The Sauk performers win awards.
Courtesy | The Sauk

The Sauk Theatre recently announced it won two 2022 BroadwayWorld Michigan Awards while placing as runner-up for 10 other awards.

“Trinity Bird received Best Direction of a Play for ‘Desert Song.’ Mike Sutton received Best Supporting Performing in a Play for his performance in ‘Anne of Green Gables,’” said a statement from the Sauk. 

Every community theater in Michigan is eligible to participate in the awards, though nominations are done by the public.

“The Sauk had quite a few nominations,” said Trinity Bird, executive director of the Sauk. “We had over 20 nominations and we won two of them and we were runners up in 10.” 

Any show from October 1, 2021, to the end of September 2022 had the opportunity to be nominated.

“There’s no actual award given, it’s just sort of a fun way for community theaters and the theater community to come together,” Bird said.

The Sauk was first nominated for the BroadwayWorld Michigan Awards in 2017 and won a record number of 21 awards in the 2021 competition. 

“A lot of that is because we continued to do programs through COVID-19,” Bird said. “I think some of our unique programming also helped propel us.”

Trinity has been involved with the Sauk for 25 years. He won the Best Direction of a Play award, which he said meant a lot to him because of the uniqueness of the play.

“It was a very special play for us. Every summer we do a program called Plays in Development, where we pick these usually three or four brand new plays that are still sort of in the process of being written,” Bird said.

The Sauk then brings playwrights of those plays to Jonesville and they spend a week doing a workshop in partnership with the Sauk.

“Desert Song” was one of those plays brought in in 2021,” Bird said. “The play was received so well and we liked it so much that we then did a production in September of 2022.”

Bird said as one of the few community theaters in the area that produce new plays, it is very exciting for the whole team to have that recognized.

“To be acknowledged for a brand new play is very exciting,” he said.

Mike Sutton also won an award for his performance as Matthew Cuthbert in ‘Anne of Green Gables,’ which was put on over a year ago by the Sauk.

“Everybody that had anything to do with that play should have gotten an award,” Sutton said. “Ron Boyle, the director of ‘Anne of Green Gables,’ was terrific and everything about it was really just a terrific production. These community directors do a lot. Boyle directed it, he built a set, he arranged for the costumes. Just overall did a wonderful job.”

Sutton first performed in a play at the Sauk in the 1970s, but then returned in the 1990s after a long hiatus. 

“I’ve been here for 25 years and to see him get love and win that award is really special,” Bird said of Sutton.

Both Sutton and Bird said they are thrilled for the Sauk to receive recognition from the community for its work.

“The vote is all from the public and we’re competing with the big theaters,” Bird said, “So just to be on the list is very exciting every year.”