Following is a summary of each CONDA Awards ceremony, dating back to the first presentation held in 1979 at the Civic Theatre.

 

 

 

1st CONDA Awards – 1979

 

Professional categories

 

Production: Cabaret (Hunter Valley Theatre Company)

 

Actress in a leading role: Jennifer McGregor, Cabaret

 

Actor in a leading role: Robert Alexander, Flexitime (HVTC)

 

Supporting role, male and female: Valerie Bader, Cabaret (Hunter Valley Theatre Company)

 

Director: Terence Clarke, Flexitime and Jonah (Newcastle University Drama Department)

 

Non-professional categories

 

Production: Waiting for Godot (University Drama)

 

One-act play: The Critic (University Drama)

 

Actress in a leading role: Nola Wallace, Man of La Mancha (Novocastrian Productions)

 

Actor in a leading role: Stephen Abbott, Waiting for Godot (University Drama) and Jonathan Biggins, The Critic (University Drama) – tie

 

Supporting role, male and female: Marcus Williams, Waiting for Godot (University Drama)

 

Director: Robert Page, Waiting for Godot (University Drama) 

 

Special award Rita Keevers for a consistent high standard of set design in non-professional productions at Newcastle Repertory Club

 

The Year:

 

• Held at the Civic Theatre, honouring theatrical work presented in 1979. A total of 37 productions were eligible. The awards were presented during the first-half hour of a Civic Theatre golden jubilee concert on Friday, December 7.
• The Civic Theatre was 50 years old in December 1979 and Newcastle City Council was looking for a way of celebrating the event on an on-going basis. A senior council officer who was a keen theatre-goer suggested theatre awards.
• Hunter Valley Theatre Company, the region’s first professional theatre company, staged its initial shows in 1976. While HVTC sat out 1978 because of financial problems, it was in action again at the start of 1979 and for its second production of the year, the musical Cabaret, it moved into a new theatre, the Civic Playhouse.
• Newcastle had four theatre critics at that time – Marjorie Biggins (ABC Radio), John Harris (The Newcastle Sun), Ken Longworth (The Newcastle Herald) and Lucy Wagner (NBN Television) – and all agreed to judge the awards.
• The council was vague about what it wanted, except to stipulate that professional and non-professional theatre work alike should be recognised.

 

 

 

2nd CONDA Awards – 1980

 

Professional categories

 

Production: Travelling North (HVTC)

 

Actress in a leading role: Carol Raye, Travelling North (HVTC)

 

Actor in a leading role: Don Barker, Henry IV, Part I (HVTC)

 

Actress in a supporting role: Myfanwy Morgan, Bedroom Farce (HVTC)

 

Actor in a supporting role: Frank Garfield, Travelling North (HVTC)

 

Director: Aarne Neeme, The Star Show (HVTC)

 

Non-professional categories

 

Production: Spring Awakening (University Drama)

 

Actress in a leading role: Nola Wallace, A Toast to Melba (University Drama)

 

Actor in a leading role: Terence Crawford, The Corn is Green (Newcastle Repertory Club)

 

Actress in a supporting role: Julie McGregor, Wait Until Dark (West End Theatre Club)

 

Actor in a supporting role: Stephen Clark, A Toast to Melba (University Drama)

 

Director: Shirley Bloomfield, The Prisoner of Second Avenue (Newcastle Repertory)

 

Special award Colin Chapman, for a lifetime of immeasurable contribution to Newcastle theatre

 

Special award Allan McFadden, original musical score, The Star Show

 

 

 

3rd CONDA Awards – 1981

 

Professional categories

 

Production: Essington Lewis: I Am Work (HVTC)

 

Actress in a leading role: Lorrie Cruickshank, No Names, No Pack Drill (HVTC)

 

Actor in a leading role: Vic Rooney, Essington Lewis: I Am Work and John Doyle, Habeas Corpus (HVTC) – tie

 

Actress in a supporting role: Julie Kirby, The Playboy of the Western World (HVTC)

 

Actor in a supporting role: David Wood, Essington Lewis: I Am Work (HVTC)

 

Director: Aarne Neeme, Essington Lewis: I Am Work (HVTC)

 

Technical achievement: Brian Nickless, set design, Essington Lewis: I Am Work (HVTC)

 

Non-professional categories

 

Production:  Five Finger Exercise (Newcastle Repertory)

 

Actress in a leading role: Betty Griffiths, Five Finger Exercise (Newcastle Repertory)

 

Actor in a leading role: Richard Davies, Five Finger Exercise (Newcastle Repertory)

 

Actress in a supporting role: Donna Eagle, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll (Newcastle College of Advanced Education)

 

Actor in a supporting role: Gary MacLean, The Mystery Plays (Newcastle University English Department)

 

Director: Peter Bloomfield, Five Finger Exercise (Newcastle Repertory)

 

Technical achievement: Ian Partland and Steve Harris, set design, Beyond Mozambique (University Drama)

 

Special award William and Elizabeth Ford, for their immeasurable contribution to children’s theatre in Newcastle

 

Special award John O’Donoghue, playwright, Essington Lewis: I Am Work (HVTC)

 

 

 

4th CONDA Awards – 1982

 

Professional categories

 

Production: Forget-Me-Not Lane (HVTC)

 

Actress in a leading role: Julie Hudspeth, The Man from Mukinupin (HVTC) and Julie McGregor *, Big River (HVTC) – tie

 

Actor in a leading role: Jonathan Biggins, The Man from Mukinupin (HVTC) 

 

Actress in a supporting role: Merilyn Hey, Forget-Me-Not Lane (HVTC) 

 

Actor in a supporting role: Allan McFadden, Forget-Me-Not Lane (HVTC) 

 

Director: Aarne Neeme, Forget-Me-Not Lane (HVTC) 

 

Technical achievement: Jeanette Wood, choreography, West Side Story (HVTC)

 

Non-professional categories

 

Production: Kid Stakes (Newcastle Repertory)

 

Actress in a leading role: Sian Newey, Statements (Mainskip Theatre Co)

 

Actor in a leading role: Gary MacLean, Woyzeck (University Drama)

 

Actress in a supporting role: Carol Davis, Kid Stakes (Newcastle Repertory)

 

Actor in a supporting role: Stephen Clark, Salome (University Drama)

 

Director: Estelle Pryor, Princess Ida (Newcastle Gilbert and Sullivan Players)

 

Technical achievement: Don McEwen, set design, Winterthing (Young People’s Theatre)

 

Special award Newcastle Repertory Club, for 25 years of continuous achievement in Newcastle theatre

 

Commonwealth Bank award for the performance of the year Carol Davis, Kid Stakes (Newcastle Repertory)

 

* A different Julie McGregor to the 1980 winner. Big River’s Julie McGregor is a Sydney-based actress-singer; Wait Until Dark’s Julie McGregor was a Newcastle resident

 

 

 

5th CONDA Awards – 1983

 

Professional categories

 

Production:  Mission: Molly Morgan (HVTC)

 

Actress: Angela Moore, Back to Front Room (The Castanet Club)

 

Actor: John Stone, The Removalists (HVTC)

 

Director: Brent McGregor, Mission: Molly Morgan (HVTC)

 

Technical achievement: James Bennett, production design, Noyes Fludde (The Noyes Fludde Committee), and Michael Bell, set design, Mission: Molly Morgan (HVTC) – tie

 

Non-professional categories

 

Production: Christie in Love (2 Til 5 Theatre)

 

Actress in a leading role: Kim Naggs, Absurd Person Singular (Newcastle Repertory)

 

Actor in a leading role: Terry Clinton and Richard Davies, both for Philadelphia, Here I Come! (Newcastle Repertory) – tie

 

Actress in a supporting role: Helen Walker, Lock Up Your Daughters (Newcastle Dramatic Art Club)

 

Actor in a supporting role: Jason Rapp, The Innocents (Newcastle Repertory)

 

Director: Wendy Leis, Nola Wallace and Richard Davies, The Golden Masque of Agamemnon (YPT)

 

Technical achievement: Elaine Boyd, musical direction, HMS Pinafore (Newcastle G and S)

 

Commonwealth Bank award for the performance of the year John Stone, The Removalists (HVTC)

 

 

 

6th CONDA Awards – 1984 

 

Professional categories

 

Production: Are You Lonesome Tonight? (HVTC)

 

Actress in a leading role: Pat Thomson, A Hard God (HVTC)

 

Actor in a leading role: Mikel (Mikey) Robins, Are You Lonesome Tonight? (HVTC)

 

Director: Ken Boucher, The Chapel Perilous (University Drama)

 

Technical achievement: James Bennett, production design, All the King’s Men (The Noyes Fludde Committee)

 

Non-professional categories

 

Production: Florrie (University Drama)

 

Actress in a leading role: Celia Ireland, She Stoops to Conquer (YPT)

 

Actor in a leading role: Allan Roberts, She Stoops to Conquer (YPT)

 

Actress in a supporting role: Dorothy White, On the Wallaby (Newcastle Repertory)

 

Actor in a supporting role: Hugh Gordon, The Kid (NCAE)

 

Director: Wendy Leis, Snoopy (YPT)

 

Technical achievement: Paddy Newey, set design, Voices (Wood Street Theatre) and Greg Walpole, set design, Dancers in the Minefield (2 Til 5) – tie

 

Commonwealth Bank award for the performance of the year Celia Ireland, She Stoops to Conquer (YPT)

 

 

 

7th CONDA Awards – 1985  

 

Professional categories

 

Production: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (HVTC)

 

Actress in a leading role: Lindy Davies, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (HVTC)

 

Actor in a leading role: Vic Rooney, The One Day of the Year (HVTC)

 

Director: Brent McGregor, The One Day of the Year (HVTC)

 

Technical achievement: Gary Pedler, set design, Kotara, Kotara (University Drama)

 

Non-professional categories

 

Production: Jack the Ripper (Newcastle Repertory)

 

Actress in a leading role: Amanda Helmers, Sweet Charity (Metropolitan Players)

 

Actor in a leading role: Allan Richards, Oliver! (YPT) and Steven Wilson, Hitting Town (University Drama) – tie

 

Actress in a supporting role: Natalie White, The Gingerbread Lady (Newcastle Repertory)

 

Actor in a supporting role: Michael Blaxland, The Gingerbread Lady (Newcastle Repertory)

 

Director: Michael Blaxland, Jack the Ripper (Newcastle Repertory)

 

Technical achievement: Glenn Stuart Beatty, production and lighting design, The Duchess of Malfi (University Drama)

 

Commonwealth Bank award for the performance of the year Vic Rooney, The One Day of the Year (HVTC)

 

 

 

8th CONDA Awards – 1986

 

Professional categories

 

Production: Don’t Pay! Don’t Pay! (HVTC)

 

Actress: Ruth Cracknell, Machiavelli, Machiavelli (HVTC)

 

Actor: Andrew Martin, What If You Died Tomorrow (HVTC)

 

Director: Ian B. Watson, Don’t Pay! Don’t Pay! (HVTC)

 

Technical achievement: Derrick Cox, production design, The Real Thing (HVTC)

 

Non-professional categories

 

Dramatic production: Bert and Maisy (Newcastle Repertory)

 

Musical production: Under Review (Newcastle Repertory)

 

Actress (two awards): Tracy Cowan, Gypsy (Metropolitan Players) and Celia Ireland, As You Like It (Newcastle Repertory)

 

Actor: Tom White, Bert and Maisy (Newcastle Repertory)

 

Director: Jane Goodall, The Bedbug (University Drama)

 

Technical achievement: Paul Zorzi, musical direction, Under Review (Newcastle Repertory)

 

Commonwealth Bank award for outstanding achievement in Newcastle theatre Derrick Cox and Brent McGregor, set concept and design, The Real Thing (HVTC)

 

 

 

9th CONDA Awards – 1987

 

Professional categories

 

Production: Master Class (HVTC)

 

Actress: Liddy Clark, Educating Rita (HVTC)

 

Actor: Mark Butler, Master Class (HVTC)

 

Director: Victor Emeljanow, Master Class (HVTC)

 

Technical achievement: Tom Bannerman, production design, Master Class (HVTC)

 

Non-professional categories

 

Dramatic production: Triclops (2 Til 5 Youth Theatre)

 

Musical production: Patience (Newcastle G and S)

 

Actress (two awards): Linda Barcan, The Sound of Music (YPT) and Carol Davis, But I’m Still Here (Newcastle Repertory)

 

Actor (two awards): Stephen Jolly and Barry Shepherd, both for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (Newcastle Repertory)

 

Director: David Berthold, Cloud Nine (University Drama)

 

Technical achievement: Neville Allanson and John Stevenson, set design, Fiddler on the Roof (Newcastle Light Opera Company)

 

Commonwealth Bank award for outstanding achievement in Newcastle theatre Rohan Cattell, playwright, The Plumber’s Rope (staged as part of Triclops)

 

Special award Madge Ormerod, in recognition of a lifetime of achievement as an actress and administrator in Newcastle theatre

 

 

 

10th CONDA Awards – 1988

 

Professional categories

 

Production: The Magic Flute (The Hunter Opera, later Opera Hunter)

 

Performance (male and female): Peter Binning, The Bear (The Sound Construction Company) and Barry Shepherd, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll (HVTC) – tie

 

Director: Victor Emeljanow, The Caretaker (University Drama)

 

Technical achievement: James Jablonski, lighting design, The Magic Flute (The Hunter Opera, later Opera Hunter)

 

Non-professional categories

 

Dramatic production: Romeo and Juliet (University Drama)

 

Musical production: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (YPT)

 

Actress: Michaela Bolzan, Romeo and Juliet (University Drama) 

Actor in a leading role: Robert Simm, The Caretaker (University Drama)

Actor in a supporting role: David Berthold, Romeo and Juliet (University Drama) and Alan Bodenham, Season’s Greetings (Newcastle Repertory) – tie

 

Director: Isobel Denholm, Season’s Greetings (Newcastle Repertory)

 

Technical achievement: Mark Newland, fight choreography, Romeo and Juliet (University Drama)

 

Commonwealth Bank award for outstanding achievement in Newcastle theatre The Hunter Opera, for an exceptional blending of professional production expertise and non-professional talent in The Magic Flute; and Teresa Conicella, Richard Davies and Peter Ross, for the imaginative concept and innovative staging of The Ninth Wave (YPT) – tie.

