Elmo’s Super Fun Hero Show

The four ducks that the Count counts backwards
with Jessica Brown as Super Sparkleheart

Big Bird

The Count

Cookie Monster about to share his cookie,
while Elmo holds his Kindness Certificate

Elmo’s Super Fun Hero Show by Sesame Workshop, produced and toured in Australia by Life Like Touring (Au).  At Canberra Theatre Centre Playhouse, November 22, 2016.

Writer/Director: Theresa Borg
Creative Producer (Australia): Luke Gallagher
Designers: Craig Bryant – Composer (original songs) and Sound Design; Choreographer – Katie Ditchburn; Set – David Bramble and Luke Gallagher; Lighting – Dan Evans; Costume – Peri Jenkins.

Cast:
Super Sparkleheart – Jessica Brown
Sesame Street characters – Shaylee Murray, Many Vugler. Kaisha Durban, Dylan McEwan, Pauly Maybury, Kelly Hamilton, Chloe Gibson.

Reviewed by Frank McKone
November 22

I was surprised to see that the very young children (3 to 5) that made up the main part of the audience were not as excited throughout the show as I had expected.  After all Sesame Street began the year my youngest was born (1969) and I knew the attachment she and her sister had to the tv show.

I have also reviewed other stage versions of children’s tv and books, including Dora the Explorer, and several Garry Ginivan productions.  What was happening, I wondered?

Though the music was very danceable, as the characters on stage demonstrated admirably, I only saw one three-year-old bopping around in time – with her mother’s encouragement.  Other children and their adults were not responding to the music or even the story with any great enthusiasm.  What a shame, considering the highly worthwhile educational message about kindness, and the clear intention to teach emotional intelligence.

So why did this happen?  If you watch the (probably illegal) Youtube [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peeZzmQunqc] showing Sesame Street Episode 3857 you can see the problem.  The stage show creates a completely different atmosphere from the tv show.  From the reactions around me in the theatre, I think the adults were disappointed that the warm, gently humorous mood they have always known, which drew them in as it does their children, became a fast-paced razz-a-matazz show coming at them off the stage.  The children responded with cheers each time a new character, like the Count or Big Bird appeared, and the first time Elmo and friends burst into action, but Super Sparkleheart, despite Jessica Brown’s skillful playing of the role, did not engage them fully.  I noticed, in fact, that many of the children were talking to each other or their parents rather than being thoroughly focussed on what was happening on stage.

I thought back to Dora the Explorer – Dora’s Pirate Adventure (reviewed for the Canberra Times September 24, 2008).  That storyline was a very conventional adventure searching for a hidden prize.  It was superficial educationally, but the mass of children in the enormous Australian Institute of Sport arena were dancing in the aisles to the upbeat music and following the story step by step.  Elmo’s Super Fun Hero Show has a searching for a hidden prize story with a deeply important educational theme, but the format turned Sparkleheart into an explicit top-down teacher of the abstract concept of how to be kind. 

This killed the experience instead of enlivening the learning as happens on the tv Sesame Street.  Psychologically, the stage show uses extrinsic teaching/learning instead of developing intrinsic learning through emotional engagement.  I think in Australian culture the ‘hype’ of a ‘super fun hero’ show is suspect because it bombards the audience rather than welcoming them in.  This show seems to me to be at odds with the long-standing principle of the Sesame Street Workshop, which is from our perspective unusual in American culture.  Sesame Street on tv approaches our ABC TV’s Playschool, whose theme song is an invitation to ‘Come inside’, not too far from finding our way ‘to Sesame Street’.

Trying to understand where the Super Sparkleheart role went wrong, it was in the ending of each character’s story of seeking treasure that was the clue.  Good learning means being motivated intrinsically to be successful.  There is no reward for being kind except for internalising wanting to be kind for its own sake – because it feels and is good.  But in this Hero Show, Super Sparkleheart sets up the wrong motivation: if you find the hidden treasure you are rewarded with a certificate.  Even though she says everyone can be kind, the final message is about extrinsic motivation: you’ll get a certificate if you do what you are supposed to do.

