BLITHE SPIRIT

Written by Noel Coward

Directed by Kate Blackhurst

Canberra Rep at Theatre 3

21 November to 6 December, 2014

Review by Len Power 27 November 2014

‘Blithe Spirit’ by Noel Coward ran for nearly 2,000 performances in its initial run during the Second World War in London and is revived more than most of Coward’s other plays.  Its timeless appeal continues to delight audiences with its clever plot and witty dialogue.

Set in 1941, a writer, looking to gather incidental detail for a novel he is writing, invites a local psychic to perform a séance at his home.  Though sceptical, he and his new wife get more than they bargained for when the psychic accidentally brings the ghost of the writer’s deceased first wife back from the dead and she seems determined to stay.

On a fabulous and atmospheric set by Andrew Kay, which drew gasps from the audience when first revealed, Kate Blackhurst’s production for Canberra Rep captures English manners and morals of the period very well.  Coward’s plays rely heavily on the way the dialogue is delivered and many of the laughs come from the sub-text.  Characters often say one thing but really mean another.  Get this right and the play takes off.

In the leading role of Charles Condomine, Peter Holland gives a well-paced, charming and highly entertaining performance.  Emma Wood, as his current wife, Ruth, is a delight, at first condescending and secure in her little world and then very quickly losing self-control as the play progresses.  Overcoming a poor costume choice, Anita Davenport gives a charmingly wicked and teasingly sexy performance as the ghost of Charles’ first wife, Elvira.  In the smaller roles of Doctor Bradman and his wife, Don Smith and Elaine Noon are very effective.  Elaine Noon showed considerable skill with Coward’s dialogue, managing to get some of the biggest laughs of the evening.  The fun role of Edith, the maid, was nicely played by Yanina Clifton.

Most interest in the casting of this play always centres around the character of the psychic, Madame Arcati.  Original London cast member, Margaret Rutherford, put an indelible stamp on this role that has been hard for subsequent actresses to overcome.  In this production, Liz St Clair-Long bursts onto the stage with furious energy and delightful eccentricity.  A wild, red-haired Bohemian with a touch of gypsy about her, she gives a memorably fascinating and funny performance.

The costumes for the show by Anna Senior were generally well-executed with stylish period clothes for the women.  I was, however, disappointed by the costume, makeup and hairstyle chosen for the character of Elvira.  She may be a ghost but she must look attractive.  This choice of costume and dull hairstyle managed to de-glamourize the usually beautiful actress playing her.  We know she’s a ghost from the script so the metallic-looking ghost makeup was an unnecessary distraction.

Kate Blackhurst has done excellent work overall for her first time as director for Canberra Rep.  It was great to see a near-capacity audience last Thursday hugely enjoying every moment of Noel Coward’s classic play.

Originally broadcast on Artsound FM 92.7 ‘Dress Circle’ showbiz program with Bill Stephens on Sunday 30 November 2014 from 5pm.

SCANDALOUS BOY - by David Atfield

Written and Directed by David Atfield

Designed by Imogen Keen
Sound design by Liberty Kerr
Lighting design by Imogen Schwab
Presented by The Street in association with David Atfield
The Street Theatre – November 14 – 23, 2014

 Reviewed by Bill Stephens

It’s not every day you get the opportunity to see a play set in Rome in 130 A.D.  Life was different then. Public nudity was common-place, and mothers enthusiastically coached their handsome young sons in the sensual skills necessary to succeed as an eromenos, (male prostitute), in the hope that he might attract a wealthy protector.

It’s also not often that you get to see male nudity and sexuality portrayed so frankly, so fearlessly and so effectively on stage as in this striking production.

While visiting various museums in Italy, David Atfield was fascinated by how many statues were on display of a young man called Antinous. Enquiries revealed Antinous was the favourite of the Emperor Hadrian. This information was enough to seed a desire in Atfield to delve further into the life and times of Antinous. What he discovered is fascinatingly revealed in this play, “Scandalous Boy”.  



Nicholas Eadie - Emma Strand - back
Ethan  Gibson - James Hughes - front

We first meet Antinous as a nude statue, set on a pedestal in the centre of a huge circular bed draped in white satin. The statue comes to life, strides to the front of the stage and addresses the audience directly. When he notices that some audience members appear distracted by the sight of his penis, Antinous thoughtfully slips into a pair of spangled trunks.