 

Special award Newcastle Dramatic Art Club, for 50 years of service to Newcastle theatre

 

 

 

11th CONDA Awards – 1989

 

Professional categories

 

Production: La Traviata (Bi-Lo, The Australian Opera, The Hunter Orchestra)

 

Actress: Helen Mutkins, When I Was a Girl I Used to Scream and Shout (HVTC)

 

Actor: Geoff Cartwright, Arms and the Man (HVTC)

 

Director: Stefo Nantsou, Workforce (Zeal Theatre)

 

Technical achievement: Brian Nickless, set design, Junk (Freewheels Theatre)

 

Open category

 

New play written for a Newcastle company: Ray Kelly, Get Up and Dance (Freewheels)

 

Non-professional categories

 

Dramatic production: Time and Time Again (Newcastle Repertory)

 

Musical production: Sweeney Todd – The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Novocastrian Productions)

 

Actress (two awards): Rebecca Brandon, Magic Afternoon (University Drama) and Nola Wallace, Sweeney Todd – The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Novocastrian Productions)

 

Actor (two awards): Peter Ross, Sweeney Todd – The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Novocastrian Productions) and Michael Smythe, You Can’t Take It With You (Newcastle Repertory)

 

Director: Don McEwen, Sweeney Todd – The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Novocastrian Productions)

 

Technical achievement: Angela Fraser and Fiona Mundie, costumes, Billy and the Garbage Monsters (Footlice Comedy Theatre, later Footlice Theatre Company)

 

Commonwealth Bank award for outstanding achievement in Newcastle theatre Don McEwen, for Sweeney Todd – The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Novocastrian Productions); he persevered in trying to turn a long-held dream into reality and succeeded magnificently.

 

 

 

12th CONDA Awards – 1990

 

Professional categories

 

Production: ?Not Me, Mate! (Freewheels)

 

Actress: Lorna Lesley, Other Times (HVTC)

 

Actor: Brendan Higgins, Noel and Gertie (HVTC)

 

Director: Brent McGregor and Stefo Nantsou, Ghost Planet (HVTC and Zeal)

 

Technical achievement: James Jablonski, stage design and lighting, Spring Awakening (University Drama)

 

Open category

 

New play written for a Newcastle company: Alana Thompson and Freewheels cast, from an original script by Michelle Gosper, ?Not Me, Mate!

 

Non-professional categories

 

Dramatic production: The Golden Legion of Cleaning Women (NDAC)

 

Musical production: Triple Bill (University Drama, Dance Nouveau and the Sound Construction Co)

 

Actress (two awards): Rachel Blackman, Spring Awakening (University Drama) and Michaela Bolzan, The Kid (University Drama)

 

Actor (two awards): Lawrence Aitchison, Away (Newcastle Repertory) and Glenn Hazeldine, Spring Awakening (University Drama)

 

Director: Barry O’Connor, Spring Awakening (University Drama)

 

Technical achievement: Brian Lowe, set design, My Sister in This House (Newcastle Repertory)

 

Commonwealth Bank award for outstanding achievement in Newcastle theatre Freewheels Theatre, for the range and quality of its work

 

 

 

13th CONDA Awards – 1991

 

Professional categories

 

Production: Boss of the Pool (Freewheels)

 

Actress: Meg Dunn, Debts (Zeal)

 

Actor: Richard Davies, Twelfth Night (HVTC)

 

Director: Brent McGregor and David Watt, Aftershocks (Workers Cultural Action Committee, HVTC and University Drama)

 

Technical achievement: Deirdre Burges, set design, The Popular Mechanicals (Freewheels)

 

Open category

 

New play written for a Newcastle company: Paul Brown, Aftershocks (Workers Cultural Action Committee, HVTC and University Drama)

 

Non-professional categories

 

Dramatic production: A Night With Robinson Crusoe (Newcastle Repertory)

 

Musical production: My Fair Lady (Newcastle Light Opera Co)

 

Actress (two awards): Isobel Denholm, Harvey (Newcastle Repertory) and Dorothy White, I Remember Mama (Newcastle Repertory)

 

Actor (two awards): Alan Bodenham, The Sunshine Boys (Newcastle Repertory), and Frank Lind, My Fair Lady (Newcastle Light Opera Co)

 

Director: Michael Blaxland, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Newcastle Repertory)

 

Technical achievement: Mark Gauntlett and Caroline Stacey, set design concept, The Revenger’s Tragedy (University Drama)

 

Commonwealth Bank award for outstanding achievement in Newcastle theatre: Newcastle Repertory Club for the consistently high standard of its productions

 

 

 

14th CONDA Awards – 1992

 

Professional categories

 

Production: A Property of the Clan (Freewheels)

 

Actress: Julie Kirby, Stories of Her Life (University Drama)

 

Actor: Mark Newland, A Property of the Clan (Freewheels)

 

Director: Barney Langford, Disorder: I Heard They Did It For Kicks (2 Til 5)

 

Technical achievement: Sharon Raschke, piano accompaniment, South Pacific (NDAC)

 

Open category

 

New play written for a Newcastle company: Nick Enright, A Property of the Clan (Freewheels)

 

Non-professional categories

 

Dramatic production: Disorder: I Heard They Did It For Kicks (2 Til 5)

 

Musical production: South Pacific (NDAC)

 

Actress (two awards): Janet Gillam, Woman in Mind (Newcastle Repertory) and Susie Porter, Henceforward . . . (University Drama)

 

Actor (three awards): Robert Dalton, A Hard God (NDAC), Michael Saunders, South Pacific (NDAC), and Michael Single, The Venetian Twins (Newcastle Repertory)

 

Director: Frank Lind and Betty Lind, South Pacific (NDAC)

 

Technical achievement: Doreen Severn, costume design, The Venetian Twins (Newcastle Repertory)

 

Commonwealth Bank award for outstanding achievement in Newcastle theatre: Brian Joyce, for his courage and determination in nurturing and developing A Property of the Clan (Freewheels)

 

The Year

 

The awards were held at Newcastle Workers Club, while the Civic was being refurbished.

 

 

 

15th CONDA Awards – 1993

 

Professional categories

 

Production: Macbeth (HVTC)

 

Actress: Julie Hudspeth, Abbie and Lou, Norman and Rose (HVTC)

 

Actor: Barry Shepherd, Money and Friends (HVTC)

 

Director: Alana Thompson, The Yinga-Binga Bird (Freewheels)

 

Technical achievement: Marion Giles, set design, Sandy Holler (Hunter Workers Theatre)

 

Open category

 

New play written for a Newcastle company: Brian Joyce, Wiped (Freewheels)

 

Non-professional categories

 

Dramatic production: A Month of Sundays (Newcastle Repertory)

 

Musical production: The Medium (Opera Hunter)

 

Actress (two awards): Sarah Aubrey, Too Young for Ghosts (University Drama) and Maylise Dent, Gum and Goo (2 Til 5)

 

Actor (two awards): David Gubbay, Plaza Suite (Intimate Theatre Co) and Tim Richards, The Removalists (University Drama)

 

Director: Bill Keir, Absence (Footlice)

 

Technical achievement: Neil Mansfield, costume design, Follies (Metropolitan Players), and Sandra Roals, costume design, Pinocchio (YPT) – tie

 

Commonwealth Bank award for outstanding achievement in Newcastle theatre: Kingston Anderson, for restoring HVTC to the position of community leadership it should hold as a regional professional theatre company.

 

Special award: Pat Charker, musician, for her 25 years of service to youth theatre at YPT

 

 

 

16th CONDA Awards – 1994

 

Professional categories

 

Production: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (HVTC and Freewheels)

 

Actress: Anne Frost, Letters from the Inside (Freewheels)

 

Actor: Rod Ansell, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (HVTC and Freewheels)

 

Director: Brian Joyce, Letters from the Inside (Freewheels)

 

Technical achievement: Vicki Newman, set design, Letters from the Inside (Freewheels)

 

Open category

 

New play written for a Newcastle company: Vanessa Bates, Here is the Beehive (Freewheels)

 

Non-professional categories

 

Dramatic production: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (NDAC)

 

Musical production: Oklahoma! (NDAC)

 

One-act production: Line (University Drama)

 

Actress (two awards): Amanda Helmers, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (NDAC) and Jenny Newman, Man of La Mancha (Novocastrian Productions)

 

Actor (two awards): Carl Caulfield, Christie in Love (Hunter Workers Theatre), and Jonathon Lewis, Teen Sex Scandal (2 Til 5)

 

Director: Peggy Thompson, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (NDAC)

 

Technical achievement: Don McEwen and Alex Adams, set design, Brigadoon (Novocastrian Productions)

 

Commonwealth Bank award for outstanding achievement in Newcastle theatre: Amanda Helmers, for consistently excellent work as actor and choreographer.

 

 

 

17th CONDA Awards – 1995

 

Professional categories

 

Production: Les Miserables (Opera Hunter)

 

Actress: Jennifer Barnes, Madama Butterfly (Opera Hunter)

 

Actor: Brian Joyce, A Drink on the Bard (Freewheels)

 

Director: Matthew Lazarus Hall, Les Miserables (Opera Hunter)

 

Technical achievement: Gregg Carson, set design, Julius Caesar (Zeal)

 

Open category

 

New play written for a Newcastle company: Brian Joyce and Mark Gauntlett, A Drink on the Bard (Freewheels)

 

Non-professional categories

 

Dramatic production: Playhouse Creatures (University Drama)

 

Musical production: Into the Woods (Novocastrian Productions)

 

One-act production: Darling Oscar (Novocastrian Productions)

 

Actress (two awards): Jenny Newman, Into the Woods (Novocastrian Productions) and Kate Sweeny, Playhouse Creatures (University Drama)

 

Actor (two awards): David Gubbay, The Prisoner of Second Avenue (Intimate Theatre Co) and David Yarrow, Darling Oscar (Novocastrian Productions)

 

Director: Greg Gascoine, The Prisoner of Second Avenue (Intimate Theatre Co)

 

Technical achievement: Daniella McEwen, costume design, Into the Woods (Novocastrian Productions)

 

Newcastle City Council award for outstanding achievement in Newcastle theatre: Opera Hunter, for showing that large-scale productions could be staged successfully with modest amounts of money

 

 

 

18th CONDA Awards – 1996

 

Professional categories

 

Production: Banana Peel Moon (Freewheels)

 

Actress: Katinka Smit, Oleanna  (Flying Teapot Theatre)

 

Actor: David Wood, S.A.O. (Freewheels)

 

Director: Aarne Neeme, S.A.O. (Freewheels)

 

Technical achievement: Don McEwen, set design, Banana Peel Moon (Freewheels)

 

Open category

 

New play written for a Newcastle company: Mark Reedman, Steel Street Blues (2 Til 5 and Workers Cultural Action Committee)

 

Non-professional categories

 

Dramatic production: Steel Street Blues (Freewheels)

 

Musical production: Godspell (NDAC)

 

One-act production: Countdown (University Drama)

 

Actress (two awards): Alison Cox, Me and My Girl (NDAC) and Dawn Richmond, Blithe Spirit (Intimate)

 

Actor (two awards): Glenn Horne, Me and My Girl (NDAC) and Jon Purdy, The Flaw (2 Til 5)

 

Director: Sharon McMillan and Bonnie McMillan, D-Tension (Tandem Theatre for Youth)

 

Technical achievement: Brian Lowe, set design, God’s Favourite (Intimate)

 

Newcastle City Council award for outstanding achievement in Newcastle theatre: 2 Til 5 Youth Theatre, for a year-long program that reached out to help disadvantaged young people, as well as entertaining audiences.

 

 

 

19th CONDA Awards – 1997

 

Professional categories

 

Production: Essington Lewis: I Am Work (HVTC)

 

Actress: No award (too few female roles)

 

Actor: Vic Rooney, Essington Lewis: I Am Work (HVTC)

 

Director: Aarne Neeme, Essington Lewis: I Am Work (HVTC)

 

Technical achievement: Adam Lindberg, set design, Gary’s House (HVTC and Eureka Theatre)

 

Open category

 

New play written for a Newcastle company: Louise Walpole, Babylon (Tantrum Theatre)

 

Non-professional categories

 

Dramatic production: Lend Me a Tenor (Newcastle Repertory)

 

Musical production: Jesus Christ Superstar (Novocastrian Productions)

 

Actress in a drama or comedy: Janet Gillam, Money and Friends (Newcastle Repertory)

 

Actor in a drama or comedy: Ewen Sutherland, The One Day of the Year (NDAC)

 

Actress in a musical: Tracy Cowan, High Society (Metropolitan)

 

Actor in a musical: Derek Dowding, Oliver! (Opera Hunter and YPT)

 

Director: Carl Caulfield, Hitler Dances (University Drama)

 

Technical achievement: Kristy Mansfield, choreography, 42nd Street (Metropolitan)

 

Newcastle City Council award for outstanding achievement in Newcastle theatre: Ross Fiddes (composer) and Paul Kavanagh (librettist) for their work-in-progress, Abelard and Heloise

 

The Year

 

* 1997 set the record for the highest number of eligible shows - 90.

