2016 Rob Guest Endowment Awards Announced
Organisers of The Rob Guest Endowment have launched the 2016 Rob Guest Endowment Awards. The Rob Guest Endowment is one of Australia’s most exciting scholarship programs providing financial assistance and industry support to the next generation of musical theatre stars, creators and musicians. Applications for all awards are now open and the winners will be announced at the Rob Guest Endowment Concert to be held in Sydney in November 2016. The 2016 prize package is valued at over $50,000, including the $20,000 major prize, the Rob Guest Endowment Award.
Performance-based awards seek out Australia’s brightest and most talented young rising stars by putting them through a gruelling audition process. Six finalists will showcase their talent at the Rob Guest Endowment Concert and the winner will take home the highly coveted Rob Guest Endowment Award of $20,000. Applicants also compete for Melbourne's East End Theatre District Artist Development Award, a $5,000 prize and the Playbill Future Prospect Award, a cash prize of $1,500. The four remaining finalists will each take home $1,500.
Past finalists of the Rob Guest Endowment Award can be seen in lead roles in musical theatre around Australia. Past winners and runners up include Daniel Assetta (WICKED, Cats), Blake Bowden (South Pacific, Fiddler on the Roof), Francine Cain (Grease), Andrew Cook (Matilda the Musical), Samantha Leigh Dodemaide (Violet, Singing in the Rain), Euan Doidge (Les Miserables, Kinky Boots), Edward Grey (WICKED), Glenn Hill (Matilda the Musical), Robert McDougall (Les Miserables), Joshua Robson (Les Miserables) and Gretel Scarlett (Grease, Singin’ in the Rain).
The Rob Guest Endowment Technical Award in Honour of Sue Nattrass and The Rob Guest Endowment Musician Award will again be presented in 2016. These awards, introduced in 2014, are fully funded by the Capitol Theatre and Sydney Lyric and include a $10,000 cash prize intended to help the recipients become leaders in their field. These awards are open to all practitioners working or seeking to work backstage and in orchestra pits of musical theatre shows around the country. The winners will be announced at the 2016 concert.
The Rob Guest Endowment executive committee, Kellie Dickerson, Stephen Found and Bernadette Hayes, are thrilled that the total prize pool has increased to over $50,000 this year. Rob Guest Endowment Patron, John Frost, says that the Rob Guest Endowment Awards are an incredible legacy and continue to give back to the industry as it grows. “This is a unique set of awards honouring a much-loved musical theatre star. Rob Guest was an inspiration to all, and a great teacher and mentor to those he worked with,” said John Frost. “The Rob Guest Endowment Awards continue to inspire and foster the growth of the musical theatre industry, and it’s gratifying to see how it has assisted so many young musical theatre performers over the past seven years.”
More information on the Rob Guest Endowment Concert will be provided at a later date.
Entries for all awards can be submitted via www.robguestendowment.com.au by 1 August 2016 for the Performers Awards, and by 1 October 2016 for the Technical and Musician Awards. For more information, please contact toby@gordonfrost.com.au
Image: Georgina Hopson, Blake Appelqvist, Hilary Cole, Daniel Assetta, Ashleigh Rubenach and Robert McDougall © Robert Catto.