It was a huge thumbs up for local theatre – both written and produced here – at last night’s 8th Naledi Theatre Awards held at the Lyric theatre in Gold Reef City.
Two locally written plays, Death of a Colonialist and The Girl in the Yellow Dress, snapped up most of the prizes in their respective categories including best play, best director, best actor and actress, with Butcher Boys, another local winner, edging out competitors as Best Cutting Edge production.
On the musical front, an old favourite in sparkling new guise, Evita, was the big winner of the night, achieving best performers, both male and female, as well as choreographer and best musical.
Another Evita stole the show with her Lifetime Achievement Award following hot on the heels of her alter ego Pieter-Dirk Uys’s special Teddy Award for his outstanding lifetime achievements at the Berlin International Film Festival last month. Our unofficial First Lady’s award was presented to “SA’s most famous white woman”, Evita Bezuidenhout, for her witty, refreshing and fearless observations of the social fabric of our country over the past 30 years.
The Executive Director’s Award was given for three decades of service to Lefra Productions, for their promotion of Afrikaans theatre, one of the few companies which still stages Afrikaans productions (other than at festivals) in Gauteng.
All we’re still carping about is too few people of colour shining at these awards.
For the first time, funding was received from the Lottery Distribution Board as well as regular corporate sponsors, Wharfedale Pro, Matrix Sound, Distell, and Chauvet Lighting, and individual sponsors, Christopher Seabrooke and Percy Tucker.
The Naledi judges are theatre and TV personalities, arts journalists, drama teachers and academics.
The Winners:
BEST MUSICAL: (The Joan Brickhill Award, sponsored by Christopher Seabrooke) Evita – a Pieter Toerien production directed by Paul Warwick Griffin.
BEST PLAY: Death of a Colonialist, produced by The Market Theatre, written by Greg Latter and directed by Craig Freimond.
BEST NEW SOUTH AFRICAN PLAY OR MUSICAL: The Girl in the Yellow Dress, produced by The Market Theatre, Live Theatre (Newcastle) and The Citizen’s Theatre (Glasgow). Directed by Malcolm Purkey and written by Craig Higginson.
BEST ACTOR: Jamie Bartlett, for his portrayal of the veteran teacher Harold Smith in Death of a Colonialist.
BEST ACTRESS: Marianne Oldham, as the English coach in The Girl in the Yellow Dress.
BEST MALE PERFORMANCE IN A MUSICAL: James Borthwick, for his portrayal of Juan Peron in Evita.
BEST FEMALE PERFORMANCE IN A MUSICAL: Angela Kilian, for the title role in Evita.
BEST CUTTING-EDGE PRODUCTION: Butcher Brothers conceived by Daniel Buckland and directed by Sylvaine Strike.
BEST DIRECTOR OF A PLAY OR MUSICAL sponsored by Percy Tucker: Craig Freimond for Death of a Colonialist.
BEST COMEDY PERFORMANCE (PLAY, MUSICAL OR REVUE): Matthew Ribnick in Geraldine Naidoo’s Monkey Nuts.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Nat Ramabulana in Master Harold and the Boys.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Kate Normington in Mamma Mia!
BEST MUSICAL DIRECTOR/SCORE/ARRANGEMENT sponsored by Matrix Sound: Charl-Johan Lingenfelder and Louis Zurnamer (MD) for Evita.
BEST ORIGINAL CHOREOGRAPHY: David Gouldie for Evita.
BEST NEWCOMER/ BREAKTHROUGH (The Brett Goldin Award): Khaya Maseko in African Tapestries.
BEST CHILDREN’S PLAY OR MUSICAL: Beautiful Creatures Produced by Ed Jordan and Alan Glass, in association with Showtime Management. Directed by Paul Warwick Griffin.
BEST THEATRE LIGHTING DESIGN sponsored by Chauvet: Jannie Swanepoel and Gareth Hewitt Williams for Evita.
BEST COSTUME DESIGN: Penny Simpson for Evita.
BEST SET DESIGN: Johan Engels for The Boys in the Photograph.
BEST SOUND DESIGN sponsored by Wharfedale Pro: Freddy Malesa for Songs of Migration.
BEST COMMUNITY THEATRE: The award was shared between: Awaiting Trial directed by Velaphi Mthimkhulu and We Can, This is Our Home directed by Mandla Sibaya.