Kaylee Harwood was sitting in the Commodore Ballroom, shivering because her table at the 2010 Jessie Richardson Theatre Awards was strategically positioned underneath an air conditioning vent.

The 23-year-old actress was so distracted by the cold, that she was oblivious to the fact that her name had just been called.

“My whole table of friends and colleagues spun around to look at me, and one friend next to me exclaimed, ‘hey, she has your name’,” Harwood explained.

“Totally unexpectedly,” she’d been selected as the winner of the Sam Payne Award for Most Promising Newcomer and was being called up to the stage to accept her prize.

“Then I realized I was expected to make an impromptu speech. It was all very exciting, and I hardly remember what I said up there. I feel very honoured to receive this surprise award,” she told the Langley Advance.

“I had no idea that my name had even been put forward for the other award…,” Harwood added.

“Having my name read aloud on the same stage honouring the artists who are part of the reason I do this, humbled and utterly floored me,” she said. “It was an amazing evening capping off the absolute whirlwind of the last year and a half.”

Harwood, a graduate of the theatre program at Trinity Western University and Langley Fine Arts School (a student there for Grades 5 to 12), also scooped up a second Jessie award during the ceremonies in late June.

The second was given for her Ensemble Performance in the Vancouver Carousel Theatre’s production of A Year With Frog and Toad, which also won outstanding production in the theatre for young audiences category.

“This year was my second time at the awards, but first time nominated. My mentor and former professor at TWU, Angela Konrad, said it best when she remarked that the Jessies is a meaningful event for her because it’s all about theatre and how much it matters, which I think is what we theatre practitioners are already convinced of, but are trying to propagate,” Harwood said.

“And it’s not just that it matters because it’s our chosen profession, but because theatre is storytelling: a reflection of society, the current opinions and issues, and also entertainment and a respite from the busy world we all inhabit. Beyond that, the event is a celebration of all things theatre in this city, and what better way to celebrate than to push all the tables to the sides and dance the night away with fellow thespians!”

The Carousel production, which earned her that second award, is only one in a “whirlwind” of acting jobs she’s embarked on since finishing her last class at TWU in December 2008.

Harwood was first cast in the role of Cosette in Les Miserables at Vancouver’s largest professional company, The Arts Club Theatre. That was quickly followed by a school tour of a new Canadian play with Shameless Hussy Theatre, the role of Eliza in My Fair Lady at Western Canada Theatre in Kamloops, playing Johanna in Sweeney Todd at The Citadel in Edmonton, and then returning home to be part of A Year With Frog and Toad.

Harwood has been singing and dancing since she can remember. But theatre – honestly – never before played a big part of her life. During her younger years, much of her focus was on dance training. So when she started at TWU, she was uncertain where her interests might sit, apart from dance.

She signed up for voice lessons, and registered, but then dropped out of several of Konrad’s theatre classes, because they conflicted with her schedule.

“At the end of my first year there, I still hadn’t found my niche, and was encouraged by my mother (who has always believed in my dramatic tendencies) to go audition for a play outside of school. I was cast as the lead and jumped in with both feet. I then hopped around from show to show with different community theatre companies in the area, and found it hard to stay focused on school that second year. That was when I had a meeting with Angela at TWU and said this is what I want to do and study and how should I go about pursuing this goal.”

As Harwood immersed herself in the craft, she discovered her wider range of abilities and interests. She trained and work on shows in Vancouver and even took a gig in Chemanius before her last semester. All experiences that helped her realize her calling.

“I’m grateful that I had a history of performing before I went to university, but my years at TWU are when my acting training took off and I feel incredibly indebted to the theatre department there for the opportunities in every aspect of theatre-creation I was granted there.”

Her former instructor weighed in on Harwood’s awards and her talents.

“Kaylee Harwood is a superstar,” said Konrad.

“She’s got the whole package. She can sing, dance, act, and audition. And more importantly, she’s a lovely human being so people like working with her. We’ve had a great acting program at TWU for a several years and Kaylee is a proud result,” Konrad concluded.

So what lies ahead for this “superstar?”

Admittedly, the whirlwind is taking a bit of a hiatus right now. She’s actually hunting for what she calls a “real job” for the first time in a long time – a part-time gig that will last until her next acting contract begins.

“Coming off just over a year and a half of practically full-time acting work, I have been able to support myself solely with that (albeit, with careful planning and budgeting) and I’m very glad to do so, since that means not having to split my energy or focus while in a show,” she said.

“I’m also interviewing agents and taking film classes, hoping to learn more about that medium as well. I recognize that a career in acting requires a great deal of self-motivation and flexibility, and that even the hardest workers and most talented actors will have slow times. It’s no discouragement to me that my life isn’t always going to be contract to contract, because it leaves time for living and realizing who I am apart from my career, which is already so all-encompassing and time-consuming.”

She has a couple shows on the horizon. At Christmas, she returns to Carousel Theatre to perform Gertrude McFuzz in their production of Seussical: The Musical on Granville Island. Then next spring, she’s set to perform Clara Johnson in the Vancouver musical premiere of The Light in the Piazza.

“Apart from these two exciting shows, I will continue to audition and find work in Vancouver and beyond,” Harwood said.

“This career can be isolating and incredibly unpredictable at times, not to mention a huge amount of work that one can rarely ‘leave at the office’, so I am ever grateful to have people in my life who keep me passionate and grounded. I’m so happy to work hard at play and play hard at work, and every opportunity I’m granted or that I somehow make happen is such a wonderful new challenge and joy-filled experience,” she concluded.