CELEBRATING their 50th birthday this year, the annual Fleur du Cap Theatre Awards go vintage, taking over the Artscape Theatre space and awarding the luminaries of local theatre on Sunday.
The Fleur du Cap Theatre Awards each carry a cash prize of R15 000 and each recipient is also given a silver medallion. Sponsored by the Distell Foundation, the awards are meant to support the development of the performing arts by rewarding theatre excellence.
Five decades ago the awards started as the Three Leaf Awards with six categories and only 17 eligible productions. These days winners are chosen from productions with a run of at least eight performances over a three-week period at the same venue. This year there are 18 categories and a total of 74 productions were eligible for consideration.
In addition to traditional categories such as Best Actor, Director and Actress, a Lifetime Achievement Award and an Award for Innovation will be handed out this year.
Previous Fleur du Cap Theatre Award winners include the director of this year’s ceremony, Christopher Weare. Founder of the Intimate Theatre and recently retired as an associate professor at UCT Drama School, Weare has won four Fleur du Cap Theatre Awards in his own right and is the one who chose “vintage celebration” as this year’s theme.
His approach will be to incorporate the award’s role in the growth of local theatre over the years with a celebration of the best people currently working on stage and behind the scenes in Cape Town.
He will direct veteran actor Andrew Buckland, slam poet Kholeka Putuma, Trevino Isaac’s band Eminent (which is directed by Alistair Izobell), Not The Midnight Mass (Graham and Christine Weir, Tina Schouw and Donal Slemon), dancer Grant van Ster and the Figure of Eight Dance Collective plus actors from the UCT Drama School, which include four 2014 Fleur du Cap Theatre Award nominees.
Comedian Alan Committee has woven himself into Fleur du Cap history as one of the funniest MCs ever, and will host the proceedings for the sixth time.
In addition, Artscape’s creative manager, Mandla Mbothwe, will be curating installations in various public spaces throughout the venue, hinting broadly at the award’s sponsor Distell by finding links between the arts of winemaking and theatremaking, drawing “correlations from the various stages of winemaking such as farming, harvesting, the waiting for the right time and patience which are needed for both processes.
The ceremony currently alternates between the Artscape and Baxter Theatre Centres, and this year for the first time it will be held in the Opera House venue at Artscape.
• The Fleur du Cap Theatre Awards take place on Sunday at 6pm at Artscape. Tickets are R200 from Computicket. Follow the awards on Twitter @FDCTheatreAwards or use #FDCTheaterAwards.