These trunks come and go frequently during the course of his story, told in seamlessly flowing episodes, and for which he is joined by a variety of characters. Often confronting, these episodes are artfully staged, conjuring up images familiar from Greek and Roman statuary particularly during the cleverly staged the nude wrestling sequence.

Blessed with a body any Greek statue would envy, Ethan Gibson as Antinous, also possesses considerable presence and acting ability. Perfectly cast and completely at ease with the required nudity, he skilfully manipulates the audience’s response to Antinous. At first he’s open, engaging and funny. But as the play progresses, the audience come to realise that his mother has done her work well, and that his professed love for Hadrian is no more than a strategy to achieve his own ends.

As mesmerising as Gibson is, this is no one-man show. He is surrounded by a strong cast of experienced actors of which Nicholas Eadie as the besotted Emperor Hadrian is particularly impressive in his depiction of the decline from warrior emperor to snivelling lover, skilfully seduced by the beauty of  Antinous and his knowledge of unsuspected carnal delights.

Emma Strand is also a strong presence, first as Antinous mother, then as the young Empress Sabina, enduring the most grotesque of wedding nights, and finally as the older, wiser empress, protecting her position in court from the manipulations of Antinous.

Both Raoul Cramer as Lucius, Hadrian’s older former lover, now advisor, and James Hughes as Marcellus, servant to Sabina and lover to Antinous, contribute strong, effective portrayals in a production that often has the feeling that a much large cast is present, due in no small part to Imogen Keen’s imaginative setting and the evocative lighting by Gillian Schwab.



Ethan Gibson - James Hughes

Though set in 130 A.D. the language in the play is that of the present day. So are the deliberately ambiguous and witty costumes. Unsurprisingly it works a treat.

Though inherently a play exploring love between men, it would be a shame if this play was sidelined into the realm of queer theatre, as it has much to say about the nature of love, and the manipulative power of a certain kind of love. The nudity and sexuality are matter-of-fact and necessary, rather than gratuitous and it gives a fascinating insight into another time and another way of thinking about love and sex. Best of all; it’s hugely entertaining, informative and refreshing.

Another product of The Hive and First Seen initiatives of The Street, this play deserves to be seen beyond Canberra, and hopefully will be. If it comes to a theatre near you, make sure you see it.

                             This review appears in Australian Arts Review

DAYLIGHT SAVING by Nick Enright

Director: Adam Cook

Designer: Hugh O’Connor
Lighting Designer: Gavan Swift
Sound designer: Nate Edmondson

Presented by: Darlinghurst Theatre Company,

Eternity Playhouse, 31^st October to 30^th November

 Reviewed by Bill Stephens

 

Written in 1989 by Nick Enright, “Daylight Saving” is a delightful, well-constructed farce, which retains its freshness and humour in this excellent production by the Darlinghurst Theatre Company.  Director, Adam Cook, has assembled a cracker of a cast who leave no nuance unexplored to do justice to Nick Enright’s clever script.

 

Hugh O’Connor has designed a sunny, cheerful 1980’s setting, beautifully lit by Gavan Swift which he’s complimented with sophisticated and witty costumes which slyly celebrate the period.

Felicity (Rachel Gordon) seemingly has it all. She runs a successful restaurant, her husband Tom (Christopher Stollery) manages the country’s hottest tennis player, Jason Strutt, (Jacob Warner) and together they live in a gorgeous North Shore apartment with stunning views.

However, it’s the last day of daylight saving, Tom is overseas with his tennis player, and has forgotten their wedding anniversary. So Felicity is preparing to have a seemingly innocuous dinner with an old flame visiting from America (Ian Stenlake).  But when earlier in the day she fluffs the answer to a cheeky television interviewer’s question about fidelity, we get the impression that Felicity has a little more than dinner in mind for that evening.

Rachel Gordon (Felicity) and Ian Stenlake (Joshua Makepeace)

However, constant interruptions from her well-meaning, but interfering mother, Bunty,(Belinda Giblin) and her outrageously self-centred next-door neighbour, Stephanie (Helen Dallimore), together with the unexpected return of husband, Tom, provide the perfect set-up for a series of deliciously funny misunderstandings which put paid to any amorous plans Felicity and her dinner-guest may have been hatching.

 

The pacing is slick and secure. The dialogue is liberally scattered with witty one-liners, all perfectly delivered. All the performances are satisfying. Rachel Gordon is outstanding as Felicity, the successful career woman questioning her sense of dissatisfaction with her successful marriage to Tom, (well played by Christopher Stollery), who’s too pre-occupied with his own successful career to notice.

