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Award winner highlights

With a massive seven trophies, CLOC Musical Theatre’s The Scarlet Pimpernel truly cleaned up at the 2007 Music Theatre Guild of Victoria Awards Presentation. Taking out not only Production of the Year, but Lighting, Direction and Musical Direction, CLOC’s seamless production dominated the ceremony.

In typical Guild fashion, there were a number of tied categories, leaving The Scarlet Pimpernel sharing the accolades on three awards, most happily perhaps in the Wardrobe section where Designer John Azzopardi tied with himself for both Pimpernel and Whitehorse Musical Theatre’s Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.

Whitehorse’s Beauty was the next most congratulated production, picking up four bricks including, Male Performer in a Supporting Role for Scott Hili’s portrayal of LeFou, Technical Achievement and a further tie for Settings with Pimpernel.

Whitehorse picked up a further two awards via Bree Cahill’s performance in Crazy for You. Bree was crowned twice for the role of Polly by garnering both the Female Performer in a Leading Role and Dancer’s Awards.

PLOS Musical Productions nabbed two awards for their production of Cabaret – Choreography and Female Performer in a Supporting Role for Beryle Frees’ accomplished presentation of Fraulein Schneider.

Timothy McCallum’s show stopping Herod scene in Geelong Musical Comedy Company’s production of Jesus Christ Superstar earned him the Cameo Performance award and his bath the Design Award!

For the full list of winners of the main awards, click here.

The Report

Despite the rather stressful circumstances of the bar in the Robert Blackwood Hall at Monash University Clayton running out of glasses before the show had even started and many lucky punters lining up to receive their precious Theatre People after-party passes in the foyer, the 20^th Annual Awards Presentation started relatively close to it’s advertised kick-off time.

With a ‘fresh as if it was yesterday’ performance, the cast of PLOS Musical Productions’ Cabaret appropriately opened the ceremony with Wilkommen – showing off the choreography that would eventually win Craig Wiltshire that award and giving Michael Fletcher an opportunity to display why he was nominated for Male Performer in a Supporting Role.

After an introduction from Guild President David Dare containing just the right amount of anecdotes and observations that those who regularly attend the ceremony come to expect (e.g. did you know the judges evaluated 90 productions this past year?), we were off to start with the Musician’s Award.  This trophy was handed out to Victor Brincat who lent his skills to the orchestra of SHooSH! Productions’ ultimately Concert Performance Award winning The World Goes ‘Round.

The Life Membership Award was next and we were cruelly denied a speech from John Wallis, the Guild’s auditor. Never mind.

The seven judges then joined Chairman Graeme Cope on stage (after a speedy costume change for judge and Cabaret cast member Elizabeth Garnsworthy) to hand out their individual judge’s awards. Please forgive my patchy reporting of this portion of the ceremony, but as I neglected to bring along my Itty Bitty Book light I was unable to see what I was writing in my program and my notes are rough at best! The Judge’s awards are never published by the Guild in any real detail (i.e. – which judge awarded who and for what) so it’s down to my alcohol obliterated memory. Here’s what I can tell you with relative confidence (apologies now for any spelling errors). Scott Dunston was acknowledged for his design work on The University of Melbourne Musical Association’s production of Cabaret – which if he had anything to do with the logo design certainly looked like an interesting and unique interpretation. Gaynor Downie was next awarded for her work on Cardinia Performing Arts Company’s production of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, which I believe covered a multitude of roles including set design. Jane Nethercote was congratulated for her on-stage performance in Devanesen Productions’ The Wild Party – In Concert. Dot Parker gave out her award to Theatre People familiar face, Matt Jakowenko (otherwise known as Matty J) apparently for both his performance in Nova Music Theatre’s A Chorus Line, where he played Paul and Dandenong Theatre Company’s West Side Story where he was Riff. After a colourful preamble, Rob Constable awarded Nick Kong of ARC (Amateur Repertory Company) his prize, followed by Lizzie Garnsworthy’s self-confessed cheat of awarding all four Delltones from Williamstown Musical Theatre Company’s production of Shout! The Legend of the Wild One, her single award. The final Judge’s Award went to Christian Cavello, Michael in Geelong Lyric Theatre Society’s The Witches of Eastwick.

At this point in the proceedings we were all ready for a production number as welcome respite from that plethora of presentations. Unfortunately, there was still another one to be done. For this reason please forgive the fact that I have no recollection of Bernie Tichpon (?) receiving her Edith Harrhy Award, despite the fact I managed to write it down. I think his presentation was surrounded with more lengthy anecdotal speeches, so I was probably far too comatose to remember.

Late note: In fact, I had been lulled into such a state of complete numbness at this point that it even affected my memory! The infamous, running short wearing, Allan Paul also won an Edith Harrhy award for his services to the community, largely through his massive commitment to costumes and wardrobe at CLOC Musical Theatre, amongst others – congratulations Allan. And thanks to Simon Parris for making me aware of the omission.