Oddly enough, this competitive aspect in real life causes stress, and in the story the children are taught to handle this by learning diaphragm breathing or ‘breathing with your belly’.  Bellies are funny for little children and I had thought this would be great audience participation with lots of laughter (which also relieves stress).  But no.  Sparkleheart makes this a ‘very serious’ thing to do – and most of the adult audience, if they did it at all, did it quite half-heartedly, while the 3-year-olds were just too young to understand. 

So finally I worked out that the problem for this show also arose from the technical approach to the staging.  Good children’s theatre, with effective learning through modelling which provides intrinsic motivation (a major Sesame Street principle) has to be performed by actors with time and flexibility of approach, so that they can communicate with the children and respond fully to the children’s ideas and feelings.  Recently this was demonstrated wonderfully by a local company, Centrepiece Theatre, in Peter Best’s Goldilocks and the Three Bears (reviewed here January 24, 2016), and many years ago by Monica Trapaga in Monica’s House (reviewed in the Canberra Times, May 1996).

As I have been given to understand, Elmo’s Super Fun Hero Show had a pre-recorded sound track, including all the voices of the Sesame Street characters, singing and speaking, voiced “for this Australian produced show” by “the original cast of the Sesame Street TV series in New York City earlier this year”.  The only actor singing and speaking live was Jessica Brown as Super Sparkleheart, while the other performers (who were completely hidden inside their costumes) danced and moved to the sound track – like a kind of karaoke or ‘air’ performance.  Although the sound operator in theory could delay the next bit of track if Jessica had taken extra time to work with her audience, in practice the show ran strictly to time and speed encouraged very much by the over-the-top nature of the music – which controlled the characters’ movement and to which Jessica had to sing, dance and somersault.

So I must conclude that I am disappointed in Elmo’s Super Fun Hero Show because it didn’t feel like Sesame Street and didn’t teach like Sesame Street, even though the theme of learning how to be kind is such an important lesson we all need to remember.

[Reviews referred to can be accessed at www.frankmckone2.blogspot.com.au including those from before 2010]

AN EVENING WITH GROUCHO

Written and performed by Frank Ferrante

Directed by Dreya Weber

Accompanist Alex Wignall

Presented by Jally Entertainment

Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre, November 22^nd – 25^th. 2016

Reviewed by Bill Stephens

Frank Ferrante claims to have performed this show more than 3000 times in more than 400 cities around the world. More remarkable then, that his performance remains so fresh and engaging as he brings to life one of the more memorable performers of the last century.

Groucho was the most articulate and best known of the five Marx Brothers who achieved world-wide fame through a succession of wacky films during the 40’s and 50’s.  After the brothers stopped making films, Groucho transitioned successfully into stage and television achieving considerable success as a TV host, and celebrity guest.

However, you don’t have to be a Marx Brothers enthusiast to enjoy “An Evening with Groucho”. It‘s a class show which succeeds on the brilliance of Frank Ferrante, and its sheer entertainment value.

The stage is furnished with pieces which might have been sourced from the back lot of a film studio. A velvet settee and lounge chair, an antique side table, some potted palms and a Marx Brothers movie poster. Seated at the baby grand situated to the side, accompanist and stooge, Alex Wignall , commences the show with a short overture, until Frank Ferrante arrives on stage, dressed as …….himself.

Frank Ferrante as Groucho Marx 

He introduces himself, offers a brief explanation of his life-long fascination with Groucho, and begins to apply make-up, tousling his hair, adding thick black eye-brows and finally the black slash across his top lip. His whole demeanour changes as before our eyes he becomes, unmistakably, Groucho Marx.

