Fleur du Cap awards will be classical

ELEGANCE is the name of the game at this year’s Fleur du Cap Theatre Awards, which take place next Sunday.

The tickets are sold out and rehearsals are in full swing for the 48th annual award ceremony, which will be hosted at the Artscape Arena this year.

Renowed director Lara Bye (assisted by Thando Doni, 2012 Emerging Director’s bursary recipient and director in his own right) says they’ve gone the classic route this year, “because it’s beautiful and uplifting”.

Her brief was to work with the companies sponsored by the Distel Foundation which funds the awards, and a subsequent production meeting opened up all sorts of possibilities.

“The more I looked and listened, the more I fell in love with the classical theme. One doesn’t want it to be a hodge-podge variety theme, there needs to be an overall theme. Alan Committee interacting with a classical orchestra opens up all sorts of possibilities,” said Bye.

The 23-strong Cape Town Opera Voice of the Nation Ensemble will be on stage, alongside the Cape Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, to lend gravitas to the evening.

“What I like about the classics and having the live orchestra to play with – it makes for an incredibly elegant evening. So, I thought, let’s put the orchestra on stage, with the conductor in a tux and tails and have that reflect the mood of the evening.”

She says the orchestra has approached her with several ideas and she’s encouraging them to take a moment to shine.

“I said, do something where you can really show off, where you’re really spectacular, so there’s three and half minutes of orchestra wow,” according to Bye.

Other entertainment for the evening will be courtesy of Dance for All (who will present an original work by Margie Sim entitled Shades of Lavender), iKapa Dance Theatre and SA Mzansi ballet dancer Jonathan Rodrigues from Brazil with Michaela DePrince, who made her professional debut as a guest artist with the South African Mzansi Ballet Company in Joburg last year.

Allan Committee and Afrika Melane will be the hosts, keeping the evening moving along swiftly.

Bye is keeping the entertainers on a tight lease – there’ll be no indulgent song and dance moments because “the focus of the evening is the achievements of the theatre industry”.

The awards went hi-tech this year for the People’s Choice Awards which allowed members of the public to vote for their favourite 2012 production by SMSes on the Facebook page.

Voting closed last week and the winner will be announced on the evening.

There’s no puppet category this year, so in all 20 awards will be handed out, including the Award for Innovation in Theatre and the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Check Tonight next week for the winners.