 

* This was a year when the bicentenary celebration of the discovery of the site of Newcastle by Lieutenant John Shortland saw extra money available for theatre works.

 

 

 

20th CONDA Awards – 1998

 

Professional categories

 

Production: The Maids (Flying Teapot Theatre)

 

Actress: Angela Shone, The Maids (Flying Teapot Theatre)

 

Actor: Carl Caulfield, Being Sellers (Stray Dogs)

 

Director: Don McEwen, The Diary of Anne Frank (Newcastle Theatre Co)

 

Technical achievement: Craig Goddard, sound design, The Diary of Anne Frank (Newcastle Theatre Co)

 

Open category

 

New play written for a Newcastle company: Mark Reedman, Die Teenage Scum Die! (2 Til 5)

 

Non-professional categories

 

Dramatic production: The Glass Menagerie (NDAC)

 

Musical production: The Mikado (Mission Theatre)

 

Actress in a drama or comedy: Nola Wallace, The Glass Menagerie (NDAC)

 

Actor in a drama or comedy: Chris Kelly, The Glass Menagerie (NDAC)

 

Actress in a musical: Lisa Montgomery, Nunsense (Intimate)

 

Actor in a musical: Andrew Jones, The Mikado (Mission Theatre)

 

Director: Peter Trist, The Glass Menagerie (NDAC)

 

Achievement in design: Robyn Greenwell, set design, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll (Newcastle Repertory)

 

Achievement in music and movement: The Yeomen of the Guard Orchestra, musical director Elaine Boyd (Newcastle G and S)

 

Newcastle City Council award for outstanding achievement in Newcastle theatre: Wendy Ratcliffe, for consistently excellent work in performance and costume design

 

Special award Betty Lind, for services to NDAC and Newcastle theatre

 

 

 

21st CONDA Awards – 1999

 

Professional categories

 

Production: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare et al)

 

Actress: Kate Sweeny, These Foolish Things (Stray Dogs)

 

Actor: Colin Taylor, No More the Fur Elise . . . No More the Bullied Bloom (Freewheels)

 

Director: Felicity Biggins, These Foolish Things (Stray Dogs)

 

Technical achievement: Julie Squires, set design, Tailing Out . . . the performance (Workers Cultural Action Committee)

 

Open category

 

New play written for a Newcastle company: John O’Donoghue, No More the Fur Elise . . . No More the Bullied Bloom (Freewheels)

 

Non-professional categories

 

Dramatic production: Two Weeks with the Queen (YPT)

 

Musical production: Crazy for You (Metropolitan)

 

Actress in a drama or comedy: Claire Fitzgerald, Suddenly Last Summer (Allegro Theatre Productions)

 

Actor in a drama or comedy: Chris Williams, Two Weeks with the Queen (YPT)

 

Actress in a musical: Lauren O’Brien, Cinderella (Endac Youth Theatre)

 

Actor in a musical: John Dickeson, The Merry Widow (Opera Hunter)

 

Director: Fay Sharp, Cosi (Newcastle Repertory)

 

Set and costume design: Vanessa Turton, set design, Cosi (Newcastle Repertory)

 

Music, lighting and sound: Daniel Kavanagh, music and lyrics, Cinderella (Endac Youth Theatre)

 

Newcastle City Council award for outstanding achievement in Newcastle theatre: Two Weeks with the Queen – ‘Everything good theatre should be. It sent audiences from the theatre richly entertained and had them laughing and crying at the same time’

 

The Year

 

The awards were held at ClubNova this year. In addition to awards for achievement in staging individual works, the CONDAs also include annual youth theatre development grants, which are aimed at helping young people involved in theatre to develop their skills. The grants were introduced at the 1999 awards, the first held at ClubNova, as part of that organisation’s sponsorship.

 

 

 

22nd CONDA Awards – 2000

 

Professional categories

 

Production: After Dinner (Yellow Brick Road Theatre)

 

Actress: Alana Thompson, After Dinner (Yellow Brick Road Theatre)

 

Actor: Glenn Hazeldine, After Dinner (Yellow Brick Road Theatre)

 

Director: Victor Emeljanow, As You Like It (University Drama)

 

Technical achievement: Niz Jabour, set and lighting design, Gypsies (Ommi Theatre)

 

Open category

 

New play written for a Newcastle company: Mark Reedman, Reality Inc (Tantrum Theatre)

 

Non-professional categories

 

Dramatic production: Reality Inc (Tantrum Theatre)

 

Musical production: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Metropolitan)

 

Actress in a drama or comedy: Cheryl Sovechles, Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay! (Newcastle Repertory)

 

Actor in a drama or comedy: Stuart Duffield, Reality Inc (Tantrum Theatre)

 

Actress in a musical: Melinda Smith and Kerryn Taylor, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Metropolitan)

 

Actor in a musical: Tony Pieterse, The Mikado (Newcastle G and S)

 

Supporting actress in a drama or comedy: Lorna Watson, A Cheery Soul (Newcastle Repertory)

 

Supporting actor in a drama or comedy: Victor Wilkinson, And Then There Were None (NDAC)

 

Director: Barbara Delaney, The Mikado (Newcastle G and S)

 

Music and movement: Katie Woods, incidental music, So Much to Tell You (YPT)

 

Costume design and make-up: Steven Harrison, costume design, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Metropolitan)

 

Set, lighting and sound design: Vanessa Turton, set design, Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay! (Newcastle Repertory)

 

Newcastle City Council award for outstanding achievement in Newcastle theatre: Mark Reedman, for his work in youth theatre

 

Special award Michael Blaxland, for 20 years of service to the CONDA Awards

   

The Year

 

The awards were again held at ClubNova this year.

 

 

 

23rd CONDA Awards – 2001

 

Professional categories

 

Production: Three Short Comedies (The Sound Construction Co)

 

Actress: Helen McDonald, Morning Sacrifice (Newcastle Repertory)

 

Actor: Derek Dowding, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll (Freewheels)

 

Director: Peter Ross, West Side Story (Opera Hunter)

 

Technical achievement: Scott Allan, lighting design, The Golden Masque of Agamemnon (YPT)

 

Open category

 

New play written for a Newcastle company: Linden Allen, Prudence Drinkwater, Daniel Kavanagh, Joe Hanlon, Bartuccios Abroad (Tantrum)

 

Non-professional categories

 

Dramatic production: Clark in Sarajevo (University Drama)

 

Musical production: West Side Story (Opera Hunter)

 

Leading actress in a drama or comedy: Janet Gillam, Navigating (Newcastle Repertory)

 

Actor in a drama or comedy: Richard Murray, No Room for Dreamers (Newcastle Repertory)

 

Actress in a musical: Bernadette Alchin, Bartuccios Abroad (Tantrum) and Erin James, West Side Story (Opera Hunter) – tie

 

Actor in a musical: Daniel Kavanagh, The Wiz (Metropolitan)

 

Supporting actress in a drama or comedy: Alison Cox, The Meaning of Mum (DAPA)

 

Ensemble acting: How The Other Half Loves (Intimate)

 

Director: Andrew Coates, The Golden Masque of Agamemnon (YPT)

 

Music and movement: Linden Allen and Daniel Kavanagh, choreography, Bartuccios Abroad (Tantrum)

 

Costume design and make-up: Steven Harrison, costume design, The Wiz, and Belinda Roals, make-up design, The Wiz – tie

 

Set, lighting and sound design: Brian Lowe, set design, How The Other Half Loves (Intimate)

 

Newcastle City Council award for outstanding achievement in Newcastle theatre: Carl Caulfield, for his work as actor, writer and director in keeping Newcastle professional theatre alive and its standards hig

   

The Year

 

The awards were held at ClubNova.

 

 

 

24th CONDA Awards – 2002

 

Professional categories

 

Production: The Unfinished Show (Ommi Theatre)

 

Leading actress: Samantha Fiddes, Confusion of Tongues (Stray Dogs)

 

Leading actor: Barry Shepherd, Indecent Obsessions (Stray Dogs)

 

Supporting actress: Karen Lantry, Lear (Shakespeare et al)

 

Supporting actor: David Yarrow, Madonna Del Parto (Shakespeare et al)

 

Director: Carl Caulfield, Rigoletto (Opera Hunter)

 

Achievement in sight and sound: Ross Fiddes, musical direction, Abelard and Heloise (Shakespeare et al)

 

Achievement in costume and set design: Sophia Montefiore, set design, Oedipus (Prospero Players)

 

 

 

Open category

 

New play written for a Newcastle company: Carl Caulfield, Indecent Obsessions (Stray Dogs)

 

 

 

Non-professional categories

 

Dramatic production: Cheapside (Newcastle Repertory)

 

Musical production: Jesus Christ Superstar (NDAC)

 

Actress in a drama or comedy: Zoe McDonald, Barefoot in the Park (Intimate)

 

Leading actor in a drama or comedy: Lawrence Aitchison, Cheapside (Newcastle Repertory)

 

Actress in a musical: Melinda Smith, The Sound of Music (Metropolitan)

 

Actor in a musical: Jacob Smyth, Jesus Christ Superstar (NDAC)

 

Supporting actor in a drama or comedy: Michael Single, The Tempest (Newcastle Repertory)

 

Ensemble acting: Boss of the Pool (YPT)

 

Director: Wendy Leis, Godspell (YPT)

 

Music, movement and costume design: Jennie Rohr and Jayda Gardaya, choreography, Bugga (Hands Free Physical Theatre)

 

Set, lighting and sound design: Carolyn Lind and Jason King, lighting design, Jesus Christ Superstar (NDAC)

 

Newcastle City Council award for outstanding achievement in Newcastle theatre: Shakespeare et al, for providing a de facto regional professional theatre company in 2002 and staging six quality productions

 

 

 

The Year

 

The awards were held at ClubNova.

 

 

 

25th CONDA Awards – 2003

 

Professional categories

 

Production: Personals (Shakespeare et al)

 

Actress: Letitia Sutherland, In a mosh pit no one can hear you scream (Dog Day Moon Project)

 

Actor: David Brown, Lenny Bruce: A Retrospective (Dog Day Moon Project)

 

Director: Victor Emeljanow, Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde (Newcastle University School of Music and Drama)

 

Technical achievement: Tim Neve, set design, Eating Ice Cream with Your Eyes Closed (Dog Day Moon Project and Workers Cultural Action Committee) and Grease (Rock City Event Marketing)

 

Open categories

 

Best new play for a Newcastle company, Rick Turk, Salamora: The Adventures of Captain P.J. (Dance and Performing Arts Academy – DAPA – and CCP)

 

Best theatre for children: Vila, the Wind (Purple Moon Theatre)

 

Non-professional categories

 

Dramatic production: Sylvia (Newcastle Repertory Club)

 

Musical production: Honk! (YPT)

 

Leading actress in a drama or comedy: Vanessa Wickman, Sylvia (Newcastle Repertory Club)

 

Leading actor in a drama or comedy: Michael Single, Volpone (Newcastle Repertory Club)

 

Leading actress in a musical: Carolyn Lind, Into the Woods (Newcastle Dramatic Art Club – NDAC)

 

Leading actor in a musical: Rob Vidler, Fiddler on the Roof (Intimate Theatre Company)

 

Supporting actress: Janet Gillam, Sylvia (Newcastle Repertory Club)

 

Supporting actor: John Shearman, Honk! (YPT)

 

Ensemble acting: Honk! (YPT)

 

Director: Fay Sharp, Ned Kelly (Stringybark Productions)

 

Music and movement: Grant Curry and Pat Charker, musical accompaniment, Three Little Pigs (YPT)

 

Costume design and make-up: Jason Newell and Amy Shaw, design and creation, the Grubble puppets (Footlice Theatre Company)

 

Set, lighting and sound design: Vanessa Turton, set design, Volpone

 

Newcastle City Council Award for outstanding achievement in Newcastle theatre: David Brown, for his excellent work as playwright, director, actor and theatre administrator

 

The Year

 

* When the CONDAs celebrated their 25th anniversary in 2003, 71 productions were eligible.

 

* The silver anniversary of the CONDAs was celebrated at the Civic Theatre on Friday 6 February 2004. 

 

* The 2003 awards ceremony marked the return of the CONDAs to the Civic Theatre, after four years of being staged at ClubNova (now NEX Newcastle). This followed the support of Civic Theatre management in reducing the costs of the venue.

 

 

 

26th CONDA Awards – 2004

 

Professional categories

 

Production: The Merry Wives of Windsor (Shakespeare et al)

 

Actress: Kerry O’Hearn, Aunts With Hot Flushes (Shakespeare et al)

 

Actor: Greg McLeod, The Marriage of Figaro (Opera Hunter)

 

Director: Lachlan Philpott and Anthony Svensk, The Possibilities (Tantrum Theatre)

 

Technical achievement: David Grinstead, lighting design, Les Miserables (NDAC)

 

 

Open category

 

No award was given for new play written for a Newcastle company.

