Kudos
~ Winner - Elizabeth Sterling Haynes Award
Outstanding Performance in a Leading Role - Comedy
Happy Birthday Baby J (Shadow Theatre)
~ Nomination - Elizabeth Sterling Haynes Award
Outstanding Performance in a Leading Role - Play
The Mountaintop (Citadel Theatre)
"Compelling and unforgettable"
"... Patricia Cerra, delivers a masterful performance. She is a hoot as the brash, yellow-clad housekeeper, Camae, with whom Dr. King banters and discusses everything from the civil rights movement to theology. However, as the stormy spring night wears on, Dr. King- and the audience- gradually learns there is much more to Camae than meets the eye.​"
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- Sarah Dussome, Broadway World
Photo by Nanc Price
~ Shows that received a nomination for Outstanding Production of a Play
The Silver Arrow (Citadel Theatre)
Shakespeare In Love (Citadel Theatre)
Gordon (Theatre Network)
~ Recipient of Sandra Faye Guberman Memorial Scholarship
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~ Alberta Film and Television Awards
Breakout of the Masala Kid - Best Dramatic Production Under 60 (winner)
"Review: Visceral intimacy of The Mountaintop's actors engages the heart - Shadow Theatre
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Of the many attractions of the stage, intimacy is perhaps the most profound. Being close enough to the actors to see them sweat, or to notice the big toe that has popped through the sock makes the experience visceral. Such proximity, in the right hands, engages the heart; our minds whirl as we strive to understand the mystery in front of us. That’s how it feels to be in the room with Patricia Cerra and Ray Strachan as the two performers bring The Mountaintop alive at the Varscona.
The Shadow Theatre production benefits from the fact Strachan and Cerra have played these roles together before;[…]. Practice makes perfect and from the opening moments of the one-act, the audience feels the tight connection between the two characters and performers.
Cerra is spellbinding, her expressive face saying more than words as she alternately flirts with and bullies King, who is surprised and impressed by the intellectual heft of his sparring partner.
Strachan and Cerra create a compelling space for the creation of a story that helps elucidate one of the most important figures of the 20 th century. The Mountaintop is a first-rate production. Kudos to Shadow Theatre for pushing forward with the show under difficult pandemic conditions."
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- Lianne Faulder, Edmonton Journal
Photos by Marc Chalifoux
"Camae (Patricia Cerra) is sassy and flirtatious, mysteriously feisty, knowing, and skeptical as she engages with the great man on subjects like protests, heroism, America’s defaults in living up to its professed sense of self.
The performances in Darbasie’s production are compelling and vivid.
There’s an escalating strangeness about Camae. Cerra shines brightly as a mystery character with an unexpected confidence about her, an enigmatically intense stare, pauses that have their own incantatory quality too. I can’t tell you more about Camae without spoiling your own discovery, but Cerra is terrific. "
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- Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca
THE FIANCÉE by Holly Lewis
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July 2022:
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Patricia was listed in Liz Nicholl's highlights, part two of our re-visit to the theatre season in the 12thnight.ca round up of "a selection of performances that linger in the mind" in the 22/23 season for her work in The Fiancée.
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REVIEWS:
“It’s Rose, the thorny one, who takes charge of chaos control. And in a terrific comic performance from Cerra, we see her backed into ever-tighter corners, having to improvise ever more acrobatically on revelations from a sister who congenitally tells people what they want to hear. Rose is the smartest person in the room, the problem-solver, always thinking, always on the edge of exasperation, always having to act against her better judgment and watching herself, appalled. And Cerra captures it all to a T.”
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- Liz Nicholls, 12thnight
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"It’s fun to see what happens when women are instigators and fine-tuners of the impending chaos that is the astute farce insight into our world. Daryl Cloran’s production sparkled with comic performances from a cast of six, led by Patricia Cerra and Helen Belay as the sisters, and Lora Brovold as their formidable landlady."
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- Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca
“Her wobbly nature is a source of constant frustration to sister Rose (the comically rubber-faced Patricia Cerra). Rose is a modern woman who was working at a factory until she was laid off to make way for returning soldiers. Spunky and sassy, Rose strives to reign in the chaos and to show Lucy a better way.”
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- Lianne Faulder, Edmonton Journal
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“Tangled up in this fiasco is Rose (Patricia Cerra), who only learns of her sister's engagements upon seeing the soldiers' telegrams. Though the most level-headed of the two, Rose finds herself swept up in Lucy's antics, even going so far as to wrench the towel rack from the bathroom wall, demand that a suitor fix it, and lock him away from sight. Together, Belay and Cerra share such believable sisterly chemistry that it's hard to believe they are not related in real life.”