Then scampering around the stage, in that instantly recognisable Grouch Marx walk, fires off a succession of  shamefully corny vaudeville songs like “Hello I Must be Going”,  “Hooray, Hooray, Hooray,” and of course, “Lydia the Tattooed Lady”. Between songs, he talks in the first person as Groucho, to share reminiscences about his brothers, and the films in which they appeared, as well as perform hilarious excerpts from some of Groucho’s film routines.

Every so often, as Groucho himself did, he engages unsuspecting audience members in wickedly cheeky improvisations, his hilarious, lightning fast responses demonstrating his total mastery of the quick wit associated with Groucho.

He offers  an affectionate tribute to film co-star Margaret Dumont, and confides how such well known performers as Charlie Chaplin, W.C.Fields, Ed Metcalf and even Gilbert and Sullivan, influenced his comedic style, even surprising with a charming version of “Tit-Willow” from “The Mikado”.

Throughout, Adelaide pianist Alex Wignall provided skilful accompaniments to the songs, cheerfully joined in the jokes, and even participated in a remarkable duet during which Ferrante performed multiple push-ups on the baby grand.

“An Evening with Groucho” is a tour-de-force performance by Frank Ferrante which is not only hugely entertaining, but also a brilliant and affectionate reminder of the comedic skills  employed by entertainers in the heydays of vaudeville.

 

Frank Ferrante as himself 

This review also appears in Australian Arts Review www.artsreview.com.au

I, Daniel Blake

                    Review © Jane Freebury

It is clear that Ken Loach, who turned 80 this year, will never retire. Making films about people who are disadvantaged and dispossessed has been for him a life mission since his television work in the 1960s, and long before he started collaborating with his regular screenwriter Paul Laverty. Loach is a social justice warrior whose work is often gritty and confronting, but there have been lighter and tender moments that have shone through in love across the cultural divide (Ae Fond Kiss), with a sense of fun (Riff-Raff) and mischief (The Angel’s Share).

The task of standing up for people who have to struggle with injustice and lack of opportunity has not been getting any easier, or less relevant.  A tumultuous 2016 shows that fair outcomes for all, amongst other things, can’t be taken for granted in a democracy. No, it looks like the mission is only more pressing.

Someone suggested—was it Loach?—that Jimmy’s Hall in 2014 would be his last, but he has bounced back with one of his best. I, Daniel Blake won the director his second Palme d’Or at Cannes earlier this year. And the first was only recent, 10 years ago.

When Blake (Dave Johns) experiences a heart attack, his doctor says he should give up work, but the welfare department decides otherwise, on the basis of boxes checked or unchecked, that he is not a suitable candidate for sickness benefit. It’s okay for him to go on jobseeker’s allowance benefit, however, though for Blake this means a never-ending round of failed job applications and workshops to improve his CV.

Everything has to be done online, and Blake doesn’t know the first thing about the digital world. What are the prospects of a joiner just shy of 60 years of age who is good at his job but doesn’t know how to use a computer? A lack of skills in IT today is close to illiteracy.

Age has little to do with his sense of helplessness, as Loach ably shows. Indeed, Blake looks to be in rude health. Johns, otherwise known as a stand-up comedian, makes his character alert and engaging and that bad heart doesn’t seem to be the result of poor habits or health management.

Blake encounters a young woman with two young children in tow at the department. She is protesting that she was late her appointment for genuine reasons and her desperation and the inflexibility of staff cause Blake to step in. Londoner Katie (Hayley Squires) has just arrived in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, sent north because of the lack of social housing. They soon become firm friends.

Despite the feistiness, Katie cannot afford to feed herself and her two children at the same time, or put money aside for their school uniforms. Daniel can help her turn her new flat into a home. He has a few tips on how to save on heating, like covering windows with bubble wrap, and he looks after the kids and builds her a bookcase while she is out.

In different ways, however, the bureaucratic trap in which they are each caught eventually pushes them to the end of their tether. Both characters carry on courageously, though the underlying desperation shows through. Johns and Squires both keep it real, with wonderfully engaging performances.

