Ryan Beil won a Jessie Richardson Award as best actor in Art Club Theatre/Persephone Theatre's production of Billy Bishop Goes to War. (Tim Matheson/Arts Club Theatre Company)

Headline Theatre's after homelessness, an interactive theatre project that involved homeless participants, won the award for the best small theatre production at the Jessie Richardson Awards in Vancouver Monday night.

The annual awards for the best in Vancouver theatre, known as the Jessies, also gave the unusual production a significant achievement award for its innovative approach.

The play was written based on a series of workshops about addiction, mental health and affordable housing, with its stories created in collaboration with social service agencies and survivors of homelessness. Many homeless people also participated in the production last November at Firehall Arts Theatre.

Playhouse Theatre's The Miracle Worker won the Jessie for best large theatre production and a second award for sound design.

Cameron MacDuffee and John Mann appear in Beyond Eden, which won three Jessies. (David Cooper/Vancouver Playhouse)

William Gibson's play based on the life of deaf-mute child Helen Keller also enjoyed a revival on Broadway last year.

The Vancouver production was directed by Meg Roe, who also took the Ray Michal Award for outstanding body of work by an emerging director.

Bruce Kellett won the significant achievement award for his outstanding musical direction of Les Misérables for Arts Club Theatre Company.

Beyond Eden, a mystical musical about the saving of the totem poles of Haida Gwaii created as part of the Cultural Olympiad, earned three Jessie Awards, for best lighting, set and costumes.

The performance awards in large theatre went to:

• Ryan Beil, Billy Bishop Goes to War.
• Elena Juatco, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.
• Scott Bellis, All's Well that Ends Well.
• Nicola Lipman, Black Comedy.

In small theatre, Palace of the End, Judith Thompson's harrowing meditation on the war in Iraq, won the awards for best direction and its female lead, Laara Sadiq, won best performance.

Blackbird Theatre's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf won two Jessies for performance — best supporting actor in small theatre for Craig Erickson and best supporting actress for Meg Roe.

The best lead actor award for small theatre went to Anthony F. Ingram in Frozen.

A Year with Frog & Toad by Carousel Theatre was named outstanding production for young people and won two additional awards. Gordon Roberts took a Jessie for best musical direction and its ensemble cast won best performance.

Canadian playwright John Murphy earned best playwright Jessie for his True Story and also took the Sydney Risk Prize for original script by an emerging playwright.