Thankfully, next up was a number from the Junior Production of the Year winners Carey Musical Theatre Company’s 42^nd Street. These kids looked like they were having a ball (albeit nervously) performing in their first year of Guild membership I believe. By school standards these juniors were just great, but I have some pretty strong feelings regarding school theatre companies in the Guild, that I know are shared by others in our community – so I’m gonna use my soapbox to air them!

WARNING: RANT ABOUT TO OCCUR…

You couldn’t meet anyone more pleased than my good self to hear that the Guild plan to separate out the Junior Awards next year, using a separate judging panel, now that the number of productions requiring evaluation has gotten to astronomical levels. However, in my opinion having schools judged as part of the Guild is unfair to so many junior performers out there. It’s just a common standard nowadays that wealthy private schools pick up the awards. Of the eight Junior Production nominees this year, Holiday Actors was the only non-school company listed besides JOINING the CHORUS which is a worthy government funded initiative. The Junior Performer awards only saw a couple of other companies raise their struggling heads. Before the flood of Grammar Schools started entering the Guild around 2001 (ka-ching!), companies like Panorama Youth Theatre, GSODA Junior Players, Doorstep Productions, People’s Playhouse, Shepparton Kids in Theatre and Holiday Actors would dominate the judging. Kids who had shone in the children’s roles inherent in many otherwise ‘adult’ shows would pick up many of the acting nominations, which they never would if they had to be judged against the adults. In fact, on the way to the after-party I had a fascinating conversation with a past Junior Performer nominee who told me how exciting it was, as a child, to be nominated in an awards ceremony that was largely for adults. The afore mentioned junior companies are / were run by enthusiastic Parents and Friends who out of the goodness of their hearts donate their time to help the performers of tomorrow learn theatre craft, gain new skills that will serve them in many aspects of their lives and most importantly, have fun. Today, paid teachers and employed production teams put together the shows that win the awards and the true hard workers who do it all for love, and could use the acknowledgement, labour away unnoticed.

Get rid of the schools! There are more than enough award ceremonies for school students to be congratulated within – especially the private schools - without stealing the limelight, as it were, from the independent junior companies and performers who do it all outside school hours.

OK, THE RANT’S OVER, YOU CAN COME BACK

Phew! Alright then, Stephen Lopez won the Male Junior Performer award for his portrayal of Ali Hakim in JOINING the CHORUS’ Oklahoma! Allie Sutherland of Ballarat and Clarendon College won for her performance of Maria in West Side Story.

This was followed by an amazing performance of the Jellicle Ball by the cast of CLOC’s Cats, re-choreographed to stunning effect on the narrow Robert Blackwood Hall performance space. Unusually barefooted in their costumes, the cast clearly had to also cope with a slippery floor not designed for this kind of dance.

 

That performance got the blood going as we finally started to get to the interesting categories of the night. Design, Wardrobe and Lighting were handed out in quick succession before we got to see the cast of Octave Theatre’s Production of the Year nominated A New Brain perform the wonderful Heart and Music – even signed for the deaf, quite considerately! This number proved what a little seen gem was this production. Hopefully in 2007 Octave will produce an equally exciting show, but with more than a handful of performances this time.

The classic Sue Me from Windmill Theatre Co’s production of Guys and Dolls came next featuring a stunning performance from Amy Larsen in her role of Miss Adelaide for which she was nominated Female Performer in a Leading Role.

The Settings and Technical Achievement Awards flew by as Brenton Staples and Chris White shared the honours for sets on Pimpernel and Beauty respectively.

La Vie Boheme, the indulgently longest number in Rent came next, courtesy of Devanesen Productions. The indulgence was forgiven as we got to see some fantastic performances from the whole cast, including eventual Gladys Moncrieff Award winner Mayani Rawicki, playing Mimi to the hilt. Unfortunately, the issues that had been plaguing the sound quality all night really came to the fore in this number and we were left with the instrumental version of the song for large portions of the number.

 

Bree Cahill picked up the first of her awards next – the Dancer’s Award, before the Cameo Performance Award was handed over to Tim McCallum. Mayani picked up her Gladys Moncrieff, which was aptly renamed this year to “For First Performance in a Featured Role” after years of seeing performers finally get noticed by the Guild through a Gladys Moncrieff! The Concert Performance gong was handed over and we continued on to the second act of Rent with Geelong Musical Comedy Company’s rendition of Seasons of Love. Always a winner in my book, but I was pleased to note how spot on the notes their soloist was – gorgeous stuff.

The Male Performer in a Featured Role brick was handed over to Scott Hili for his scene stealing performance in Whitehorse’s Beauty and the Beast.