The story of Daniel and Katie is told in Loach’s typical workmanlike style. It can be irritating to see how the director is pulls openly at his audiences’ heart strings and Loach has little time for the aesthetic possibilities of his medium. Yet this film demonstrates exactly why Loach keeps on working. His didacticism gets the better of him at times, making it easy for us to see what he’s up to, and we always know where he is coming from, but he is a master at eliciting empathy for his characters and their world, beyond the beltway.

Loach is as good as he ever was at drawing us into the frame, and at getting us involved and engaged on a deeply empathetic, humanist level. 

4 stars

Also published at Jane's blog

AN EVENING WITH GROUCHO

Written by and starring Frank Ferrante

Alex Wignall on piano

Directed by Dreya Webber

Q Theatre Queanbeyan to 25 November

Jally Entertainment

Review by Len Power 22 November 2016

There was a full house at the Q Theatre in Queanbeyan for the opening night of ‘An Evening With Groucho’.  While other more recent movie stars have been forgotten, it seems that interest in the Marx Brothers has never flagged.

Most of us know the Marx Brothers from their movies of the 1930s.  When you watched them as a child, Harpo was the funniest with his silent comedy while Chico was amusing with his crazy Italian accent.  You had to lose your innocence to really appreciate Groucho with his lightning fast line delivery and his often outrageous double entendre.  The Brothers comedy skewered the pretentions of upper class society and accepted manners and behaviours of the time.  Nothing was sacred and, as we still object to being told how to behave and delight in bringing down people who’ve got too big for their boots, their comedy still works today.

According to the program, Frank Ferrante has played Groucho Marx over 2500 times in the USA and internationally.  His portrayal of the character is extraordinary.  Ferrante introduces the show as himself and then we see him applying the trademark greasepaint moustache and eyebrows.  Suddenly he IS Groucho.  For almost two hours it’s hard to believe that you’re not in the actual presence of this legendary star.

With Adelaide musician, Alex Wignall, on piano, Groucho sings the famous songs from his movies including ‘Hooray for Captain Spaulding’ and ‘Lydia, The Tattooed Lady’.  He relates a lot of the history of the Marx Brothers including the details of his own meeting with Groucho late in his life.

This would have been interesting and entertaining enough but Ferrante takes the show to another level by interacting as Groucho with audience members.  Engaging individual audience members in a conversation with him, Groucho effortlessly runs with the information offered and has the audience in hysterics with his sharp replies.  It’s all done in great fun and you could see that those audience members were enjoying it as much as we did.

Direction of the show by Dreya Webber is tight and visually interesting.  Pianist, Alex Wignall, holds his own against an onslaught of jokes from Groucho and the Q Theatre’s usher, Lesley, had an evening she’ll never forget with Groucho targeting her for romance and coffees.

I was introduced to Frank Ferrante afterwards in the foyer, and when he was told I was reviewing the show, he instantly offered me a handful of money just as you’d expect Groucho to do.  I didn’t take it (he wasn’t serious, of course) but he’s given me an idea…..

Len Power’s reviews are also broadcast on Artsound FM 92.7 ‘Artcetera’ program on Saturdays from 9am.

An Evening with Groucho

An Evening with Groucho performed by Frank Ferrante with his pianist Alex Wignall; directed by Dreya Weber.  Produced by Jally Entertainment,  at The Q, Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre, November 22-25, 2016.

Reviewed by Frank McKone
November 22

My earnest Socialist parents brought me up in England on Karl Marx, not Groucho Marx.  Perhaps they were in the audience in 1922 when, as Groucho remembers, the Marx Brothers’ attempt at zany American humour went down like a lead balloon in London.  Even when I arrived in Australia in the 1950s, though others tell me films like A Night at the Opera and Duck Soup were common fare for teenagers at the Saturday afternoon pictures, I never saw them.

