Elephant in Room at CAT Awards

21^st Canberra Area Theatre Gala Awards Night 2015

Llewellyn Hall ANU, 5pm Saturday 20 February 2016

Cathy Bannister reports.

Last Saturday night the annual Canberra Area Theatre Awards marked their 21^styear in typically fabulous style, with the regions featuring prominently amongst the winners. The Golden CAT Award went to Amy and Peter Copeland, of the Wollongong High School of Performing Arts and So Popera Productions, for their contribution to “direction, choreography, puppet direction, set design, production management and technical direction”.

Directed again by Queanbeyan City Council’s Stephen Pike, with vibrant colour and a smoke machine not quite rivaling St Helens eruption but certainly the gas releases in the days prior, with 50 awards to give the show ran an hour over its scheduled end and yet was still, as patron John Wood pointed out, probably the fastest on record.

Some fantastic performances made that time pass quickly. These included Wagga’s SOACT with Joanne Darby as an engaging Shirley Valentine (for which she won the Best Actress in a Leading Role in a Play) and the Monaro Committee for Cancer Research (Cooma) lovely rendition of “Jersey Boys and Girls” from Strictly Musical (winner of the Best Variety Performance by an Individual or Ensemble). It was fantastic to see Graham Robertson and Dave Evans reprise a segment from Queanbeyan City Council’s Tuesdays With Morrie, with Dave Evans almost unrecognisable under a full bushranger beard and hipster quiff. Unsurprisingly, this excellent if sentimental work took out the Best Production of a Play.

Canberra Repertory Society was rewarded for their consistent first class production with six awards. REP's Cassanova took out Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Play (Tony Turner, shared with Simon Lovatt in Spectrum Theatre Group's Moonlight and Magnolias), Best Costume Designer for a Play (Anne Kay) and Jarrad West won Best Director of a Play. REP's The Crucible won for Best Set Designer for a Play (Michael Sparks, shared with Bay Theatre Players' Sam Lloyd inThe Wind in the Willows) and Best Actress in a Featured Role in a Play (Yanina Clifton). Finally Cate Clelland and Fraser Findlay's composition of the music in Much Ado About Nothing won Best Original Work.

Canberra's Free Rain Theatre excelled in the musical section with five awards for Mary Poppins, A Taste of Tinseltown and The Art of Teaching Nothing, while brand new Canberra company Dramatic Productions' performance of Into the Wood, took out thee awardsthanks to brilliant musical direction by Damien Slingsby, winning Best Orchestra, Best Musical Director and Technical Achievement for sound design (shared with the elephant from Canberra Grammar School's Barnum).

But the highlight of the evening was Canberra Grammar School’s life-sized elephant puppet, created for their production of Barnum! This jaw-droppingly brilliant construction took out the award for Technical Achievement, while director Simon Hughes took out Best Director of a School or Youth Musical.

Other winners included:

BEST ENSEMBLE IN A MUSICAL Nell Shephard, Liberty Thirsk and Libby Malcolm  Little Shop of Horrors, Pigs Fly, Bowral

BEST PRODUCTION OF A SCHOOL OR YOUTH MUSICAL The Boy From Oz Chevalier College, Bowral

BEST PRODUCTION OF A SCHOOL OR YOUTH PLAY The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) Narrabundah College, Canberra

BEST PRODUCTION OF A VARIETY SHOW A Taste of Tinseltown Free-Rain Theatre Company, Canberra

BEST PRODUCTION OF A MUSICAL Mary Poppins Free-Rain Theatre Company, Canberra

IN THE SPIRIT OF THE COMMUNITY AWARD Justin Watson, Ickle Pickle, Canberra

SILVER CAT AWARD Lawrence and Robyn Ryan Cowra Musical and Dramatic Society

The full list on the CAT Awards website.

Afterwards, guests enjoyed a superb party catered for by Teatro Vivaldi. Congratulations to Coralie Wood, force of nature behind the CAT Awards, for 21 years of supporting Canberra and regional NSW theatre. Here’s to the next 21 years!

Images: Pigs Fly Productions' Little Shop of Horrors took out Best Ensemble in a Musical (photo by Christopher Jowett), The Cake! and Canberra Grammar School's Elephant from their production of Barnam

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