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- Broadway World
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY J by Nick Green
“Patricia Cerra’s Megan provides a needed semblance of normalcy and pertinent observation – but even [Megan] has issues. Happy Birthday Baby J unpacks a wealth of emotions and is both absorbing and compelling.”
- Colin MacClean, Gigcity
“Cerra delivers an understated but impactful performance, getting quietly drunk and making occasional derisive comments until the climax of the show, when she steals the spotlight from Louise and Patrick for a few moments to deliver the play’s major twist.”
- Mel Priestly, melpriestly.ca
THE MOUNTAINTOP by Katori Hall - Rosebud Theatre
“Patricia Cerra of Edmonton plays Camae, the maid. These two give exceptional performances, perhaps the most emotionally powerful performances I’ve seen in theatre.”
“I had the sense we in the audience were being hit by an emotional tsunami. Someone near me wept for the last half hour. The Mountaintop wasn’t easy for me to see, but days later, I’m still processing its impact. Even more remarkably, that emotional impact seemed just as great for the actors.”
- Strathmore Times
“From the very moment Ray Strachan (Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.) and Patricia Cerra (Camae) walked on to the Rosebud Theatre stage and spoke their first lines, I knew I was going to enjoy the show.”
“Cerra and Strachan have great chemistry on stage and their performance is flawless. Cerra is an amazing actor … I was somewhat transfixed by Cerra’s demeanour throughout."
“This has to be my favourite show put on by Rosebud Theatre and one I would easily sit through again.”
- Kulture Shake
“Cerra also has a powerful, wrenching speech about her own life and death. All the artifice Camae created for herself disappears and we see the confused, frightened, battered young woman she really was.”
“Cerra’s Camae is a bundle of barely contained energy and she has a smile that lights up the stage.”
- Louis B. Hobson, The Calgary Herald
“The play is an 80 minute existential journey driven by two amazing and award winning leads”.
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“Patricia was electric, especially during her “preach/rap” moment.”
- The Chestermere Anchor City News
TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA
by William Shakespeare
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“Of the women of the play, Cerra’s Silvia is a spitfire, a portrait of exasperation at unwanted male advances. And she rejects Proteus’s increasingly gross advances with stinging rebukes at his faithless treachery.”
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- Liz Nicholls, 12th night
MISS TEEN by Michele Riml
“Patricia Cerra as Dusty is excellent”
- Liane Faulder, Edmonton journal
“Cerra, a skilled comic actor, steps up and attacks with gusto on pink stilettos (costume designer: Leona Brausen) and the kind of carnivorous smile that should terrify the rabbity.
- Liz Nicholls, 12th night
THE SILVER ARROW: THE UNTOLD STORY OF ROBIN HOOD by Mieko Ouchi
“Patricia Cerra (as Scarlet) is as fiery as the last time I saw her on stage in Theatre Network’s Gordon"
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- Jenna Marynowski, After the House Lights
I HEARD ABOUT YOUR MURDER
by Stewart Lemoine
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“… Cerra as a cool, noncommittal professional dislodged from her usual calm into improvising lies she herself finds outlandish, turn in sharp intriguing performances.”
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- Liz Nicholls, 12th night
SOLICITING TEMPTATION by Erin Shields
“That’s where this Sage Theatre production excels. It’s riveting watching Cerra and Overall take and give over control.”
“Kudos to both Cerra and Overall for the way they handle the play’s final twist. They make it so real you could feel the opening night audience getting a bit on edge wondering just how much we were going to witness.”
- Louis B. Hobson, Calgary Herald
“When she finally speaks, amazingly it’s perfect English, delivered fiercely by Patricia Cerra.”
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“Cerra, a resourceful young actor, has the challenge of sustaining the sardonic attack mode, while hinting of secret sorrows beneath.”
- Liz Nicholls, 12th night
“The intermissionless, 90-minute two-hander benefits from Jason Mehmel’s well-paced direction and two fine performances from Patricia Cerra and Mattie Overall.”
- Colin MacLean, GigCity
GORDON by Morris Panych
“As Deirdre, Patricia Cerra transforms into a girl barely out of high school whose anxiety and consideration of the tough choices in front of her – not just whether to have the baby, but about who she is going to become – is revealed behind her tough girl facade.”
- Jenna Marynowski, After the House Lights
“Cerra as the much-abused Deirdre manages a blend of the surly, the fierce, and the innocent with a gravitas that’s perfectly judged.”
- Liz Nicholls, Edmonton journal
“Cerra ably gives us a Deirdre as a sad, lost soul.”
- Colin MacLean, Gigcity