 

Non-professional categories

 

Dramatic production: Under Milk Wood (Newcastle Repertory)

 

Musical production: Les Miserables (NDAC)

 

Leading actress in a drama or comedy: Kate Lofting, Svetlana in Slingbacks (Conservatorium Drama; performance wing of Newcastle University School of Music and Drama)

 

Leading actor in a drama or comedy: Lindsay Carr, There Goes the Bride (DAPA)

 

Leading actress in a musical: Wendy Ratcliffe, Les Miserables (NDAC)

 

Leading actor in a musical: Derek Dowding, Les Miserables (NDAC)

 

Supporting actress: Alicia Botham, Les Miserables (NDAC) and Kathryn Dries, The Marriage of Figaro (Opera Hunter) - tie

 

Supporting actor: Stephen Peacocke, A Property of the Clan (Conservatorium Drama)

 

Ensemble acting: The Secret Garden (The Sound Construction Company)

 

Director: Dan Flanagan, The Secret Garden (The Sound Construction Company)

 

Music and movement: Katrina Pring, composer, The Impossible Body (Conservatorium Drama), and The Contemporary Music Group, conductor Gordon Hamilton, The Impossible Body (jointly)

 

Costume design and make-up: Jill Fiddes, costume design, The Secret Garden (The Sound Construction Company)

 

Set, lighting and sound design: Melissa Hankinson, Dan Flanagan, Peter Chegwidden and Caroline Hale, stage design, The Secret Garden (The Sound Construction Company)

 

Newcastle City Council Award for outstanding achievement in Newcastle theatre: Dan Flanagan, for his tireless and high quality work in all aspects of theatre, from director, set and sound designer to backstage roustabout.

 

The Year

 

As well as being the silver anniversary year, 2003 saw important changes in the management of the awards that were aimed at ensuring their continuation. Since Newcastle City Council pulled out of a management role in the CONDAs in the 1980s, they had been organised by the critics on the judging panel. At the critics’ instigation, a series of public meetings between April and June 2003 resulted in the establishment of a CONDA Organising Committee, drawn from theatre groups and community members. Initially operating under the auspices of Performing Arts Newcastle, in December 2004, it became CONDA Inc., a non-profit incorporated body.

 

 

 

27th CONDA Awards – 2005

 

Professional categories

 

Production: The Wind in the Willows (Shakespeare et al)

 

Actress: Karen Lantry, The Wind in the Willows (Shakespeare et al)

 

Actor: Stefo Nantsou, The Apology (Zeal Theatre)

 

Director: Anne Frost, The Wind in the Willows (Shakespeare et al)

 

Technical achievement: Tim Neve, set design, Summer of the Aliens (Tantrum)

 

Open category

 

Best new play written for a Newcastle company: Stefo Nantsou, The Apology (Zeal Theatre)

 

Non-professional categories

 

Dramatic production: Communicating Doors (Newcastle Repertory)

 

Musical production: Seussical – The Musical (YPT)

 

Leading actress in a drama or comedy: Sophie Mathisen, Summer of the Aliens (Tantrum)

 

Leading actor in a drama or comedy: Lawrence Aitchison, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Newcastle Repertory)

 

Leading actress in a musical: Katy Price, Seussical – The Musical (YPT)

 

Leading actor in a musical: Khalil Kharwa, Seussical – The Musical (YPT)

 

Supporting actress: Dawn Richmond, Whodunnit (Intimate)

 

Actor in a supporting role: Angus Harker, The Winslow Boy (Newcastle Repertory)

 

Ensemble acting: Communicating Doors (Newcastle Repertory)

 

Director: Jacquie Gill, Away (Synergy Cubed Productions)

 

Music and movement: Jayda Gardaya, choreography, and Todd Kilby, stunt coordination, Seven Stories (Tantrum and Hands Free Theatre)

 

Costume design and make-up: Katherine McCarthy, costumes, The Winslow Boy (Newcastle Repertory)

 

Set, lighting and sound design: Mark Forester, sound design, Wolf Lullaby (Conservatorium Drama)

 

Newcastle City Council Award for outstanding achievement in Newcastle theatre: The University of Newcastle, for the contribution it continues to make to theatre 30 years after the establishment of its Drama Department  

 

 

28th CONDA Awards – 2006

 

Professional categories

 

Production: Titania’s Fairies (Shakespeare et al)

 

Actress: Jan Hunt, Human Resources (Stray Dogs Theatre)

 

Actor: Daniel Stoddart, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) (The Popular Theatre Company)

 

Director: Maree Freeman, Loudspeakers (Synergy Cubed)

 

Technical achievement: Jason Newell, puppet design and creation, A Dragon’s Tale: The Further Adventures of Grubble (Footlice)

 

Open category

 

Best new play written for a Newcastle company: Carl Caulfield, Human Resources (Stray Dogs Theatre) 

 

 

Non-professional categories

 

Dramatic production: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (Newcastle University School of Drama, Fine Art and Music)

 

Musical production: The Mikado (Newcastle Gilbert and Sullivan Players)

 

Leading actress in a drama or comedy: Wendy Ratcliffe, Lost in Yonkers (Intimate)

 

Leading actor in a drama or comedy: Phil McGrath, The Hostage (Newcastle Repertory)

 

Leading actress in a musical: Michelle Burnitt, The King and I (Metropolitan Players)

 

Leading actor in a musical: Chris Maxfield, The Mikado (Newcastle Gilbert and Sullivan Players)

 

Supporting actress: Rebecca Sheldon, The Disappearance of Katie (DAPA)

 

Supporting actor: Timothy Shearman, Rent  (JJK Productions)

 

Ensemble acting: It’s My Party (and I’ll Die If I Want To) (Newcastle Repertory)

 

Director of a drama or comedy: Margaret Spencer, The Disappearance of Katie (DAPA)

 

Director of a musical: Julie Black, The King and I (Metropolitan Players)

 

Music and movement: Andrew Shaw, choreography, The Mikado (Newcastle Gilbert and Sullivan Players)

 

Costume design and make-up: Steven Harrison, costumes, The King and I (Metropolitan Players) and Claire Thomas and Jill Russ, make-up design, The Wizard of Oz (YPT) – tie

 

Set, lighting and sound design: Graeme Black, Phil Everson and Alex Adams, set design, The King and I (Metropolitan Players)

 

Newcastle City Council Award for outstanding achievement in Newcastle theatre: Jason King, for his wholehearted, imaginative and generous dedication to Newcastle theatre

 

 

 

29th CONDA Awards – 2007

 

Professional categories

 

Production: Billy and the Garbage Monsters (Shakespeare et al and Footlice Theatre Company)

 

Leading actress: Alison Cox, Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare et al)

 

Leading actor: Lance Hawkins, Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare et al)

 

Supporting actress: Anne Frost, High School Musical (Hunter Publishing)

 

Supporting actor: Lawrence Aitchison, Dante’s Dream (Stray Dogs)

 

Director: Brendan O’Connell, Savage/Love (Newcastle University School of Drama, Fine Art and Music)

 

Technical achievement: Mark Quinan, set and costume design, Billy and the Garbage Monsters (Shakespeare et al and Footlice Theatre Company)

 

Open category

 

Best new play written for a Newcastle company: Match, Vanessa Bates (Tantrum)

 

 

Non-professional categories

 

Dramatic production: Falling Petals (Newcastle University School of Drama, Fine Art and Music)

 

Musical production: I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change (Newcastle Theatre Company – NTC; formerly Newcastle Repertory)

 

Leading actress in a drama or comedy: Kate Lofting, Falling Petals (Newcastle University School of Drama, Fine Art and Music)

 

Leading actor in a drama or comedy: Lindsay Carr, The Dresser (NTC)

 

Leading actress in a musical: Wendy Ratcliffe, Blood Brothers (JJK)

 

Leading actor in a musical: John Shearman, Blood Brothers (JJK)

 

Supporting actress: Jacquelyn Brown, Blood Brothers (JJK)

 

Supporting actor: Darcy Rice-O’Connor, Love’s Triumph (Newcastle Repertory)

 

Ensemble acting: Caught in the Net (Novocastrian Players)

 

Director: Jacquie Gill, Falling Petals (Newcastle University School of Drama, Fine Art and Music)

 

Music and movement: Christopher Harley, musical score, In a Pink Tutu (Armchair Productions) and the Shout! Orchestra, musical director Greg Paterson, Shout! The Legend of the Wild One (Metropolitan) – tie

 

Costume design and make-up: Vivien Jones, costume design, Animal Farm (YPT)

 

Set, lighting and sound design: Robyn Greenwell, set design, Noel Grivas, sound design, Stewart McGowan, lighting design, all for The Dresser (conjoint winners).

 

Newcastle City Council Award for outstanding achievement in Newcastle theatre: Anne Frost, for her commitment to providing Newcastle with quality and innovative professional theatre  

 

 

30th CONDA Awards – 2008

 

Professional categories

 

Production: Waiting for Godot (Popular Theatre Company)

 

Actress: Giverny Lewis, My Imaginary Friend (Imaginary Friends Theatre)

 

Actor: Daniel Stoddart, Waiting for Godot (Popular Theatre Company)

 

Director: Victor Emeljanow, Waiting for Godot (Popular Theatre Company)

 

Music, sound and lighting design: Nicolas Lyon, music and soundscape, Urban Shadows (Hot Tin Productions)

 

Set and costume design: Gabrielle O’Connor, costume design, Eurobeat – Almost Eurovision (Hunter TAFE Institute Faculty of Arts and Media)

 

Open category

 

Best new play written for a Newcastle company: Allon Silove and Jo Roberts, My Imaginary Friend (Imaginary Friends Theatre)  

Non-professional categories

 

Dramatic production: We Came in Chains (Tantrum Theatre)

 

Musical production: The Producers (Metropolitan Players)

 

Actress in a drama or comedy: Tracey Gordon, Major Barbara (NTC)

 

Leading actor in a drama or comedy: Derek Fisher, Tom Jones (NTC)

 

Actress in a musical: Michelle Burnitt, A Little Night Music (Newcastle Gilbert and Sullivan Players) and Lesly Stevenson, The Full Monty (DAPA) – tie

 

Leading actor in a musical: Khalil Khay, The Producers (Metropolitan Players)

 

Supporting actor: Michael Single, The Producers (Metropolitan Players)

 

Ensemble acting: The Producers (Metropolitan Players)

 

Director: Julie Black, The Producers (Metropolitan Players)

 

Music and movement: Ross Fiddes, musical direction, A Little Night Music (Newcastle Gilbert and Sullivan Players) 

 

Costume design and make-up: Steven Harrison, costume design, The Producers (Metropolitan Players)

 

Set, lighting and sound design: Katy Price, Mary Ann Hill and Mary Shearer, set design, Urinetown: The Musical (Lindsay Street Players)

 

Newcastle City Council Award for Outstanding Achievement in Newcastle Theatre: Steven Harrison, for meticulous and standard-setting work in costume design

 

 

 

31st CONDA Awards – 2009

 

Professional categories

 

Production: The Magic Flute (Newcastle Festival Opera)

 

Actor: Carl Caulfield, Henry IV Part 1 (Stray Dogs Theatre)

 

Actress: Rebecca Sheldon, Henry IV Part 1 (Stray Dogs Theatre)

 

Director: David Brown, Work – Fight – Unite (Hunter TAFE Performing Arts)

 

Technical achievement: Ian Cook, musical direction, The Magic Flute (Newcastle Festival Opera)

 

Open category

 

Best new play written for a Newcastle company: The Suitcase, Paul Russell (Lollipops Performing Arts)

 

Non-professional categories

 

Dramatic production: Kafka! Kafka! (Hunter TAFE Performing Arts)

 

Musical production: Lucky Stiff (Pantseat Productions) and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (NTC), joint winners

 

Leading actor in a drama or comedy: Liam Bird, Brighton Beach Memoirs (Intimate)

 

Leading actress in a drama or comedy: Carrie Manen, Wait Until Dark (DAPA)

 

Leading actor in a musical: Gareth Hudson, Buskers and Angels (JJK)

 

Leading actress in a musical: Alicia Paterson, Lucky Stiff (Pantseat Productions) 

 

Supporting actor: Howard Rawlinson, Shadowlands (NTC)

 

Supporting actress: Giverny Lewis, Lucky Stiff (Pantseat Productions) 

 

Ensemble acting: Kafka! Kafka! (Hunter TAFE Performing Arts)

 

Director: Daniel Kavanagh, Lucky Stiff (Pantseat Productions) 

 

Music and movement: Silvia Martinez and Nicole Maslowski, choreography, Fame (SNAP Productions)

 

Costume design and make-up: Wendy Ratcliffe, costume design, Jekyll and Hyde: The Musical (NDAC)

 

Set design: Brian Lowe and Chris Bird, Wanted – One Body (Intimate)

 

Lighting and sound design: Matthew Bevan, sound design and visual effects, Dags (YPT)

 

Newcastle City Council Award for Outstanding Achievement in Newcastle Theatre: Brendan O’Connell, for his work as artistic director of Tantrum Theatre in taking the company into an exciting new phase of development

 

 

 

32nd CONDA Awards – 2010

 

Professional categories

 

Production: Ruby Moon (Pantseat Productions)

 

Actor: Timothy Shearman, Ruby Moon (Pantseat Productions)

 

Actress: Giverny Lewis, The Shape of Things (Stooged Theatre)

 

Director: David Brown, 2Wilde: Salome and The Importance of Being Earnest (Hunter TAFE Performing Arts)

 

Music, sound and lighting design: Scott Allan, lighting design, The Boy from Oz (Metropolitan)

 

Costume design and visual effects: Anne Frost, puppet design and creation, The Frog Prince (Shakespeare et al)  

 

Open categories

 

Best new play written for a Newcastle company: Shakespeare’s Fools, Carl Caulfield (Stray Dogs)

 

Best special theatrical event: Avast! Wings, Rings and Piratical Things (Circus Avalon)

 

Non-professional categories

 

Dramatic production: Blackrock (Tantrum Theatre)

 

Musical production: The Boy from Oz (Metropolitan Players)

 

Leading actor in a drama or comedy: Glen Waterhouse, How to Disappear Completely and Never be Found (Hunter TAFE)

 

Leading actress in a drama or comedy: Kathleen Warren, Anastasia (NTC)

 