Rachel Gordon (Felicity) Christopher Stollery (Tom)
Jacob Warner (Jason Strutt) 

 Ian Stenlake is impressive as Felicity’s handsome, likeable, opportunistic old flame, always circling for the kill. Belinda Giblin is pure class as Felicity’s twitty, widowed mother, Bunty, and Jacob Warner is terrific as the petulant tennis star Jason Strutt. Helen Dallimore is quite marvellous as the steam-rolling next door neighbour, Stephanie.

 

According to Adam Cook’s program notes “Daylight Saving” is “about loneliness in marriage, and about living in the present but longing for the past”. Perhaps it’s the presence of this deeper intent that causes this delightful play to linger in the memory long after one has left the theatre.

 

Rachel Gordon (Felicity) - back 
Belinda Giblin (Bunty) - Ian Stenlake (Joshua)


This review appears in AUSTRALIAN ARTS REVIEW

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Education and The Arts

Education and the Arts by Meg Upton, with Naomi Edwards.  Platform Papers No 41, November 2014: Currency House, Sydney.

Commentary by Frank McKone

Think of education as a living cell within the body politic.  The impermeable outer membrane of the cell has bas-relief oddly shaped indentations.  To access the inner cell, for good health – as Upton and Edwards intend – or for ill – as Donnelly and Wiltshire are bent on – a mirrored matching convoluted ‘key’ must insert itself.  Only then can the positive protein or the destructive virus make changes from within the cell.

Education and the Arts was already going to print when the recommendations of the
Review of the National Curriculum (August 2014) began to surface.  “What is of concern,” wrote Upton and Edwards, “is the growing sense that arts education for Australian children will become ‘optional’ as opposed to mandated."

The problem for Upton and Edwards is that they have not been given the key which has been handed on a silver platter by the Abbott government to Dr Donnelly and Professor Wiltshire, neither of whom show the slightest understanding of the nature of arts education, let alone its importance in a modern education system.

Here’s a quote:

The Reviewers heard substantial evidence that content was added to the curriculum to appease stakeholders, which has led to an overcrowded curriculum.  Such inclusions pay homage to the very evident inclusive development process undertaken by ACARA….

It was … apparent that many stakeholders believed the curriculum has far exceeded any nominal time allocations that curriculum writers may have been given.  One strongly argued reason was that this was due to the many compromises ACARA made to accommodate the very vocal advocacies of some groups about the essential nature of content relating to their discipline.  The arts curriculum was particularly singled out in this regard. [My emphasis]
Executive Summary (p2/3)

There is a long history behind such snide language as ‘appease stakeholders’ who are ‘very vocal’ advocates, as you may see in the writings of Donnelly since he escaped from teaching to set himself up as an education ‘expert’.  There’s an interesting profile of both Donnelly and Wiltshire on the SBS website at

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2014/01/10/national-curriculum-review-who-kevin-donnelly

Of course, Upton and Edwards know the needs of the education cell: to have the arts placed on an equal footing in the curriculum, and indeed the teachers and government representatives across the nation have already recognised that need in the Australian Curriculum:

“An education rich in the Arts maximises opportunities for learners to engage with innovative thinkers and leaders and to experience the Arts both as audience members and as artists. Such an education is vital to students’ success as individuals and as members of society, emphasising not only creativity and imagination, but also the values of cultural understanding and social harmony that the Arts can engender
(National Education and the Arts Statement, 2007).” See

http://www.acara.edu.au/verve/_resources/Shape_of_the_Australian_Curriculum_the_arts_-_Compressed.pdf

A teacher quoted by Upton and Edwards, who are active in bringing live theatre to school students, brings their work into focus:

If there were no education programs, I could still take students to the theatre; but what I love about education programs in theatre companies is that they offer experiential learning; students learn through doing and it emphasises their emotional engagement in the form.

A source who once worked on a committee headed up by Donnelly (when he claims to have personally written John Howard’s education policy) has told me that he simply could not appreciate such feelings.  And indeed  it is clear from the Review that Donnelly and Wiltshire have produced, that the language changes as the Departmental team of four have had to try to find the appropriate words that can be seriously published at this level of importance.  Read the Review while imagining yourself in that committee room as it was put together and you’ll see what I mean.