So I approached An Evening with Groucho in some trepidation.  Fortunately I wasn’t seated in Rows A to D, or my fears may have been well-founded – for the aspect of Groucho Marx’s special skill in what we nowadays call stand-up comedy, which Frank Ferrante has down to a fine art, is very funny enforced audience participation. 

This can only work – and be thoroughly enjoyed even by those in the immediate firing-line – because Ferrante channels Groucho’s stage charisma, a kind of excruciating absolutely politically incorrect charm, so well that we are transported back in time.  If you are English you would recognise Arthur Askey as the equivalent performer of innuendo, or if Australian it would be Roy Rene (Mo).

Ferrante’s success is because he does not merely imitate Groucho’s talk, singing and ‘dancing’ – a forerunner, I’m sure, of John Cleese’s funny walks – but he inhabits the character.  This enables him to improvise his playing with the audience for lengthy periods between the official script, all nicely related to his venue, in Queanbeyan on this occasion, to the age of the audience, and then to the personal stories that people recount even as he makes fun of them.

At one point last night the modern political scene lifted its ugly head when one woman turned out to be American, though now has lived in Australia for more than 40 years.  “So you have dual citizenship?  Don’t ever go back!”  And turning to another couple who had been married for 39 years – after having pointed out that he (Groucho) had been married for longer – 44 years, to three different wives – he then proposed marriage to the woman.  “So he could stay here” didn’t have to be said, as the audience immediately picked up on the joke, thinking of Immigration Minister Peter Dutton’s and President-elect Donald Trump’s diatribes against refugees.

An important quality of the show is Groucho-Ferrante’s playful relationship with his Adelaide pianist, Alex Wignall.  Of course, Groucho uses Alex as his fall-guy, but always with a warmth of feeling between them.  Behind Groucho’s ‘front’ there is a sense of fragility, of needing the support which was supplied by his brothers, especially Harpo and Chico in real life.  Wignall’s top-rate piano playing, from the magisterial classical to the whimsical and cute, makes him the steady influence in the show, with his gentle sense of humour, which represents Harpo for Groucho.

So, despite my woeful lack of background experience of the Marx Brothers, Frank Ferrante’s An Evening with Groucho has filled me in, in a most entertaining way.  And for further entertaining background you can buy a wonderfully informative program in the form of a 2017 calendar to hang above your workdesk for a whole year of memories!

Comforting joy of music – Alpha Gregory named “Citynews” Artist of the Year

A CHORAL conductor and mentor credited with bringing the healing and comforting joy of music to thousands of young Canberrans was tonight named 2016 “Citynews” Artist of the Year at the 26^th ACT Arts Awards Night.

Alpha Gregory accepting the  award

Alpha Gregory, praised for her “passion, energy and commitment,” was singled out by the Canberra Critics’ Circl, which judges the award,  for her 19 year contribution to choral music in Canberra, particularly through her inspirational leadership of the Woden Valley Youth Choir.

Ms Gregory, the circle said, had shaped the musical lives of two generations of Canberra’s youth and has taught them invaluable life skills as they have grown into adulthood as members of the choir.  As well as being the Artistic Director of the three choirs which make up the Woden Valley Youth Choir organisation she has been choir conductor, teacher, tour guide, CD producer, administrator, yearbook publisher, choreographer, stylist, fiercest supporter and strongest music critic.

In the ceremony at the Canberra Museum and Gallery she was presented with a $1,000 cheque and a F!NK vase designed by the late artist Robert Foster.

The music panel said of Ms Gregory:

“Alpha has shaped the musical lives of two generations of Canberra’s youth and has taught them invaluable life skills as they have grown into adulthood as members of the choir. As well as being the Artistic Director of the three choirs which make up the Woden Valley Youth Choir organisation she has been choir conductor, teacher, tour guide, CD producer, administrator, yearbook publisher, choreographer, stylist, fiercest supporter and strongest music critic. 

