Betty Mitchell Awards 2025: Calgary theatre’s biggest night goes ‘backstage’

The 26th Annual Betty Mitchell Awards are coming up quickly. The big night is Monday, June 23, and we’re starting to get a better idea of what it’s going to look like.

Party in the green room

Theatre is a team sport, and so much of the experience happens behind the curtain — the relationships formed between castmates and crew, the winks and gestures from the wings, the delicate hand-off and organization of everything from props to feelings.

Steven Conde, a Calgary-based director, performer, and founder of Flipside Theatre Collective, has been tapped to direct the show this year. And he’s setting it where the real action unfolds leading up to opening night: backstage.

“My initial concept for the Bettys is Bettys in the Green Room slash backstage,” Conde explains. “The Green Room being the sacred backstage space where theater artists let down their guard and bond over tech week coffee, share big wins, flops, heartbreaks, hilarity. The idea of the Bettys in the Green Room will embrace intimacy, authenticity, and community.”

The suggested dress code? Backstage chic.

“So backstage chic is a combination of what you would normally see actors wear behind the scenes, in rehearsal, in the green room, and things that they would wear to the Oscars, to the Tonys,” Conde says. “We’d love to play around with something really laid-back… a peek into the world of the actor offstage, and the glitz and glamour of the onstage experience.”

For instance: a wig, corset, Lulus, and your ugliest, comfiest Crocs.

And yes, there will be karaoke — on the stage of the Jubilee.

The indies are here—and they’re cleaning up

While the awards themselves are the headline, for many in Calgary’s theatre world, the Bettys are really about the reunion.

It’s the one night when the whole ecosystem —mainstage to indie— crams into the same room. Familiar faces from the city’s biggest companies brush shoulders with emerging artists, tech crews, and playwrights, all taking a breather to actually see each other.

Kathryn Smith, artistic producer at Verb Theatre, says this year feels particularly special for Calgary’s indie scene.

“The first thought I had when I went through the nominations was — this is an amazing year for indie theatre companies.”

Verb, known for pushing theatrical boundaries with “cutting-edge ideas in cutting-edge ways,” is nominated seven times this year. That’s a big deal for a small but mighty team.

“I think the Bettys are really important so we can celebrate together,” Smith says. “But also so we can honour those works that were like, ‘Wow, that show is particularly special.’ There’s nothing wrong in being like, ‘Yeah, that one actor was outstanding this year.’ And that doesn’t mean anybody else is not outstanding.”

Alongside Verb, indie-leaning companies like Handsome Alice Theatre and Downstage are also in the spotlight this season.

The full list of nominations is available here.

Fueling the future of new work

For Bronwyn Steinberg, artistic director at Lunchbox Theatre, the Bettys are more than a trophy night — they’re a signal boost for stories that deserve a bigger stage.

“The Betty Mitchell Awards are, they’re really special,” she says. “The Bettys are juried by a diverse group of people who are theatre industry professionals and are peers. So it’s not just about popularity, it’s very much people who really know what we do as artists and who get together and see a whole bunch of shows and they want to support us.”

Lunchbox received several nominations this year, including for two original works: Go for Gold, Audrey Pham and Twelve Days. For smaller companies producing new Canadian work, Steinberg says this kind of recognition matters.

“Hopefully it will get another production somewhere in the future,” she says of Twelve Days. “When Jo is pitching it to other companies, or they’re interested, they see that it was nominated for all these accolades. They know a little bit more that the community really appreciated this work.

“We have incredibly, incredibly talented artists here in Calgary,” she adds. “We have world-class theatre, even in very small spaces. And to get together every summer and just celebrate what we’ve done is really, it’s really important.”

The whole community gets the standing ovation

Stafford Arima, artistic director of Theatre Calgary, says the power of the Bettys is in how they spotlight the people who make the magic.

“Any affirmation of the importance of a theatre practitioner’s work is valid and thumbs up to me,” he says. “The light shining on the actual practitioners, the actual individuals who are making the magic, is a beautiful thing.”

Arima takes particular pride this year in the nominations for Awoowaakii, a homegrown piece by Blackfoot playwright Sable Sweetgrass. He says its journey from page to stage reflects exactly what the Bettys were built to celebrate.

“How do you take something and nurture it and fertilize it and water it and make it grow and blossom to a production that then is recognized by the Bettys? That, to me, is just… it’s a fabulous eye-opener to the potential of storytelling.”

And while only a few names appear on the final list, Arima says the recognition extends far beyond the envelopes.

“Everyone’s a winner because we’re actually all part of this great ecosystem of theatre in Calgary.”

The Betty Mitchell Awards are a rare night off for Calgary’s theatre-makers—a chance to sit back, soak it in, and just enjoy the show.

“It feels like a wedding or a graduation,” says Kathryn Smith. “You’re seeing all of your friends and colleagues gathered together.”

Want to join the party?

The 26th Annual Betty Mitchell Awards take place June 23 at the Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., with on-stage karaoke and festivities before the show begins.

Don’t forget to vote in the Behind the Curtain People’s Pick and enter for your chance to win two free tickets to the show.

Curious how the nominations process works and how the final envelopes get to the ceremony? More info here.