Here’s a bit that won’t please Upton and Edwards (or the rest of us):

The impact the bloated size of the Australian Curriculum was having on a school’s ability to offer a school-based curriculum was regularly brought to the attention of the Reviewers. So much mandatory content is included that some argued it was taking up more than the total teaching time available in a school year. This is having an impact on the amount of time available for co-curricular offerings…
Executive Summary (p5)

“Co-curricular offerings” include the arts, according to this Review, so education programs in theatre companies may as well give up the ghost.

If this quote was written by Donnelly / Wiltshire, then you can see in the next – the conclusion to Chapter One: The Australian Curriculum and the purpose of education – where the departmental team have done their best to write a proper paragraph or two:

“... the Australian Curriculum represents a compromise where a number of conflicting models of curriculum exist side by side and where, in an attempt to meet the demands of all the key players, rigour, balance and standards are weakened. The need to ensure that all involved would commit to a national curriculum has also led to a consensus model of decision-making and an overcrowded curriculum that has weakened the process of developing the Australian Curriculum. Yates, Woelert, O’Connor and Millar describe this as follows:

One particular issue is a new form of content cramming (even though the ACARA website cites an explicit guideline that this should not happen). Here the public circulation of documents and the search for a reasonable degree of consensus around the country tends to lead to things being added (especially history) rather than taken away.
 
  Yates, L, Woelert, P, O’Connor K & Millar V 2013, ‘Building and managing knowledge: Physics and history and the discipline rationales in school curriculum reform’, paper prepared for the Australian Association for Research in Education 2013 Conference.

“Evidence of this can be found in the way the Australian Curriculum burgeoned from the initial four subjects to embracing the entire Foundation to Year 10 curriculum in eight learning areas, as the various stakeholder experts and subject associations argued that their particular subject or area of learning should not be left out.

As a result, while the Australian Curriculum privileges a combination of a utilitarian, a 21st century, a personalised learning and an equity and social justice view of the curriculum and the purpose of education, it undervalues introducing students to the conversation represented by ‘our best validated knowledge and artistic achievements’.

The Australian Curriculum being implemented across the Australian states and territories also fails to do full justice to the Melbourne Declaration’s belief that the curriculum has a vital role to play in the moral, spiritual and aesthetic development and wellbeing of young Australians.”

Have a look closely and you’ll see that Donnelly / Wiltshire are what I would call ‘museum’ thinkers.  Anything like actually doing the arts is, as Donnelly has often literally complained, ‘left-wing’.  After all it means children will be creating new cultural artefacts, being critical of their own creations, as well as learning where their culture fits into the past – which is also always open to critical thinking.  Not for Donnelly, who already apparently knows the accepted canon of ‘our best validated knowledge and artistic achievements’ and is confident he understands what should be ‘the moral, spiritual and aesthetic development and wellbeing of young Australians’.

With his virus key in Donnelly's hand, all the attempts not only by Meg Upton and Naomi Edwards, but of all those hundreds of people who have produced the as yet incomplete and not yet fully implemented Australian Curriculum will be defeated.  Those of us who have worked since the mid-1970s to get drama, dance, and media arts into the curriculum alongside the earlier successes of visual art and music will now have to overcome the Donnelly virus from within.

But I fear that this Federal government’s attitudes and funding will leave the ‘co-curricular’ activities of institutions like the theatre companies with no protein key to activate.  The full title of this Platform Paper is Education and The Arts: Creativity in the promised new order.  I fear this will be another broken promise in the body politic.  My thanks to Upton and Edwards for an excellent paper; but my commiserations for the future they may never see.

Critics honour Canberra artists

THE 24^th  ACT Awards ceremony was hosted by the Canberra Critics’ Circle  on Tuesday (November 25) at the Canberra Museum and Gallery.

The evening featured the Circle’s own arts awards and the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance’s Peer Recognition Award.  

L. Helen Musa, convener CCC, 2014 ‘CityNews’ Artist of the Year, sculptor Kensuke Todo, r.  2011 ‘CityNews’ Artist of the Year, Michael Le Grand, back Matthew Curtis, glass artist. Phot by Shane Breynard.

The 2013 Citynews Artist of the Year award, it was announced by 2011 Artist of the Year Michael Le Grand,  went to  Canberra sculptor Kensuke Todo, who was presented with a cheque to the value of $1,000.  Glass artist and 2013 CAPO Fellow Matthew Curtis joined with the CCC and Citynews in  presenting him with a glass sculpture. 

