After a critically acclaimed run off-Broadway, a theatre production from Halifax is racking up award nominations.

2b Theatre's Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story was nominated for six Drama Desk Awards. The announcement was made Thursday.

The play, which was conceived by director Christian Barry and Ben Caplan, one of the stars, and written along with playwright Hannah Moscovitch, is nominated for outstanding musical, outstanding director of a musical (Barry) and outstanding music (Caplan and Barry).

It's also nominated for outstanding book of a musical (Moscovitch), outstanding set design for a musical (Louisa Adamson and Barry) and outstanding lighting design for a musical (Adamson and Barry).

Caplan admitted he hadn't heard of the awards before getting word of the nominations, but said during a telephone interview that after seeing some of the other shows nominated, he was "flabbergasted." Broadway, off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway productions compete against each other in the same categories.

'A bit of a shocker'

"The fact that we were being, you know, recognized in the company of such fabulous other work — and, you know, a lot of them are full-scale Broadway productions with budgets far larger and more impressive than our own — it was a bit of a shocker."

The play is about people fleeing violence in their own country to come to Canada.

Caplan said it's easy to believe that artists coming from a smaller place, such as Nova Scotia, can't have relevance with their work on a global stage, but he doesn't think that's true.

With strong reviews in the New York Times and the New Yorker under their belt, along with these award nominations and wins back home, Caplan said it's been amazing to watch how things have unfolded.

"It's nice to know that the work has been so well received."

The awards will be handed out June 3 in New York City.