Leading actor in a musical: Grant Drury-Green, The Boy from Oz (Metropolitan Players)

 

Leading actress in a musical: Stephanie Priest, The Great American Trailer Park Musical (Hunter TAFE)

 

Supporting actor: Mat Lee, The Witches of Eastwick (NDAC)

 

Supporting actress: Cathy Maughan, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (DAPA)

 

Juvenile male performance: Ben Freeman, Blackrock (Tantrum)

 

Juvenile female performance: Brita Penfold, Cluedo (Pantseat)

 

Ensemble acting: The Golden Masque of Agamemnon (YPT)

 

Director: Julie Black, The Boy from Oz (Metropolitan Players) and Nola Wallace, The Witches of Eastwick (NDAC) - joint winners

 

Music and movement: Andrew Shaw, choreography, The Witches of Eastwick (NDAC)

 

Costume design and make-up: Neil Mansfield, costume design, The New Jungle Book  (DAPA)

 

Set, lighting and sound design: Cameron Elkin and Kelsie Clarke, set design, The Golden Masque of Agamemnon (YPT)

 

Newcastle City Council Award for Outstanding Achievement in Newcastle Theatre: Teresa Conicella, for her commitment as head teacher of performing arts at Hunter TAFE in developing students’ skills to make them industry-ready

 

 

 

33rd CONDA Awards – 2011

 

Professional categories

 

Production: Rabbit  (Stooged Theatre)

 

Actor: Brian Wark, Pride and Prejudice: a play (Blank Page Theatre)

 

Actress: Samantha Asser, The Footage (Stooged)

 

Director: Carl Young, As You Like It (Tantrum)

 

Music, sound and movement: Ian Cook, orchestra conductor, Candide (Newcastle Festival Opera)

 

Set, costume, make-up and lighting: Scott Blick, set and costume design, The Bourgeois Gentleman (Blue Bottle Productions) 

 

Open categories

 

Best new play written for a Newcastle company: The Cat Next Door, Anne Frost (Shakespeare et al)

 

Best special theatrical event: Candide (Newcastle Festival Opera)

 

Non-professional categories

 

Dramatic production: As You Like It (Tantrum)

 

Musical production: Avenue Q (Pantseat Productions)

 

Leading actor in a drama or comedy: Mitchell Cox, Arsenic and Old Lace (DAPA)

 

Leading actress in a drama or comedy: Emma Wood, Born Yesterday (DAPA)

 

Leading actor in a musical: Matthew Predny, Avenue Q (Pantseat Productions)

 

Leading actress in a musical: Stephanie Priest, Annie Get Your Gun (Opera Hunter)

 

Supporting actor: Philip McGrath, The Foreigner (Theatre on Brunker)

 

Supporting actress: Nyssa Hamilton, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (NTC)

 

Juvenile male performance: Callan Purcell, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast Jr (Hunter Region Drama School)

 

Juvenile female performance: Phoebe Clark,  Pride and Prejudice: a play (Blank Page Theatre)

 

Ensemble acting: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Pantseat)

 

Director: Isobel Denholm, The Club (Theatre on Brunker)

 

Music and movement: Matt Bundy, musical director, Avenue Q (Pantseat Productions)

 

Costume design and make-up: Cathy McClelland and Vija Docherty, costume design, The Glugs of Gosh  (Prospero Players)

 

Set design: Daniel Kavanagh, Annie Get Your Gun (Opera Hunter)

 

Lighting and sound design: Daniel Kavanagh, projections and animations, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Pantseat)

 

Newcastle City Council Award for Outstanding Achievement in Newcastle Theatre: Fr. Chris and Meri Bird, for their work in supporting Newcastle theatre and the arts

 

 

 

34th CONDA Awards – 2012

 

Professional categories

 

Production: The Pillowman, Stooged Theatre

 

Actor: Timothy Blundell, The Elephant Man (Adenau and 5 Minute Call Productions)

 

Actress: Rachelle Schmidt, Breathing Corpses (Stooged Theatre)

 

Director: Daniel Stoddart, Spring Awakening (Hunter Region Drama School)

 

Achievement in music, sound and movement: Silvia Martinez, choreography, Fiddler on the Roof (Opera Hunter)

 

Achievement in set, costume, make-up and lighting: Don W. McEwen, set design, The Elephant Man (Adenau and 5 Minute Call Productions)

 

Open categories

 

Best new play written for a Newcastle company:  Emma Wood, Water Child (Newcastle Theatre Company)

 

Best special theatrical event: Inside the Mind of Edward Tulip (Circus Avalon)

 

Non-professional categories

 

Dramatic production: Twelfth Night (Young People’s Theatre)

 

Musical production: Oliver! (Metropolitan Players)

 

Actor in a leading role in a drama or comedy: Matt Graham, Greek (Company Clegg)

 

Actress in a leading role in a drama or comedy: Anna Lambert, Twelfth Night (Young People’s Theatre)

 

Actor in a leading role in a musical: Chris Maxfield, Oliver! (Metropolitan Players)

 

Actress in a leading role in a musical: Rachelle Schmidt, Into the Woods (Pantseat Productions)

 

Actor in a supporting role: Jack Gow, Twelfth Night (Young People’s Theatre)

 

Actress in a supporting role: Lynda Rennie, Water Child (Newcastle Theatre Company)

 

Ensemble acting: Creche and Burn (Theatre on Brunker and Blank Page Theatre)

 

Director: Amy Hill and Leilani Smith, Twelfth Night (Young People’s Theatre)

 

Achievement in music and movement: Chris Vidler, musical director, Oliver! (Metropolitan Players)

 

Achievement in costume design and make-up: Lia Bundy, costume design, Into the Woods (Pantseat Productions)

 

Achievement in set design: Charlotte De Wit, The Twits (Hunter Region Drama School)

 

Achievement in lighting and sound design: David Murray and David Fitzgerald, lighting design, The Women of Lockerbie (Newcastle Theatre Company)

 

Newcastle City Council Award for Outstanding Achievement in Newcastle Theatre: Carl Young, for his work as artistic director of Stooged Theatre in seeking out plays that are new, exciting, challenging and significant so that Newcastle is treated to the best of modern drama.

 

The Year

 

A total of 66 eligible local productions were staged in the Newcastle local government area in the 2012 CONDA year – 1 November 2011 to 31 October  2012. Forty-two of the shows won nominations in 22 professional and non-professional categories, with 19 theatre groups represented. The total number of nominations was 148, just short of the record 155 of the previous year.

 

 

 

35th CONDA Awards – 2013

 

CONDA Inc Award for Outstanding Achievement in Newcastle Theatre: Lesly Stevenson

 

Professional categories

 

Production: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), (The Popular Theatre Company)

 

Actor: Carl Young, Ruben Guthrie (Stooged Theatre) 

 

Actress: Janet Gillam, Ruben Guthrie (Stooged Theatre)

 

Director: Victor Emeljanow, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), (The Popular Theatre Company)

 

Achievement in lighting, music and sound: Lifelike Atmospheres, lighting design, The BFG (Hunter Region Drama School)

 

Achievement in set, costumes and make-up: Jennifer Ellicott, costume design, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), (The Popular Theatre Company)

 

 

 

Open categories

 

Best new play written for a Newcastle company: The Past is a Foreign Country (The Paper Cut Collective creative team)

 

Best special theatrical event: The Boulevard of Blood and Dreams (David Baker and The Royal Exchange)

 

 

 

Non-professional categories

 

Dramatic production: The BFG (Hunter Region Drama School)

 

Musical production: The Phantom of the Opera (Metropolitan Players)

 

Actor in a leading role in a drama or comedy: Michael Byrne, When the Rain Stops Falling

 

Actress in a leading role in a drama or comedy: Alison Cox, A Streetcar Named Desire

 

Actor in a leading role in a musical: Daniel Stoddart, The Phantom of the Opera (Metropolitan Players)

 

Actress in a leading role in a musical: Katie Wright, Chicago (SNAP Productions)

 

Actor in a supporting role: Drew Holmes, Chicago (SNAP Productions)

 

Actress in a supporting role: Rachel Levick, A Streetcar Named Desire

 

Juvenile male performance: Harry Gelzinnis, Romeo and Juliet

 

Juvenile female performance: Brittany Ferry, Ruben Guthrie (Stooged Theatre)

 

Ensemble acting: Chicago (SNAP Productions)

 

Director: Julie Black, The Phantom of the Opera (Metropolitan Players)

 

Achievement in music and movement: Greg Paterson, musical director, The Phantom of the Opera (Metropolitan Players)

 

Achievement in costume design and make-up: Bev Fewins and Steven Harrison, costume design, and George Francis and Valmai Drury, hair and wig design, The Phantom of the Opera (Metropolitan Players) (tie)

 

Achievement in set design: Chris Bird and Brian Lowe, Caravan

 

Achievement in lighting and sound design: Jacob Harwood, lighting design, The Phantom of the Opera (Metropolitan Players)

 

 

 

2013 CONDA AWARDS ORGANISER FINDS THERE IS APPLAUSE IN BEING UPSTAGED

 

Lesly Stevenson, the President of CONDA Inc,the organisation which manages the City of Newcastle Drama Awards, found herself being pushed away from the microphone when she came on stage to announce the recipient of the 2013 CONDA Inc Award for Outstanding Achievement in Newcastle Theatre tonight.

 

But her shock turned to delight when the person who took her place at the microphone announced that she was in fact the winner of the award.

 

The CONDA judges – Michelle Gosper, Sue Leask, Ken Longworth and Pamela Whalan – who chose the award recipient, said that Lesly Stevenson had been a prolific participant as actor, singer, dancer, director and producer in Newcastle theatre for many years.

 

She had the courage to set up her own theatre company, DAPA, a dozen years ago and from modest beginnings it was now an important performance venue and attracted a regular theatre-going audience.

 

“The quality of work coming from DAPA can be seen in the fact that it regularly earns CONDA nominations,” the judges said. This year DAPA productions had won eight nominations and two CONDAs.

 

Lesly Stevenson had herself won a CONDA in 2008, for her performance in the musical The Full Monty.

 

Her work at DAPA was hands on and it was not uncommon to see her in the box-office, then later onstage. What audiences did not see was the hard work involved in balancing the books, obtaining performance rights, maintaining the building, organising the publicity, the set, the costumes, the props, and all the other time consuming but essential elements of keeping a theatre open.

 

Her work in training young people in the performing arts was well respected. And when the CONDA Awards came under the aegis of CONDA Inc, she had become a committee member and subsequently president, making her theatre available, rent free, for committee and general meetings.

 

“Her hard work is always carried out with meticulous detail, courteously, charmingly and with great dignity,“the judges said. “Lesly Stevenson’s dedication to the ongoing development of Newcastle theatre over many years makes her a deserving recipient of the CONDA Inc. Award for Outstanding Achievement in Newcastle Theatre.”

 

The two DAPA-associated CONDAs this year were won by actresses in its production of Tennessee Williams’ play A Streetcar Named Desire.

 

Alison Cox was named Best Non-Professional Actress in a Leading Role in a Drama or Comedy for her tender and sympathetic portrayal of troubled ageing Southern United States belle Blanche Dubois as she slid into insanity to escape from a real world that had become unbearable.

 

Rachel Levick, as Stella, the sister caught between Blanche’s demands and those of the husband she loves, collected the Best Non-Professional Actress in a Supporting Role CONDA, with the judges saying her performance clearly showed the dilemma facing the woman.

 

The winners in the 24 CONDA categories were spread widely over shows staged in the awards period, the 12 months ended October 31. Eleven productions collected trophies, with 10 groups represented.

 

The night’s big winner was the Metropolitan Players’ staging of the musical The Phantom of the Opera.

 

It was awarded seven CONDAs, including Best Non-Professional Musical Production.

 

The judges noted that it was a fine production and first-class entertainment, gripping audiences with its story of a scarred and generally hidden composer trying to win the love of a beautiful new singer in a Paris opera house.

 

Julie Black won the Best Non-Professional Director Award for her assured handling of the performances and other elements and musical director Greg Paterson collected the Excellence in Non-Professional Achievement in Music and Movement trophy for the quality of the music produced by his 28-piece orchestra.

 

Daniel Stoddart was named Best Non-Professional Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical for the charisma and romanticism he gave to the role of Raoul, a nobleman who woos the troubled heroine.

 

Two pairs of Phantom nominees shared the award for Excellence in Non-Professional Achievement in Costume Design and Make-Up: Bev Fewins and Steven Harrison for their costumes and George Francis and Valmai Drury for hair and wig design. The judges noted that hair and wig design was just as integral to the look of this production as the costumes and there had obviously been close collaboration between these four people to achieve the spectacular visual results that made The Phantom of the Opera such a joy to watch.

 

The musical’s other award, for Non-Professional Achievement in Lighting and Sound Design, went to Jacob Harwood for his lighting that helped to create the different moods of its many scenes.

 

Another big winner was The Popular Theatre Company’s The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), which collected the CONDAs for Best Professional Production, Best Professional Director – Victor Emeljanow – and Professional Achievement in Set, Costumes and Make-up for Jennifer Ellicott’s costume designs.

 

The judges said the production was a slick, intelligent and fast-moving treat in its often slapstick look at Shakespeare’s plays. Victor Emeljanow’s direction had given audiences a lot of fun with his clever and intelligent handling of its frenetic pace, and Jennifer Ellicott’s costumes ensured that the needed quick changes from one character to another were done with skill and humour.

 

Two other productions were also triple winners: Stooged Theatre’s Ruben Guthrie and SNAP Productions’ Chicago. They each collected acting awards in three categories.