L to R Critics Circle member Meredith Hinchliffe, Alpha Gregory, and Caroline Stacey

“She has organised and run successful tours both within Australia and overseas and brought choirs from throughout the world to Canberra all the while providing choristers with unforgettable worldly experiences and raising the international profile of the choir. She has exposed and taught choristers a wide range of choral music and has been dedicated and devoted to commissioning, then performing, works from Australian composers.

The announcement of Ms Gregory’s award by former “Citynews” Artist of the Year Caroline Stacey was preceded by the presentation of the 2016 Canberra Critics Circle awards across a wide range of art forms, with the certificates presented to artists by the director of artsACT Adam Stankevicius.

The Canberra Critics Circle is made up of the following arts reviewers in the ACT—

Meredith Hinchliffe, Bill Stephens, Alanna Maclean, Frank McKone, Joe Woodward, Kerry-Anne Cousins, Cris Kennedy, Samara Purnell, Simone Penkethman, Clinton White, Jennifer Gall, Michelle Potter, Helen Musa, Len Power, Jane Freebury, John Milner, John Lombard, Jessica Oliver, Anni Doyle Wawrzynczak, Ian McLean, Graham McDonald and Peter Wilkins.

The full list of 2016 CCC recipients is as follows:

Film

For the brave and confident debut feature film, directed by Sotiris Dounoukos, about a recent and still quite raw part of Canberra's social history. Exceptionally made, from spot-on production design, glorious lighting and cinematography, and a sensitive and supportive soundtrack, a marvellous showcase of not only Canberra, but of the fresh school of talent to be found both on-screen and off.

Joe Cinque's Consolation

Dance

For her tireless and consistent efforts as a dancer, choreographer and facilitator towards advancing professional contemporary dance in the A.C.T through her performances, collaborations, and programs, culminating in the establishment of her dance company, Australian Dance Party.

Alison Plevey

Dance

For her innovative promotion of dance in the ACT exemplified by her co-ordination and presentation of “Great Sport!” at the National Museum of Australia, which spectacularly showcased the work of The Gold Company, Dance for Parkinson’s, Canberra Dance Theatre, and of a number of local and interstate choreographers, in a memorable and remarkable presentation.

Liz Lea

Visual Arts

For her poetic essay conceived in porcelain, slips and glazes which presented a coherent statement of the artist’s vision, reflecting the both the natural and man-made landscape filtered through a thoughtful sensibility, in her exhibition Elements of Place at Form Gallery.

Avi Amesbury

Visual Arts

For her sophisticated, complex and highly effective use of colour, surface texture and form in her solo exhibition of paintings, It’s All About Eve, at ANCA Gallery.

Emma Beer

Visual Arts

For their ambitious, immersive installation Barbed Maze that evidence the nightmare of uncertainty, surveillance and containment experienced by refugees in Australia’s detention centres.

Denise Higgins and Gary Smith

Visual Arts

For his exceptional exhibition that surveyed more than 50 years of electrifying expressionist painting practice, revealing a complex and beautiful vision of our region and inspiring a new generation of artists at Canberra Museum and Gallery Michael Taylor: A Survey 1963-2016

Michael Taylor

Visual Arts

For her exhibition, the work of a mature and confident artist in full command of her medium, in which she created the personal concept of home is a place of security and safety in impressive and richly coloured luminous small works and three-dimensional objects that were imbued with a warm and lively sense of humanity, Black Box: Life, Walls And Houses at Craft ACT.

Judi Elliott

Poetry

For his indefatigable support of the poetic profession through his fortnightly evenings at Smith’s Alterative, which include his interviews with guest poets, under the title. “That Poetry Thing that’s on at Smith’s every Other Monday”.

Josh Inman

Poetry

For his masterly use of verse in the stage comedy Cara Carissima, a savvy look at sibling relations set in the milieu of Canberra’s coffee culture, in “Plevna: A Biography in Verse”, the story of swashbuckling Australian medico Charles Plevna Ryan, and in his wry anthology Gods and Uncles, where he moves into free verse.