Born in Kyoto, Todo originally came to Canberra as an exchange student speaking hardly any English, later returning to complete his MA and settling in the ACT, where he is an keen participant in the arts scene. He is presently busy creating a new work for a show in Cowra, his work “Rest” was recently acquired by the ACT Legislative Assembly, and a large abstract work by Todo can be outside the Commonwealth Club.

Michael White maintains his rage

The 2014 MEAA Peer Recognition Award went to recently retired  ACT Branch Secretary Michael White for his many years of work supporting the theatre profession. White showed that retirement  has not lessened his resolve in a speech that lamented that sot the ABC and urged those present to protest.

The  2014 members of the Canberra Critics’ Circle are Cris Kennedy, Jane Freebury, Anni Doyle Wawrzynczak, Kerry-Anne Cousins, Meredith Hinchliffe, Johnny Milner, Claire Capel-Stanley, Irma Gold, John Lombard, Alanna Maclean, Frank McKone, Malcolm Miller, Helen Musa, Simone Penkethman, Len Power, Michelle Potter, Samara Purnell, Bill Stephens, Peter Wilkins, Joe Woodward, Clinton White, Ian McLean, Judith Crispin and  Jennifer Gall.

Canberra Critics’ Circle awards went to visual artists Nicci Haynes, Kensuke Todo, Janet DeBoos, Denise Higgins and Gary Smith, Helen Aitken Kuhnen, Katy Mutton, Annika Harding, and artists Caroline Huf, Ellis Hutch, Blaide Lallemand & Genevieve Swifte of ‘Relative Constructions’; filmmakers; Sotiris Dounoukos, the creators of the feature film Galore; dance artist James Batchelor,  theatre artists Domenic Mico, The Street Theatre, Alison Plevey, Karla Conway & Emma Gibson;  musical theatre artists Jenna Roberts, Jim McMullen, Steve Walsh and Hanna Ley;  musicians Tate Sheridan, Beth Monzo & Ben Drysdale, Alan Hicks, Rowan Harvey Martin, Christopher Latham, Marcela Fiorillo, Larry Sitsky and Tobias Cole; writers Nigel Featherstone, John Clanchy[correct], Omar Musa and  ‘Biff’ Ward.

The full citations for the 2014 CCC awards  follow:

Music

Jazz and pop pianist, Tate Sheridan

For his considerable achievements so early in his career after graduating from the ANU School of Music, including his appearance at the 2014 Canberra International Music Festival Fringe as ANU artist in profile, his recording of his debut album (yet to be released) and the demand for him as a concert artist.

Music

Beth Monzo and Ben Drysdale

For their debut live album "Baggage Claim" and film clip and as the singer-songwriter duo Beth 'n' Ben, with their tongue-in-cheek brand of popular music, ranging from folk, reggae and rock to blues, pop and jazz.

Music

Pianist and conductor Alan Hicks.

For his transformational work with the University of Canberra Chorale, notably its performance of “Songs of Peace and War” and for his considerable reputation and busy work as an accompanist of consummate skill, never putting his own performance ahead of others.

Music

Rowan Harvey Martin

For her versatile musicianship and tireless work as musical director and conductor of the Canberra Youth Orchestra, the Canberra Children’s Choir and the Llewellyn Choir and for her performance as conductor of JS Bach’s “St Matthew Passion” in April 2014.

Music

Christopher Latham

For producing and directing the performances of “The Christmas Truce” and “Triumph of the Heart”, poignant and deeply moving accounts of the music and human condition of World Wars I and II in the 2014 Canberra International Music Festival.

Music

Pianist and composer Marcela Fiorillo

For her composition and world premiere performance of "Suite Weereewa, Op 3" and for her showcasing and promotion of piano works by Australian and Argentine composers.

Music

Pianist and composer Larry Sitsky

For his work in new music as a performer, composer and mentor, including five new commissions and publishing three major works in the past year, including national broadcasts of his piano concerto and his opera The Golem.

Music

Tobias Cole

For his outstanding contribution as a performer and choral director and his passionate advocacy for the music of Handel, including the Australian premiere of Handel’s Alexander Balus and for his performance in the title role of Akhnaten in the Philip Glass Trilogy for South Australian Opera.