 

Carl Young won the Best Professional Actor award for his performance as the title character in Ruben Guthrie, a rising young marketing executive who finds himself increasingly dependent on alcohol.  The judges said his performance was sensitive, powerful and moving.

 

Janet Gillam received the Best Professional Actress Award for her role as Guthrie’s mother, bringing a quiet urgency and sensitivity to the woman whose own life had been affected by a drunkard husband.

 

Brittany Ferry took home the Best Juvenile Female Performance CONDA for her role as Ruben’s Czechoslovakian love interest, Zoya, delivering a sophistication not usually found in an actress in her teenage years.

 

Katie Wright won the Best Non-Professional Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical award for her Roxie Hart, a showgirl with her eyes on fame, fortune and men in the 1920s mob-ruled world in Chicago. She played Roxie with great zest and joyousness.

 

Drew Holmes collected the Best Non-Professional Actor in a Supporting Role trophy for his performance as the scheming Roxie’s ignored husband, Amos. The judges said Holmes gave strong pathos to his character and his moving rendition of the song Mr Cellophane gave added dimension to the musical.

 

Chicago’s third award was for Best Ensemble Acting in a Non-Professional Production. The judges’ commendation said the 33 cast members sent such goodwill and joy across the footlights as they sang, danced and acted that the audience was never aware of the hard work that ensured the success of this light and bright musical.

 

Hunter Region Drama School’s The BFG won two CONDAs, including the Best Non-Professional Dramatic Production trophy. The judges said the adaptation of Roald Dahl’s story about a big friendly giant and a young girl who join forces to defeat a horde of man-eating giants is an imaginative play and it was given imaginative treatment in this production.

 

The lighting design, by company Lifelike Atmospheres, which won the award for Excellence in Professional Achievement in Lighting, Music and Sound, helped to create the magic that enabled watchers to escape into a world peopled by giants and royalty and children who flew.

 

The trophy for Best New Play Written for a Newcastle Company went to The Past is a Foreign Country, staged by The Paper Cut Collective in association with Tantrum Theatre. The story, drawn from people’s different recollections of ordinary events, such as a fishing excursion, was put together by members of the production’s creative team, and provided thoughtful entertainment.

 

The Boulevard of Blood and Dreams, presented by one its creators, musician David Baker, and The Royal Exchange performance venue, won the Best Special Theatrical Event CONDA. The tongue-in-cheek humour of the production was delightfully delivered as the improbable plot took those watching from Cairo to Paris in search of a murderer, with the many Agatha Christie references providing entrees for good jazz.

 

The award for Best Non-Professional Actor in a Leading Role in a Drama or Comedy went to Michael Byrne for his portrayal of a very troubled husband and father in Newcastle Theatre Company’s When the Rain Stops Falling. Byrne’s sensitive performance evoked sympathy for the character while acknowledging the repulsiveness of his actions.

 

Harry Gelzinnis collected the Best Juvenile Male Performance trophy for his playing of Romeo in Tantrum Theatre’s Romeo and Juliet. The judges said Gelzinnis, who was about the age of his character, showed the intensity of young love thwarted, and, while the play was set in a present-day caravan park, the poetry of Shakespeare’s language was not lost in his performance as a lad who found his love on the way to the beach.

 

A caravan park was the setting for another CONDA winner. The award for Excellence in Non-professional Achievement in Set Design went to Chris Bird and Brian Lowe for their title object setting in Theatre on Brunker’s comedy Caravan. The judges said that Bird and Lowe designed a realistic caravan that helped establish the claustrophobia of campers marooned in the dwelling during a week of wet weather without inhibiting the movement of the play or distorting sightlines.

 

The CONDA Awards were presented at a music- and laugh-filled show, which had the appropriate theme Applause.

 

The evening was not without its serious notes, however, with the chairman of the judging panel, Ken Longworth, who has been a judge since Newcastle City Council introduced the awards in 1979, voicing the concern of the Newcastle theatre community over the council’s failure to provide any financial support for the CONDAs this year. Longworth said the awards had been a factor in boosting Newcastle’s growing reputation throughout Australia for being an innovative and accomplished theatre centre and it was disappointing that the council had ignored this.

 

Five young people aged 12 to 19 were presented with the Newcastle Youth Theatre Development Grants, each of $350, which are sponsored by Newcastle Theatre Supporters and are aimed at assisting young people in improving and expanding their theatre skills. The recipients, who were nominated by Newcastle’s five youth theatre groups are: Rosher Todhunter (DAPA Theatre), Claire Campbell (Hunter Region Drama School), Shannessy Danswan (Pantseat Productions), Jarrod Jurd (Tantrum Theatre) and Ellen McNeil (Young People’s Theatre).

 

The People’s Choice Award for best production, an award determined by the votes of Newcastle Herald readers, went to the Pantseat Productions’ musical Xanadu.

 

REPORT BY THE CONDA JUDGES ON NEWCASTLE THEATRE IN 2013:

 

When the City of Newcastle Drama Awards were first staged in 1979, there were a few raised eyebrows around Australia. “What? We didn’t know that coal and steel town even had any theatre,” was a common reaction. That now seems laughable, given that the best non-professional actor award that year was shared by two Newcastle University drama students who have gone on to national fame – Stephen “The Sandman” Abbott and Jonathan Biggins – and that many other actors, writers, directors and technical personal with Newcastle theatre connections have followed in their footsteps. The CONDA Awards have also become the longest-established, continuous theatre awards in a major Australian city. More on that later.

 

In the past 35 years, Newcastle theatre and the CONDAs have gone from strength to strength. In the inaugural year, 37 professional and non-professional productions were staged. In the 2013 judging year, the 12months ended October 31, there were 55, and 37 of them, the equivalent of the total number of shows in 1979, won nominations.

 

The companies and participants here are among the frontrunners in Australian theatre. In a seven-day period in May this year, for example, Newcastle theatre companies staged two significant premieres. Newcastle Theatre Company staged the first NSW production of the 2010 Pulitzer Prize-winning musical, Next to Normal, after a proposed major Sydney production of the show was cancelled last year. And Newcastle Gilbert and Sullivan Players presented the Australian premiere of The Bold, the Young and the Murdered, a recent American comedy that amusingly sent up the clichés of daytime television soap operas. Metropolitan Players also staged the NSW non-professional premiere of The Phantom of the Opera, and as other companies, which had won the rights for the show, saw the production’s amazing costumes on social media they came knocking on Metropolitan’s door seeking to hire them.

 

There were quite a few surprised faces, too, when a Newcastle work entered in this year’s Sydney Short+Sweet Festival, People Strings, by writer-director Jo Ford, won the best production award. Given that around 180 productions from around Australia and other countries are accepted into Sydney Short+Sweet, that was an amazingly pleasing result. Sadly, People Strings has not had a Newcastle season, partly because there has been no Newcastle Short+Sweet since Newcastle City Council dropped its funding for the event early last year. The quality of the plays written by Novocastrians, including the 12 varied works by Hunter TAFE’s Regional Institute of Performing Arts acting students in this year’s Clegg Festival, reinforced the need to get events like Short+Sweet going again. 

 

You may have noticed, if you have had time to glance through the souvenir program, that the final award to be presented tonight, for Outstanding Achievement in Newcastle Theatre, has CONDA Inc as its sponsor and not Newcastle City Council, whose name has been on the award since 1995. Newcastle City Council, sadly, did not provide any sponsorship for the CONDAs this year, with its community events support program shelved. The council did not even subsidise the cost of hiring this theatre, as it has done in previous lean financial years. As a result, the future of the City of Newcastle Drama Awards could be under threat. Many people and groups within the theatre community provide generous financial support for the awards, but the organisation that proudly established the CONDAs 35 years ago no longer appears to see them as an important component of Newcastle’s cultural life.

 

This beautiful Civic Theatre had its 50thbirthday in 1979 and Newcastle City Council inaugurated the CONDAs as an on-going celebration of the role theatre, and this building, play in entertaining and engaging the minds of the people of this city and surrounding areas. The awards in that first year were presented at the beginning of an ABC Show Band concert that marked the anniversary of the theatre’s opening in early December. The council proposed to present subsequent years’ awards at dinners for the nominees but the then judges, including myself, suggested it would be more appropriate to have a public celebration, with musical numbers between awards. We offered to put the shows together. The Civic Theatre was eventually chosen as the venue. The council initially met all the costs and there was no charge for tickets. Over the years, alas, successive councils have forgotten that the awards were their initiative. The council should be proud of its role in establishing the CONDAs because the range of theatre works being staged in Newcastle, and their quality, has steadily become more impressive in the 35years of the awards.

 

People involved in theatre do not stage works with the winning of awards in mind, but they do appreciate the recognition that nominations and trophies give to their endeavours. The other judges – Shane Bransdon, Michelle Gosper, Sue Leask, Pamela Whalan – and I urge you to let Newcastle City Council know what you think of their disregard of the fine work that is being done in Newcastle theatre, work that has increasingly drawn the attention of people throughout Australia.

 

Best wishes to all involved in Newcastle theatre. 2014 looks like being another great year. And, before I go, I’d like to welcome our new judge, Shane Bransdon, to the stage. Newcastle City Council might not be looking to the future of the CONDAs but the judges are. Shane brings a younger voice to the judging process.

 

Report delivered to the 35th City of Newcastle Drama Awards at the Civic Theatre on December 6, 2013, by Ken Longworth, chairman of the CONDA Judging Panel, on behalf of the judges.

 

 

 

36th CONDA Awards – 2014

 

CONDA Winners

 

Outstanding Achievement & Contribution to Theatre: Don Mitchell

 

Dramatic Production: Checklist for an Armed Robber (Stooged Theatre)

 

Musical Production: Hairspray (Metropolitan Players)

Special Theatrical Event: Diving Off the Edge of the World (Tantrum Youth Arts)

New Play Written for a Newcastle Company: Pyjamas in the Daytime, by Grahame Cooper (Footlice Theatre Company)

 

Male Actor in a Leading Role in a Drama or Comedy: Callan Purcell, The Removalists (Stooged Theatre)

 

Female Actor in a Leading Role in a Drama or Comedy: Fiona Mundie, Pyjamas in the Daytime (Footlice Theatre Company)

 

Male Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical: Malcolm Young, Hairspray (Metropolitan Players)

 

Female Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical: Kiani Sansom, Hairspray (Metropolitan Players)

 

Male Actor in a Supporting Role: Scott Eveleigh, The Merchant of Venice (Stooged Theatre)

 

Female Actor in a Supporting Role: Annie Devine, Hairspray (Metropolitan Players)

 

Male Actor Under 18: Nicholas Thoroughgood and Alex Waye, Lost In Yonkers (Newcastle Theatre Company) – tie

 

Female Actor Under 18: Phoebe Clark, The Three Musketeers (The Grainery Theatre Company)

 

Ensemble Acting: Aftershocks (DAPA Theatre)

 

Director (Drama or Comedy): Carl Young, The Merchant of Venice (Stooged Theatre)

 

Director (Musical): Julie Black, Hairspray (Metropolitan Players)

 

Musical Director: Chris Vidler, Hairspray (Metropolitan Players)

 

Choreographer: Jo Ford, The Little Mermaid Jr (Hunter Region Drama School)

 

Costume Design: Jennifer Ellicott and Kerrie Fischer, The Little Mermaid Jr (Hunter Region Drama School)

 

Make-up and Hair Design: Sonja Davis, make-up design, Legend of the Golden Sands (Footlice Theatre Company)

 

Set and Props Design: John Grogan and Daniel Stoddart, set design, The Little Mermaid Jr (Hunter Region Drama School)  

Lighting Design: Lyndon Buckley, The Chosen (Tantrum Youth Arts)

 

Sound Design: Huw Jones, Spent (Paper Cut)

 

 

 

37th CONDA Awards – 2015

 

The Winners

 

Outstanding Contribution and Achievement in Newcastle Theatre: Wendy Leis

 

Youth Theatre Encouragement Grant: Benjamin Stuart, Young People’s Theatre

 

Dramatic Production: The Book of Everything (The Popular Theatre Company)

 

Musical Production: Mary Poppins (Metropolitan Players)

 

Special Theatrical Event: The Speakeasy (David Baker and The Smokin’ Chops &  The Unorthodox Church of Groove)

 

New Play or Musical Written for a Newcastle Company: No One Cares About Your Cat, developed by the ensemble (Tantrum Youth Arts and the Paper Cut Collective)

 

Male Actor in a Leading Role in a Drama or Comedy: Callan Purcell, Equus (Stooged Theatre)

 

Female Actor in a Leading Role in a Drama or Comedy: Claire Williams, Doubt (Newcastle Theatre Company)

 

Male Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical: Daniel Stoddart, Mary Poppins (Metropolitan Players)

 

Female Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical: Rebecca Fitzsimmons, Leader of the Pack (Theatre on Brunker and Novocastrian Players)

 

Male Actor in a Supporting Role: David Brown, The Book of Everything (The Popular Theatre Company)

 

Female Actor in a Supporting Role: Rachelle Schmidt Adnum, Mary Poppins (Metropolitan Players)

 

Male Actor Under 18: Hamish Pickering and Lachlan Pickering, My Fair Lady (St Phillip’s Christian College) – tie

 

Female Actor Under 18: Hannah King, My Fair Lady (St Phillip’s Christian College)

 

Ensemble Acting: My Fair Lady (St Phillip’s Christian College)

 

Director (Drama or Comedy): Daniel Stoddart, The Book Of Everything (The Popular Theatre Company)

 

Director (Musical): Julie Black, Mary Poppins (Metropolitan Players)

 

Musical Director: Daniel Wilson, Star Struck 2015: a-MAZE-ing (Hunter Area of the NSW Department of Education and Communities)

 