Geoff Page

Poetry

For her book of poetry Transit, which touches on the intersections of people, place, culture and history experienced by travellers.

Niloofar Fanaiyan

Fiction

For her novel, The Grief Hole, a masterpiece of dark fantasy and horror by a tremendously inventive writer.

Kaaron Warren

Nonfiction

For Hamilton Hume, Our Greatest Explorer, which brings to life a neglected figure of Australian history in an accessible style.

Robert Macklin

Writing

For providing a platform for women’s writing and talent through her online literature and arts journal Feminartsy.

Zoya Patel

Musicals

For his pitch-perfect performance as the Major- General in the Canberra Philharmonic Society’s production of The Pirates of Penzance.

David Cannell

Musicals

for her outstanding effort in writing, composing, co-directing and producing Acoustic Theatre’s production of her confronting musical The Last Time.

Lucy Matthews

Musicals

for his outstanding performance as Frank Abagnale Junior in Dramatic Productions production of Catch Me If You Can.

Alexander Clubb

Musicals

For her confident direction of Phoenix Theatre’s production of Next to Normal. Its challenges were solved with flair and feeling.

Kelda McManus

Musicals

For its stylish, elegant and effervescent production of Cole Porter’s classic musical, Anything Goes.

Canberra Philharmonic Society

Musicals

For her beautifully realised performance of the enigmatic Fanny Brice in Supa Production’s Funny Girl.

Vanessa de Jaeger

Theatre

For the creativity and excellence of their production of Playhouse Creatures, directed by Jordan Best. An absorbing and atmospheric reminder of the struggles of the first English actresses.

Pigeonhole Theatre

Theatre

For revitalising and advancing Canberra Youth Theatre through three fine youth theatre productions Dead Men’s Wars, a collaborative work with NZ’s Long Cloud Youth Theatre, The Verbatim Project, in collaboration with GOLD, and Antigone, a fresh and original look at a classic play.

Katie Cawthorne

Theatre

For his masterful interpretation of Brecht’s alienation effect as the Narrator in Canberra Repertory’s production of The Threepenny Opera.

Dick Goldberg

Theatre

For the impact and power of her performance as Lady Macbeth in Jordan Best’s production of Macbeth for Canberra Repertory.

Jenna Roberts

Theatre

For his powerful performance in the challenging, complex and diverse role of Dr Raymond Gerrard in The Street Theatre’s Production of Tom Davis’s play The Faithful Servant.

PJ Williams

Theatre

For the fiery, aggressive and often mystifying production Evangeline at the Courtyard Studio, performed in butoh style by a dedicated team of actors.

Chenoeh Miller

Music

For his imaginative and innovative artistic direction and development of the Griffyn Ensemble and for his composition Hanging Rock Cello Sonata.

Michael Sollis

Music

For her dedicated and outstanding leadership of the Canberra Symphony Orchestra as concertmaster, and for her inspired performance as violin soloist in Beethoven’s Triple Concerto for Violin, Cello and Piano in C Major with the National Capital Orchestra

Barbara Jane Gilby

Music

For her 19 year contribution to choral music in Canberra particularly through her inspirational leadership of the Woden Valley Youth Choir.

Alpha Gregory

Music

For fostering the art of percussion, seen in his participation in community events, his creation of The Groove Warehouse and his outstanding concert, The Power of Drum at The Street Theatre.

Gary France

Music

For his wide-ranging conducting practice with the ANU Choral Society, Canberra Gay and Lesbian Qwire, Musica Da Camera and the National Capital Orchestra and especially for his leadership of the Canberra Youth Orchestra.

Leonard Weiss

Music

For their 2016 album, Beginning at the End, taking its cue from 1980s punk in Canberra and reflecting the band’s epic, psychedelic aesthetic.

The Young Docteurs.