2018 CAT Awards

The Canberra Repertory Theatre and So Popera Productions from Wollongong were the big winners at the 2018 Canberra Area Theatre Awards.

Each won six CAT awards at the presentation night, held at the Australian National University’s Llewellyn Hall on February 23, 2019.

Judges travelled to 56 community theatres and schools to assess 86 productions from as far south as Eden to as far west as Dubbo.

The Gold Cat award went to Canberra actor and set builder Martin Searles. During the year he was on stage in lead roles in plays and a musical and built the sets for six different productions.

The Silver Cat award went to Joe Woodward and the Daramalan Theatre Company for achieving a consistent and impressively high standard of student productions.

Image: Gold CAT winner Martin Searles.

 

 

The Awards

Best Set for a Play

Sam Lloyd (design), Eric Haslam and Geoff Philpott (construction) and Nikki Bath (scenic design)

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Bay Theatre Players, Batemans Bay

Best Set for a Musical, Variety or Dance Production

Adam Loughlin, Janet Cunningham and Mark Dixon

Into The Woods, Wollongong High School of the Performing Arts

Best Costumes for a Play

Anna Senior

Arms and the Man, Canberra Repertory Society

Best Costumes for a Musical or Variety Show

Fiona Leach

Shrek the Musical, Free-Rain Theatre Company, Canberra

Best Costumes for a School or Youth Production

Joanne Crowe, Ann Philippe and Denise Hiser

Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery, Chevalier College, Bowral

Best Lighting

Adam Loughlin

Into The Woods, Wollongong High School of the Performing Arts

Technical Achievement

The makeup and costume teams

Makeup and costumes for the statues, Mary Poppins, Albatross Musical Theatre Company, Nowra

John Thomson Magic Moment of Theatre

So Popera Productions, Wollongong

Underwater swimming scenes in The Little Mermaid

Best Original Work

Matthew Webster

Original music, Dr Frankenstein, Canberra Repertory Society, Canberra

Best Original Work for a School or Youth Production

Stephen Gersbach, Frederick Klein and senior students

Concept development and original music, Vita Leben, Canberra Grammar School

Best Ensemble in a Play

The chorus

Where in the World is Frank Sparrow?, Oxley College, Bowral

Best Ensemble in a School or Youth Musical

The principal cast

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Oxley College, Bowral

Best Ensemble in a Musical

Christie Green, Shevaun Brown, Christa Radley and Kimberly Harris

Barb, Brooke, Tasha and Amy, Motherhood the Musical, Parkes Musical & Dramatic Society

Best Youth Orchestra

Southern Stars: Iconic

Southern Stars Performing Company Orchestra, NSW Department of Education

Best Orchestra

A Chorus Line

So Popera Productions, Wollongong

Patricia Kelson Encouragement Award

Emma Sollis

First time choreographing a musical, The Wedding Singer, Queanbeyan Players, Queanbeyan

Best Youth Actor in a Featured Role in a Play

Sam Malone

Mr Stapleton in Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery, Chevalier College, Bowral

Best Youth Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical

Travis Neale

Uncle Fester in The Addams Family, Southern Highlands Youth Arts Council (SHYAC), Bowral

Best Youth Actress in a Featured Role in a Play

Beatrice McRobbie

Dr McCann/Nurse Malloy in Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery, Chevalier College, Bowral

Best Youth Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical

Samantha Quilliam

Lady Marmalade in Disco Inferno, St Edmund’s College and St Clare’s College, Canberra

Best Youth Actor in a Leading Role in a Play

Jack Curry

John Proctor in The Crucible, Daramalan Theatre Company, Canberra

Best Youth Actress in a Leading Role in a Play

Mikayla Brady

Elizabeth Proctor in The Crucible, Daramalan Theatre Company, Canberra

Best Youth Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical

Lachlan Mills

Marius in Les Miserables, Albatross Musical Theatre Company, Nowra

Best Youth Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical

Sophie Highmore

Peggy Sawyer in 42nd Street, Free-Rain Theatre Company, Canberra

Best Dance Performance by an Individual or Ensemble

Lillian Grant

Belatrix Lestrange, Mischief Managed, Classical Ballet Centre Canberra

Best Variety Performance by an Individual or Ensemble

Ruby Hawken with Backing Vocalists and the Featured Vocal Ensemble

‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’, Southern Stars: Iconic, NSW Department of Education

