Council for 10 years, including this year. His longevity with our theatre group adds a dimension of continuity to the council's discussions and ultimately to our decisions.
• He maintained the initial All Saints Bedford Players website for many years, and was involved when it was revamped a few months ago. Gary's input to the changes, both from a technical and historical standpoint have proved invaluable.
• In the past year, Gary has re-visited his material from previous technical workshops (which he had delivered) to present to a new group of Technical Support members who he is mentoring and training with his retirement in mind.
• This season, for our 25th Anniversary, we are mounting a reprisal production for which Gary provided the technical components 17 years ago. He is using the opportunity to take the original design and see what technology changes are available 17 years later. This has contributed to the excitement around our Anniversary celebrations.
• A highlight of our Anniversary Gala will be a running loop of photos from past productions and Gary will be actively involved -- not only in the technical presentation of this material, but in selecting and scanning photos, capturing photos from VCR tapes and DVDs, and providing historical context.

In summary, the Bedford Players theatre group feels very strongly that Gary Bugden has contributed significantly to our theatre in the past year; across technical (light, sound and website), within the Executive Council, and in conjunction with our 25th Anniversary celebrations. We are honoured to nominate him for recognition as Volunteer of the Year.

The Awards Gala

Bedford Players was delighted to hear that longtime member Gary Bugden was selected as this year's recipient of the Theatre Nova Scotia Merritt Award for Volunteer of the Year. The Merritt Awards (named after educator Robert Merritt) take place annually in March and coincide with World Theatre Day. Most of the awards recognize outstanding achievement in professional theatre in Nova Scotia in such areas as Acting, Directing, Playwriting, Design and Technical (see all 2008 Award Winners (PDF file)). However, the Volunteer of the Year Award is open those who volunteer for either professional or community theatre.

We are not only pleased that this Award was given to someone in Community Theatre, but to someone truly deserving from our very own group. Gary has been part of Bedford Players for 25 years, and his past and on-going contributions are truly worthy of such recognition. Most members know him as our light and sound guy, but may not know exactly what he has done for us and for how long. Take a look at our Nominator’s Statement to see the extent of his contributions.

The Award Gala was attended by Gary and his wife Cathy, and the Award was presented by our Vice-President Kathy O'Brien. Kathy's speech, which not only covered Gary's many contributions to Bedford Players but also waved the flag for Community Theatre and community theatre participants in Nova Scotia, received generous applause from the mainly professional theatre audience.

A number of Gary's friends from Bedford Players also attended the event including our President, Karen Waterfield, Secretary Dawn Patterson, Miles Leahy and Executive Council members Robin Saywood, Sandy MacDougall, Alleen Parsons and Jen Johnson.

The evening's entertainment by "the pro's" was top notch, so we were not only happy to be there for Gary, but had a great time too!

Congratulations Gary!