Choreographer: Cadi McCarthy, Warriors Rest from Stories in Our Steps (Catapult Dance and The Flipside Project, for Tantrum Youth Arts)

 

Costume Design: Dianne Garred, My Fair Lady (St Phillip’s Christian College)

 

Hair, Make-up and Wigs Design: George Francis and Valmai Drury, hair and wig design, Mary Poppins (Metropolitan Players); and Dianne Garred, hair and wig design, My Fair Lady (St Phillip’s Christian College) – tie

 

Set and Props Design: Marion Giles, set design, The Book of Everything (The Popular Theatre Company)

 

Lighting and Audio Visual Design: Lyndon Buckley, lighting design, and Tim Buchanan, audio visual design, No One Cares About Your Cat (Tantrum Youth Arts and the Paper Cut Collective) – tie

 

Sound Design: Jess Blackburn, Julia Rutten and Melanie Coombes, No One Cares About Your Cat (Tantrum Youth Arts and the Paper Cut Collective)


 

 

Wendy Leis never imagined when she began appearing in Newcastle’s Young People’s Theatre productions as a child in the 1960s that one day she would be heading the company. But over the years she became a tutor and director and, for the past two decades, its artistic director. By the time she stepped down from the post in April this year, she had helped thousands of young people develop their skills as actors and backstage workers, with many going on to professional theatre careers throughout Australia. And while she has formally retired from her YPT duties, she has offered to direct shows for the company and assist it in other ways, such as helping to administer its costume stock. Wendy Leis’s role in supporting young people with an interest in theatre and in staging shows with appeal for children and adults alike was formally recognised tonight when she was announced as the 2015 recipient of the CONDA Inc Award for an Outstanding Contribution to Newcastle Theatre. Since the CONDA Awards began in 1979, she has won three trophies for her direction and been nominated on many occasions for her various roles in theatre, including costume and set design. She has also trained many people in their mid- to late-teens in directing, by having them initially acting as her assistants. As well as being a key trainer at YPT, she was assistant principal of Hunter School of the Performing Arts from 1993 until 2014, managing the primary classes. The CONDA judges – Shane Bransdon, Michael Cooper, Michelle Gosper, Carl Gregory and Ken Longworth – said Wendy Leis had always shown strong artistic vision and intellectual rigour in her leadership. She was also noted for her incredible generosity towards the entire theatrical community.

 

Wendy Leis’s award was announced at the climax of an exciting and entertaining evening in which CONDA winners were revealed between engaging musical numbers. Ten productions, staged by nine companies and a school group, shared the trophies in the 22 award categories. Two musicals, Mary Poppins, presented by Metropolitan Players, and My Fair Lady, produced by St Phillip’s Christian College, each won awards in five categories.

 

Mary Poppins collected the trophy for Best Musical Production, with the judges saying “This lively adaptation of a well-loved film had a large, well-rehearsed and energetic ensemble who worked seemingly effortlessly. Life and colour abounded”. Daniel Stoddart, cast as a chimney sweep, Bert, who helps the title character, a magical governess, bring happiness to a mother, father and their two young children, won the award for Excellence by a Male Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical, giving his character “a knowing warmth and infectious joy”. Rachelle Schmidt Adnum, who played an unsmilingly harsh nanny known as “the Holy Terror” in Mary Poppins, received the CONDA for Excellence by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role. The judges said she brought “power, strength and stage presence to the role,” causing all those watching to fear her. The director of Mary Poppins, Julie Black, collected the Excellence by the Director of a Musical award, for co-ordinating a large production team whose collective vision “transported all into the wonderful and magical world of Mary”. The production’s fifth award went to George Francis and Valmai Drury in the Excellence in Hair, Make-up and Wigs category for their hair and wigs design. They tied with another nominee, Dianne Garred, who did the hair and make-up design for My Fair Lady. The judges noted that the award recipients brought out the authenticity of the periods in which the musicals were set through their workmanship, sophistication and attention to detail.

 

My Fair Lady’s other trophies included the awards for Excellence by a Male Actor Under 18 and Excellence by a Female Actor Under 18. The male actor prize was shared by brothers Lachlan and Hamish Pickering, with the judges finding it too hard to choose between them. Lachlan Pickering played Henry Higgins, a professor who takes on the challenge of transforming a girl flower seller into a sophisticated woman, and Hamish Pickering was his friend and occasional critic, Colonel Pickering. The judges said they created a riveting stage chemistry. Hannah King won the Female Actor Under 18 CONDA for her role as the flower seller, Eliza Doolittle, “masterfully commanding the shifts in dialogue and physicality” that marked her growing sophistication. The skill of the large, 55-member, teenage cast of My Fair Lady was shown by the production’s collection of the Best Ensemble Acting award, with the judges noting that “every cast member in this slick and visually exciting production created a unique and memorable character”. Dianne Garred won a second trophy for her work on My Fair Lady, for her Excellence in Costume Design. The judges said the costumes “told their own stories in terms of character, reinforcing the class divisions, individuals and stereotypes inherent in the show”.

 

The CONDA judging rules excluded My Fair Lady from the Best Musical category because its director, Michael Cooper, is a CONDA judge. Cooper absented himself from the judges’ discussion of the show.

 

The Popular Theatre Company’s The Book of Everything won awards in four categories.

 

The Book of Everything, a look at a disorientated Dutch family in the post-World War II period through the eyes of a boy “aged nine, almost 10”, collected the trophy for Best Dramatic Production. The judges said that “All aspects of this unusually and emotionally complex production were exemplary”, making it “theatre with the power to change society”.

 

David Brown won the CONDA for Excellence by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role for his “honest depiction of a man grappling to reconcile his faith and his impulses” and eventually “opening up to the love of his family”.

 

Daniel Stoddart received the Excellence by a Director (Drama or Comedy) trophy for giving the audience “a truly heart-warming production that resonated with deep emotion and meaning”.

 

And Marion Giles won the Excellence in Set Design and/or Props category for her set, which incorporated multiple houses and streets, with “the old storybook look and feel of the set effectively supporting the themes of the play”.

 

The Tantrum Youth Arts and Paper Cut Collective co-production No One Cares About Your Cat collected four awards, with two of its winners sharing the prize in one category.

 

No One Cares About Your Cat was named Best New Play or Musical for a Newcastle Company. The work, which was put together by the producers and acting team, looks at the way social media is changing our lives, for better or for worse. The judges said it was “thought-provoking, engaging and emotionally honest” in showing how we currently interact with others.

 

Lighting designer Lyndon Buckley and audio visual artist Tim Buchanan, collected trophies in the Excellence in Lighting and Audio Visual Design category, with the judges noting that “the lighting and audio-visual design were integral and crucial to the plot development of this technically interactive work”, with the technologies complementing the mood and tone of the performances.

 

The sound design team, Jess Blackburn, Julia Rutten and Melanie Coombes, were likewise complemented by the judges for their award-winning Excellence in Sound Design, saying that “the sound was a key component of the production”.

 

The Best Special Theatrical Event CONDA was won by The Speakeasy, presented by the Smokin’Chops Jazz Quintet and its leader, David Baker. The show, staged in the intimate Unorthodox Church of Groove venue, brought to life an amusing radio play set in the United States in the 1920s-30s prohibition era, with the musicians and singers engagingly playing characters including gangsters and chorus girls as they took the audience on a journey through the jazz music of that era.

 

Callan Purcell received the award for Excellence by a Male Actor in a Leading Role in a Drama or Comedy for his performance as the troubled Alan Strang in Stooged Theatre’s Equus. His intensity and focus took watchers on a journey from the character’s childhood and explained why he had committed horrific acts involving horses.

 

Claire Williams won the Excellence by a Female Actor in a Leading Role in a Drama or Comedy CONDA for her portrayal of Sister Aloysius in Newcastle Theatre Company’s Doubt. She had a firm control of the nun’s character and emotions, and moved believably between assertiveness and compassion as the circumstances continually changed.

 

Rebecca Fitzsimmons collected the Excellence by a Female Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical trophy for her performance as songwriter Ellie Greenwich in the Theatre on Brunker and Novocastrian Players’ production Leader of the Pack. The judges noted that audiences fell in love with the effortless charm of her sweet, but not naive Ellie, and her confident, clear and melodic delivery.

 

The Excellence by a Musical Director award went to Daniel Wilson for his work in Star Struck: a-MAZE-ing, staged at the large Newcastle Entertainment Centre by the Hunter Area of the NSW Department of Education and Communities. Wilson masterfully and professionally managed the complexity and enormity of leading the student singers, a musical team and a large orchestra, comprising of a mixture of students and professionals, through a diverse range of song styles and soundscapes.

 

Cadi McCarthy won the CONDA for Excellence by a Choreographer for her staging of the Warriors Rest sequence in Stories in Our Steps, a Tantrum Youth Arts production that took the audience to various places along Watt Street, Newcastle’s oldest thoroughfare. The sequence, performed in the former St Phillip’s Church, looked at the World War I experiences of soldiers whose lives are commemorated by plaques in the building. Her use of the church space and the dancers’ movements affectingly conveyed to the audience the strength and vulnerability of the soldiers and the quiet mourning of those who remained at home.

 

In addition to the CONDA trophies, the 2015 CONDA Youth Theatre Encouragement Award was presented to Benjamin Stuart, who was nominated by Young People’s Theatre. The $500 grant gives the recipient financial support in seeking further training in theatre skills. Ben, 19, has been involved in the performing arts from the age of six and, since moving to Newcastle in 2009, when he was 12, has been a member of YPT, as well as other companies in the Newcastle and Hunter Region. He has taken leadership roles in all aspects of productions, and as a well trained and awarded music student is sharing those skills through his roles as a tutor and director. While currently undertaking tertiary studies in performing arts and music, he continues to be actively involved in productions. Ben is a highly respected, hard-working and dedicated role model who has the potential to have a career as an actor, director, musical director and industry trainer.

 

The 37th CONDA Awards were dedicated to Newcastle-area theatre workers and patrons who died in the past year: Robert Gregg, actor, director and playwright, Maitland Gilbert and Sullivan and Musical Society (now Maitland Musical Society) and Maitland Repertory Theatre; Gabrielle (Gabby) O’Connor, costume designer and maker; Noah Oerlemans, assistant tutor and workshop participant, Tantrum Youth Arts; Tony Pieterse, actor, singer and CONDA winner in 2000; Rewa Richardson, actor and director, Newcastle Repertory Theatre (Newcastle Theatre Company), and other groups; Keith Rudkin, actor, singer and theatre program printer; Bruce Scully, actor and founding member of Maitland Gilbert and Sullivan and Musical Society; Reuben Sutherland, actor and student, Young People’s Theatre; Len Young, theatre supporter.

 

The 2015 CONDA Awards had two major sponsors: Newcastle company Out of the Square Media, which put together the CONDA night presentation, and Music Theatre International, which sponsored the CONDA Youth Theatre Encouragement Award. Music Theatre International, which is headed by musical theatre producer Cameron Mackintosh, has the world’s biggest library of musicals available for staging.

 

Ken Longworth 

 

 

 

REPORT BY THE CONDA JUDGES ON NEWCASTLE THEATRE IN 2015

 

Theatre, like other performing arts, is becoming stronger each year in Newcastle and the Lower Hunter. While the two institutions which boosted the quality and diversity of this region’s theatre in the 1970s, the professional Hunter Valley Theatre Company and the Newcastle University Drama Department, have respectively disappeared and diminished to classroom activities, the growth they engendered has been taken up by others.

 

Hunter TAFE’s Regional Institute of Performing Arts has given young actors, singers, musicians and dancers excellent training in the past decade, and staged engaging works that we might otherwise not have seen. Its Advanced Diploma of Arts (Acting) students now complete their course by appearing in an offbeat musical that is an Australian premiere. This year’s students, for example, will perform at the Civic Playhouse for three nights from Thursday, December 10, in Our House, a British musical that has songs by the ska/pop band Madness and a book by playwright Tim Firth, whose other works include Calendar Girls. Ironically, the show, which won the 2003 Olivier Award for best new musical, was workshopped in Sydney last year by a professional musical team including Newcastle-raised Tyran Parke, in the hope, unrealised, that a production company would take it on tour.

 

This year saw the introduction by WEA Hunter and Pantseat Academy of a Diploma of Musical Theatre course, with the first intake of students working with American musical theatre writer Elaine Pechacek for two weeks this month and presenting last weekend a public workshop staging of her latest work, The Lady Juliana. The musical looks at the lives of the first shipload of women convicts to be sent to Australia from Britain in 1789, and the staging showed the story and songs to be moving, and not without moments of humour. It also revealed just how accomplished the musical theatre diploma students are becoming. And the students recorded the 12 songs so far written, with Pechacek taking the recording back to the United States with her, to use as a tool in getting producers interested in the musical.

 

Newcastle will also see the staging of its inaugural Fringe Festival from January 28 to February 6 next year, with 30 performing companies doing 108 performances at eight venues in the CBD. Branxton’s Phillip Aughey came up with the idea of a Newcastle Fringe after taking his popular comedy show The Exchange to last year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival. And while the Newcastle event will feature Australian performers such as Stephen Abbott, who developed his Sandman character while a student at Newcastle University, plus performers from the US, around a quarter of the shows will be staged by performance students and graduates and by amateur companies, with all forms of performance involved, including theatre, music, dance, comedy, children’s events, circus and cabaret, and with tickets kept at affordable prices.

 

Phil Aughey, who was nominated for this year’s Special Event Award for his one-man show, Chopin’s Last Tour, that he subsequently presented at the Edinburgh Fringe, is seeking financial support through crowd-funding to meet overheads including printing, rentals and advertising. The Fringe Festival program is expected to be announced on December 4. Look at the Newcastle Fringe website or Facebook site for details on how to make donations. Aughey and his voluntary team are confident that the success of the first Newcastle Fringe Festival will boost the fortunes of the second event and give Newcastle added theatrical prominence.