Then Beryle Frees graciously accepted her award for her heart-breaking portrayal of Fraulein Schneider in PLOS’ Cabaret. I’ve seen Cabaret quite a few times now and never before have I seen a more believable and moving performance of this role. Those who were in an audience for one of the performances of this show should think themselves lucky to have absorbed Beryle’s shattering rendition of What Would You Do? Beautiful.

Monash University Musical Company performed next with Your Fault and The Last Midnight from their production of Into the Woods, giving the audience members who missed the show an opportunity to see the truly unique costume designs, portrayals and use of dancers as ‘Woods’. Before this, I don’t believe I had ever seen Sondheim danced to in such a way. I’m pleased to say I think it worked. Certainly interesting and distinctive. 

Coffee in a Cardboard Cup was the number chosen to be highlighted from SHooSH Productions’ winning Concert, The World Goes ‘Round. Certainly, a fun number for this point in the night and it brought back fond memories from when I saw this show in its run. A fun challenge for the ‘movers’ in this cast of wonderful performers.

Male Performer in a Leading Role was shared by Jamie McGuane, for his portrayal of Darryl Van Horne in Geelong Lyric’s The Witches of Eastwick, and Shaun Kingma (in a competition with himself for his performance as The Beast in Whitehorse’s Beauty and the Beast) winning for the role of Citizen Chauvelin in CLOC’s Pimpernel. Both men gave lovely speeches, but especially touching was Shaun’s acknowledgement of his partner Brett in his acceptance.

Bree Cahill picked up her second award for the same role when she accepted the brick for Female Performer in a Leading Role. Her gracious acceptance speech was beautifully balanced and proved that speeches for performing awards were a welcome return this year.

Shout out (pun intended) to Theatre People’s own Chris and Sally Hughes for ably presenting the Leading Role awards – “sponsored by Theatre People” ……..bing! The things we at TP do for the theatre community! 



 

The old standard, Bosom Buddies from Park Players’ Mame was the next musical treat and expertly performed too. This was followed by I Wish I May, the Act One Finale number from Geelong Lyric’s production of The Witches of Eastwick. I think that Jamie and the ladies did a wonderful job of this song, but why the number where the ‘witches’ are supposed to fly towards the end was chosen for this performance stumps me. When it got to that point in the song the lack of flying left the performers to uncomfortably fill the ‘dead air’ – I half expected them to start flapping their arms! As fun as it was, I would have picked something else myself.

The big awards came next as we rounded the bend and just to ‘out do’ Chris and Sally, none other than John Michael “Hollywood” Howson trotted out his carcass to present the major awards. JMH (as we’d like to know him) showed the other Seniors on the Guild speech making crew how spinning anecdotes doesn’t have to be like popping a couple of Xanax. Welcome reprieves were John Michael’s wacky little tales. Eventually he moved on with the presentations and Craig Wiltshire cleaned up the Choreography award for PLOS’ Cabaret, while Michael Loughlin and Chris Bradtke took out the Music Direction and Direction awards for CLOC’s Pimpernel.

A diversion to Whitehorse’s Beauty and the Beast via a gorgeous performance of the title number by Gabrielle O’Brien as Mrs Potts couldn’t distract us from the fact that Pimpernel’s inevitable win was looming. On a quick note it was lovely to hear the audience ‘aawww’ at Gabrielle’s (or should I say John Azzopardi’s) teapot costume. This little ticker only wishes that the ‘steamer’ was working!

‘Sir’ Bruce McBrien, founder of the Guild helped to celebrate the 20^th anniversary with some reminiscences of the inaugural awards, noting that many of the recipients of awards that year were nominated again this year – and in some cases won. A wonderful show of the integrity of the Guild’s awards process (or perhaps proof we’ve gone nowhere in 20 years? ….. I jest!)

So as Grant Alley deservedly accepted The Scarlet Pimpernel’s Production of the Year award the cast prepared to perform two numbers from the show (did they know something we didn’t?) A fantastic way to finish the night – the hilarious The Creation of Man, followed by the catchy The Riddle featuring all three leads.

In reflection, this was a Guild Awards no better and no worse than many I’ve seen over the years. The only thing I’d like to see next year is a more even distribution of the ‘fun stuff’ throughout the night. Think of the Oscars (yes we’d all like to pretend that’s what they are!) There the Supporting Role awards are done first to bring a bit of interest up front before the heavy business of the less interesting awards has to happen. Almost the entire first hour of this year’s ceremony was a total snore to me (in fact I’m sure the nanna in the seat next to me was asleep more than once!)

A few fun ones at the start and a few boring ones towards the end would help make the whole thing more palatable.

As everyone’s favourite nanny says “just a spoonful of sugar”! Can’t wait for the day when we get to see that one on our amateur stages.

Most importantly, I hope everyone who was there enjoyed the wonderful ‘End of Year’ get together that is the Guild Awards.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Adam Rafferty
Editor – Theatre People

All photos by Gavin D

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