21st
CANBERRA AREA THEATRE AWARDS FOR 2015
Llewellyn Hall 20
FEBRUARY 2016
Review by Len Power
It doesn’t seem 21 years since the CAT awards first
commenced but there we were again all dressed up on Saturday night at Llewellyn
Hall to celebrate this unique and popular theatrical event. The Icon ACTEWAGL Canberra Area Theatre
Awards honour a wide range of theatre practitioners, both on and
off-stage. School and Youth productions
as well as Adult productions are considered for awards. Many of the awards are sponsored by
businesses, individuals and the NSW Government.
The CAT judges are very busy and committed people,
travelling far and wide around New South Wales to places such as Albury,
Orange, Wollongong and Griffith, as well as Canberra, to assess the quality of productions. A weighted point system ensures that every
production has an equal chance of scoring nominations. There are almost 50 CAT award categories and many
of the categories have several nominations.
This year’s show was tightly directed by Stephen Pike and it
was consistently entertaining and moved at a good pace. The award giving and speeches were
well-balanced with performances from some of the region’s shows from 2015. Well-known Australian actor, John Wood, and
Canberra musical director and CAT judge, Ian MacLean, made a great team again
as comperes of the evening and the award winners all made mercifully short but interesting
speeches.
There were some great moments amongst the entertainment
presented between the award announcements, showing the high standard of talent
amongst the actors and singers in the region.
This year, Canberra area shows won a number of the major
awards. The ‘Best Production Of A
Musical’ award was won by our Free Rain Theatre Company for their production of
‘Mary Poppins’. Queanbeyan City Council
won the ‘Best Production Of A Play’ award for ‘Tuesdays With Morrie’, which had
played at the Q Theatre in Queanbeyan.
‘Best Production Of A Variety Show’ was won by ‘A Taste For Tinseltown’
which was produced by Free Rain Theatre Company.
The ‘IN THE SPIRIT OF THE COMMUNITY AWARD’ went to Justin
Watson of
Ickle Pickle, Canberra, for providing opportunities for
young people to be involved in theatre.
The SILVER CAT AWARD FOR SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTION TO THEATRE OVER MANY
YEARS was awarded to Lawrance and Robyn Ryan for the contribution they have
made to the Cowra Musical and Dramatic Society over many years. The much coveted GOLD CAT AWARD was presented
to Amy and Peter Copeland for the contribution they made to theatre in
Wollongong during 2015 in direction, choreography, puppet direction, set
design, production management and technical direction.
CATS founder, Coralie Wood, showed once again that she IS
the CAT Awards with her heartfelt speech at the party after the show to
celebrate the CATS’ 21st year.
You can see the full list of winners for the CAT awards at the CATS
website at www.catawards.com.au.
Len Power’s reviews
can also be heard on ‘Artcetera’ on Artsound FM 92.7 from 9am on Saturdays.