Fiction

Omar Musa

For his gritty, lyrical and explosive debut verse novel, Here Come the Dogs, about hip hop, graffiti, drugs, race, identity and bushfires.

Short fiction

John Clanchy [note spelling of surname which is often spelled incorrectly]

For his accomplished and sharply observed collection of short fiction, Six.

Fiction

Nigel Featherstone

For his impressive third novella, The Beach Volcano, a compelling story about a family and their dark secrets.

Nonfiction

Elizabeth ‘Biff’ Ward

For In My Mother’s Hands, a complex and powerful memoir that conjures up the 1950s while telling a disturbing, true story that touches on mental illness.

Visual Arts

Kensuke Todo

For the impressive and expansive exhibition Kensuke Todo: A Survey at the Drill Hall Gallery, which showcased a series of steel sculptures and charcoal drawings.

Visual Arts

Nicci Haynes

For her solo exhibition Body Language at Megalo Print Studio + Gallery which showcased the artist's investigations into the body, movement and language, as well as her exploratory focus on text through printmedia and performance.

Visual Arts

The artist collective, Relative Constructions—Caroline Huf, Ellis Hutch, Blaide Lallemand and Genevieve Swifte

For their exhibition and accompanying publication The Poetic Lens at M16 Artspace, presenting an innovative alternative perspective on lens¬based media as an emotive, embodied and poetic form.

Visual Arts

Janet DeBoos

For her dramatic, innovative and accomplished ceramic exhibition Articulate Objects in September this year that brought together both Eastern and Western imagery in a sympathetic and convincing narrative that also questioned our perceived notions of cultural identity and appropriation.

Visual Arts

Helen Aitken Kuhnen

For her exhibition From Land to Sea in November 2013 that demonstrated the artist’s mastery of the skilled and subtle art of enamelling resulting in a series of beautiful works of wearable art that have an understated but nevertheless a very tangible poetic sensibility to the Australian landscape.

Visual Arts

Weaving together sound, lighting and object the immersive installation Vox Nautica at ANCA Gallery in November 2013 transformed the gallery into a richly nuanced, other worldly environment. Denise Higgins and Gary Smith

Visual Arts

Katy Mutton

For her original, haunting and complex stylisation of contemporary warplanes privileging childhood innocence and observation in the exhibition Rise of the Machines in March this year at CCAS Manuka.

Visual Arts

Annika Harding

For curating the group exhibition Wanderlust at M16 in July this year comprising eleven emerging and early career artists that evidenced a diversity and excellence of practice within a tightly conceived and managed theme.

Film

The creative team for the feature film Galore

Scripted and directed by Rhys Graham, this teenage love film set in the days leading up to the 2003 bushfires, makes excellent use of Canberra talent and locations. While intensely focused on the teens and their world, it also tries to include a bigger story, about a city.

Film

Sotiris Dounoukos

For Un Seul Corps (A Single Body), an exploration of friendship and loyalty that is surprisingly located in an abattoir among animal carcasses. The film works subtly overturning the claustrophobia and brutality of the images so that a story of human friendship emerges.

Dance

James Batchelor

For his outstanding achievement in producing, choreographing and performing in his original dance work, Island. This imaginative and well-staged work had excellent production values and demonstrated his skill in executing complex ideas through movement.

Theatre

To Domenic Mico

For offering through Smith's Alternative Bookshop the opportunity for emerging and established theatre practitioners to create new and original work in an intimate, accessible and genuine alternative theatre space.

Theatre

The Street Theatre

For the production of Helen Machalias’ powerful play In Loco Parentis, directed by Andrew Holmes.

Theatre

Performer Alison Plevey, director Karla Conway and writer Emma Gibson

For the excellence and originality of Johnny Castellano is Mine, a co-production of The Street Theatre and Canberra Youth Theatre.

Musicals

Jenna Roberts

For her outstanding comedic performance as the hairdresser in Free Rain Theatre’s production of Legally Blonde the Musical.

Musicals

Jim McMullen

For his outstanding production of Cabaret for the Canberra Philharmonic Society. His direction and concept captured the essence of this difficult musical in a well-prepared production that was superbly executed by the cast and production crew on opening night.

Musicals

Steve Walsh

For his colourful and witty setting for Free Rain Theatre’s production of Forbidden Broadway.

Musicals

Hanna Ley

For her stylish performance in a variety of roles in Everyman Theatre’s production of The Musical of Musicals (The Musical!)