Best Actor in a Featured Role in a Play

David Bennett

Colonel Looseleaf Harper in Happy Birthday, Wanda June, Canberra Repertory Society

Best Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical

David Santolin

George in The Wedding Singer, Queanbeyan Players, Queanbeyan

Best Actress in a Featured Role in a Play

Steph Roberts

Dolly in One Man, Two Guvnors, Canberra Repertory Society

Best Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical

Chelsea Heaney

Martha Dunnstock and Pauline Fleming in Heathers, Dramatic Productions, Canberra

Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Play

Arran McKenna

Francis Henshall in One Man, Two Guvnors, Canberra Repertory Society

Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical

Nathan Lomas

Valjean in Les Miserables, Albatross Musical Theatre Company, Nowra

Best Actress in a Leading Role in a Play

Ali Rapp

Olive in Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, CMS Productions, Moss Vale

Best Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical

Belle Nicol

Veronica Sawyer in Heathers, Dramatic Productions, Canberra

Best Choreographer

Teegan McKeen

A Chorus Line, So Popera Productions, Wollongong

Best Musical Direction for a School or Youth Production

Peter Copeland

Southern Stars: Iconic, NSW Department of Education, Albion Park

Best Direction of a School or Youth Musical

Phil Cunich

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Oxley College, Bowral

Best Direction of a School or Youth Play

Kate Price

Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery, Chevalier College, Bowral

Best Musical Direction

Peter Copeland

A Chorus Line, So Popera Productions, Wollongong

Best Direction of a Play

Chris Baldock

One Man, Two Guvnors, Canberra Repertory Society

Best Direction of a Musical or Variety Show

Amy Copeland

A Chorus Line, So Popera Productions, Wollongong

Best Dance Production

Mischief Managed

Classical Ballet Centre Canberra, Canberra

Best Production of a School or Youth Play

Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery

Chevalier College, Bowral

Best Production of a School or Youth Musical

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

Oxley College, Bowral

Best Production of a Variety Show

Southern Stars: Iconic

NSW Department of Education

Best Production of a Play

Summer of the Seventeenth Doll

CMS Productions, Moss Vale

Best Production of a Musical

A Chorus Line

So Popera Productions, Wollongong

SILVER CAT

Joe Woodward and the Daramalan Theatre Company

For achieving a consistently and impressively high standard of student productions, for providing opportunities for, and mentoring students in all areas of theatre, including acting, directing and the composition and performance of original incidental music, and for successfully exposing students to the demands of significant main-stage theatre pieces, including, this year, Arthur Miller’s The Crucible.

GOLD CAT

Martin Searles

For versatility and achievement in acting and set design throughout theyear with a range of companies. Martin appeared in lead roles in both musical and straight theatre, including in Radio on Repertory Lane, 12 Angry Men, and Shrek the Musical. He also designed, or co-designed, the sets for 42nd Street, Fame and Shrek the Musical.

CAT Awards Commendation

NOTE: This is a non-award category.

The CAT Awards commends the following companies and acknowledges the special contribution they have made over the last year to theatre and to the community.

St John Paul II College, Canberra

For inagural production of The Greatest Show: A Vaudeville, marking the ‘coming of age of performing arts in the college’

“Legs” Dance, Canberra

For inclusiveness of parents and special needs groups

ANU Med Revue, Canberra

For donating proceeds of Freaky M.I. Day to Companion House

Australian Defence Force Academy Performing Arts Company, Canberra

For donating all proceeds from High School Musical to Legacy

Dramatic Productions, Canberra

For raising over $12,500 for local charities through donating a proportion of takings from Heathers

Michael Sparks, Canberra Repertory Society

For participating in the Leukemia Foundation’s World’s Greatest Shave while preparing for the role of the Creature in Dr Frankenstein, raising $1,200 which he donated in honour of Naoné Carrol

Parkes Musical & Dramatic Society

For strong community engagement in attracting community support and council funding

Queanbeyan Players

For raising money for Headspace National Youth Mental Health Foundation during production of Godspell

Wagga Wagga School of Arts Inc SOACT

Celebrating tenth anniversary of annual TenX10 Festival