A Pitt Meadows thespian won his first award at the 2026 Fraser Valley Zone Festival for outstanding actor for his performance in Langley Little Theatre’s production of “Corker” by Canadian playwright Wendy Lill.
Dominic Renaud depicted the main character, Corker, a developmentally challenged young adult who was thrown into social services following the death of his mother, and a father too old to take care of him.
Corker befriends an idealistic woman named Serena MacPhee, who helps him. But when she commits suicide, her sister, a high-ranking civil servant, whose government policies have slashed the social services that would have benefited Corker, finds herself trying to look after him.
The play was directed by Marko Hohlbein.
Renaud said he was surprised to win for outstanding actor at the Zone Festival that took place on Saturday, May 23, at the Oceana PARC Playhouse in White Rock.
“I was surprised. I was the only person surprised because, apparently, everyone else I talked to acted like they knew I would get it.”
He didn’t find the role difficult to play, partly because he drew from experiences growing up with a cousin who is on the autism spectrum and non-verbal.
Renaud noted he is also on the autism spectrum.
“I’m slightly autistic myself and so I could take traits from my own experience, my own bad days, where it’s really showing up and amplify those (traits),” explained the 36-year-old actor.
Renaud started taking acting lessons in 2014 doing improv at Vancouver Theatre Sports League on Granville Island, now called the Improv Comedy Institute.
Then in 2016 he started voice acting lessons at a school in Vancouver, which also offered scene study courses. So, he decided he would take a scene study class.
That is when he fell in love with the stage, he said.
Then, when the COVID-19 pandemic closed doors across the Lower Mainland, he looked to community theatres, which were still active, and started auditioning.
This is his 12th play in the last three years.
Renaud is now preparing for his upcoming servant role in Emerald Pig Theatrical Society’s production of William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” for Bard on the Bandstand.
He is also in Theatre in the Country’s upcoming performance of Tony and Tina’s Wedding, taking place in August.
Theatre BC is the parent association for community theatre across the province since it was founded in 1932.
The Fraser Valley Zone is one of 10 geographic community theatre regions under Theatre BC.
For more information go to: https://theatrebc.org/.