 

The growing quality of the theatre works being staged in and around Newcastle is evident in the scope and number of the shows nominated, with more productions from beyond Newcastle being nominated this year following an expansion in 2014 of the area covered by the CONDAs to include venues within a 50km radius of the Newcastle CBD. And, while there were not quite as many nominations this year as in 2014, following a decision by CONDA Inc to limit the number of nominees in each category to eight, the list is still impressive, with the judges taking longer at their nominations meeting to whittle the numbers down in some categories.

 

There are 138 nominations across the 22 categories, selected from 57 productions that were entered in the awards. Twenty-two theatre groups were represented in the nominations, plus four schools and education groups. School groups were included on a trial basis last year, with two productions being entered and receiving nominations. The quality of the school shows led CONDA Inc to decide to continue their inclusion. This year, four school-related works won a total of 21 nominations. Newcastle youth theatre groups have increasingly been renowned for the quality of their productions, and many of the people associated with the school shows are also in youth theatre productions.

 

In relation to that, I’d also like to point out that under the CONDA rules a production that has a CONDA judge as its director cannot be nominated in a best production category, nor, understandably, can the judge be nominated for a director’s award. That explains why the St Phillip’s Christian College production of My Fair Lady was not nominated for Best Musical Production, despite receiving eight nominations. CONDA judge Michael Cooper, who directed My Fair Lady, was excluded from discussions about the show, and another judge, Shane Bransdon, who directed Hunter Drama’s Fame Jr, likewise was absent while that was discussed. And it makes sense that at least some of the people who are on a theatre judging panel should have practical involvement in the staging craft.

 

We were all impressed by the high quality of the work staged. Several of the musicals, for example, had a quality that is generally associated with high-budget professional productions. And one of the year’s pleasures was the ever-increasing quality of set designs and their appropriateness to the works that had them.

 

It was also good to see new companies such as Eclectic Productions and Two Tall Theatre making their debuts with well chosen and staged works.

 

Myself and the other judges, who also include Michelle Gosper and Carl Gregory, are looking forward to the 2016 year. The productions already announced promise another exciting and engaging 12 months.

 

Report delivered to the 37th City of Newcastle Drama Awards at Wests New Lambton on November 28, 2015, by Ken Longworth, chairman of the CONDA Judging Panel, on behalf of the judges.  

 

 

 

38th CONDA Awards – 2016

 

The 2016 Ceremony was held at Wests leagues Club on Saturday November the 26th and was a hugely successful night for all in attendance.

 

Best Dramatic Production: Suicide Incorporated, Knock and Run Theatre
This was a tasteful and sensitive look at a difficult topic: the decision by troubled people to end their lives through suicide. It left the audience with a sense of hope that supportive measures could reduce suicide rates. Suicide Incorporated was a dynamic and engaging work, staged in an intimate space with unique production aspects and powerful acting and direction.

 

Best Musical Production: Wicked, Metropolitan Players
The audience of Wicked were transported from their seats into the land of Oz and the Emerald City with this visual and aural feast of colour, life, laughs and the occasional tear. It pulled together performance and massive production elements to a foremost degree to deliver a highly engaging and magical show to a professional standard. A superb audience experience.

 

Best Special Theatrical Event: Aspire – There’s Something Strange about Marvin McRae, Catholic Schools Office
A highly imaginative theatrical event giving a large number of young people the opportunity to perform superbly in a range of different styles with acting, singing and dancing. The content of the production was timely and relevant, with a tasteful message about embracing individuality. An encouraging all-rounder production with strengths in performance aspects and production design.

 

Best New Play or Musical Written for a Newcastle Company: Saviour’s Day, by Theo Rule, The Grainery Theatre Company
Saviour’s Day was a timely, well-researched production dealing with highly meaningful content in a sensitive and not overly forced manner. It was lively, light and entertaining, while also being able to draw the audience into more emotional and serious aspects of life and the central character’s journey after Cyclone Tracy hit Darwin on Christmas Day in 1974. This is a show that people can relate to and it provides opportunities for creative ensemble work and dynamic characters.

 

Excellence by a Male Actor in a Leading Role in a Drama or Comedy: Scott Eveleigh, Punk Rock (Stooged Theatre)
Scott Eveleigh made an incredible character journey, brilliantly presented to the audience as it revealed a subtle transformation from innocent to psychotic. The complexity of the character was controlled, with strong movement and voice skills including a consistent accent. A highly engaging performance, which culminated in an intensity of fear striking the audience.

 

Excellence by a Female Actor in a Leading Role in a Drama or Comedy: Katy Carruthers, Other Desert Cities (Newcastle Theatre Company)
Katy Carruthers delivered an unrelentingly powerful and controlled performance with incredible energy and focus. This was a challenging character delivered with a consistent accent and dynamic, resulting in her shown to be the play’s central character. Longer monologue-style lines were presented with meaningful expression. A highly engaging performance.

 

Excellence by a Male Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical: Alex Sefton, The Marriage of Figaro (Opera Hunter)
With a high degree of training and vocal skill evident, Alex Sefton’s stage presence was consistently engaging and his characterisation included an edge of cheekiness. His understanding of the genre was clearly shown through a powerful performance that brought together the singing and acting.

 

Excellence by a Female Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical: Tayla Choice, Wicked (Metropolitan Players)
A highly dynamic performance showcasing an incredible vocal capacity. Tayla Choice showed an outstanding ability to act with sensitivity and emotion, plus excellent comic timing and spirited energy. A witty portrayal of a challenging character delivered with great skill.

 

Excellence by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role: Jerry Ray, Punk Rock (Stooged Theatre)
Jerry Ray gave an incredible intensity and believability to a character whose prowling and menacing behaviour carried fear across the stage and into the audience. He showed extraordinary control and outstanding focus, responding well to others on the stage while maintaining unsettling menace. He ultimately revealed the character’s duality, giving the audience insight into his struggles.

 

Excellence by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role: Elise Bialek, Proof (Newcastle Theatre Company)
Elise Bialek superbly revealed the ambiguity of a demanding woman’s situation and the complexities of her needs and wants. Her handling of the woman’s emotions ensured that she was neither villain or victim – just real. Her excellent focus and control of voice and movements had the audience watching intently.

 

Excellence by a Male Actor Under 18: Nicholas Thoroughgood, The History Boys (Lindsay Streets Players in association with Young People’s Theatre)
In a hugely challenging role, as a troubled boy in his final school year, Nicholas Thoroughgood’s acting was extraordinarily mature and with a deep level of engagement and believability. His highly focused performance held audience emotions as he showed the character’s complexity through well-controlled light and shade.

 

Excellence by a Female Actor Under 18: Tallulah Cobban, Trailer (Tantrum Youth Arts)
Tallulah Cobban consistently made outstanding use of stagecraft throughout her performance, engaging the audience as she interacted with the other characters in a story about uncertain teens. Her conviction and energy ensured that the audience journeyed with her.

 

Best Ensemble Acting: Noises Off, Newcastle Theatre Company
There was exceptional comic timing by all the actors who never missed a beat in Noises Off. The play is highly dependent on the collective energy and interaction of the actors, and this was delivered to the audience with precision and high engagement. With impeccable timing and brilliant pace, the physical action and reactions of the ensemble members kept the audience on the edge of their seats.

 

Excellence by a Director (Drama or Comedy): Cheryl Sovechles, The One Day of the Year (Newcastle Theatre Company)
This production offered an incredibly tactful and sensitive approach to some potentially controversial, yet topical, ideas and issues. Very clear decisions were made about character intentions and who should receive audience empathy, with this cleverly changing throughout. Director Cheryl Sovechles showed excellent vision, realised through the performance and production components alike. The pace and energy were consistent, bringing the audience into an era with the subtleties of the time period evident in the directing choices.

 

Excellence by a Director (Musical): Julie Black, Wicked (Metropolitan Players)
Director Julie Black daringly adventured to bring one of the world’s largest and most complex shows to a Newcastle stage. The overall vision for the production was original and engaging for the audience, while maintaining the integrity of the composers and writers. The fusion of lead actors, ensemble and production aspects created a superbly enjoyable and magical performance for all.

 

Excellence by a Musical Director or Vocal Director: Susan Hart, The Marriage of Figaro (Opera Hunter)
Susan Hart ensured that an incredibly complex musical score from Mozart was beautifully performed with precision and sustained vibrancy. The singers, with excellent support from the orchestra, wonderfully balanced the music as they made sensitive and well-blended transitions between songs and scenes.

 

Excellence by a Choreographer: Cadi McCarthy & Marnie Palomares, Manning the Fort (Tantrum Youth Arts and Catapult Dance)
The movement in Manning the Fort helped to significantly forward the story and create meaning for the audience. The section ‘Searchlights’ stunned the audience with a highly emotive revealing of the urgency of the women during the war to illuminate the planes in the sky. The choreography utilised the outdoor performance space cleverly and with sophistication.

 

Excellence in Costume Design: Bev Fewins & Steven Harrison, Wicked (Metropolitan Players)
Wicked offered a visual feast of life and colour, brilliantly interpreted and realised with excellence through a significant quantity of costumes, each with a spectacular eye for detail and bringing a range of textures and styles to the stage. The individuality of the Emerald City costumes created stunning moments for the audience, with a creative and unique design for each character on stage.

 

Excellence in Hair, Make-up and Wigs: George Francis, Wicked (Metropolitan Players)
The wigs in Wicked revealed aspects of the characters’ journeys, especially that of Elphaba. They helped to create the many characters and added to the show’s visual life and energy.

 

Excellence in Set and Props Design: Adelle Richards & David Murray, Noises Off (Newcastle Theatre Company)
Noises Off needed and had a highly functional, sophisticated and elaborate set that perfectly suited the demands of the play. The story was set both onstage and backstage in a theatre and the set took the role of a “character” within the play. The creative dressing of each side of the set’s back wall revealed a clear juxtaposition of scenic environment and dramatic intention.

 

Excellence in Lighting and Audio Visual Design: Lyndon Buckley, Manning the Fort (Tantrum Youth Arts and Catapult Dance)
It was an incredible undertaking to design and rig a vast array of creative and meaningful lighting states across a range of unconventional and mainly open-air spaces for Manning the Fort. The lighting added substantially to the aesthetic of the production, creating atmosphere without compromising the focus on the actors. It complemented the performance aspects with insightful depth.

 

Excellence in Sound Design: Huw Jones, Manning the Fort (Tantrum Youth Arts and Catapult Dance)
The narrative of Manning the Fort was substantially enhanced through the soundscape’s impeccable timing to build engagement for the audience. The sound added to the emotional aspects of the production, which brilliantly took the audience on a journey, as well as creating a dynamic mood and atmosphere.

 

Outstanding Achievement and Contribution to Theatre: Julie Black
The entire Theatre community of the Hunter is regularly inspired and encouraged by Julie’s courage to take productions where few dare to tread. With her 2016 production of ‘Wicked’ breaking Civic Theatre box-office records, Julie’s dream of producing theatre of the highest quality has certainly come to fruition. Julie’s contribution to the Theatre community reaches far beyond one show per year as she directs and contributes to multiple productions every year. She is a regular theatre-goer and supports a large number of companies with her personal time and finances.Of particular note is Julie’s ongoing friendship, optimistic attitude and genuine love for everyone around her. Thank you Julie for all you contribute personally and professionally to make our regions’ theatre outstanding!

 

Youth Ambassador appointments for the 2016/2017 CONDA season Tom Rodgers and Rebekah Abel.

 

 

 

 

 

39th CONDA Awards – 2017

 

The Winners

 

Outstanding Contribution and Achievement in Newcastle Theatre: Greg Paterson

 

Youth Ambassadors: Georgia Vaughan and Hamish Pickering

 

Dramatic Production: Picnic (Newcastle Theatre Company)

 

Musical Production: Mary Poppins (St Philip’s Christian College)

 

Special Theatrical Event: Micro Theatre Festival 2017 (Micro Theatre Pty Ltd)

 

New Play or Musical Written for a Newcastle Company: Festive Spirit, by Sally Davies (Newcastle Theatre Company)

 

Male Actor in a Leading Role in a Drama or Comedy: Mathew Lee, Grace (Knock and Run Theatre)

 

Female Actor in a Leading Role in a Drama or Comedy: Katy Carruthers, Inherit the Wind (Newcastle Theatre Company)

 

Male Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical: Liam Bird, Rent (Pantseat Performing Arts)

 

Female Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical: Konstanze Koedam, Rent (Pantseat Performing Arts)

 

Male Actor in a Supporting Role: Tristan Entwhistle, Don Giovanni (Opera Hunter)

 

Female Actor in a Supporting Role: Alison Cox, Picnic (Newcastle Theatre Company)

 

Male Actor Under 18: Declan Dowling, Catch Me If You Can (Hunter School of the Performing Arts)

 

Female Actor Under 18: Alexandra Jensen, The Crucible (Lindsay Street Players, in association with Young People’s Theatre)

 

Ensemble Acting: Mary Poppins (St Philip’s Christian College)

 

Director (Drama or Comedy): Guil Noronha and Lesley Coombes, The Diary of Anne Frank (Maitland Repertory Theatre)

 

Director (Musical): Robert Stuart, Mary Poppins (St Philip’s Christian College)

 

Musical Director or Vocal Director: Greg Paterson, Les Miserables (Metropolitan Players)

 

Choreographer: Eva-Marie Irwin and Natalie Baker, Mary Poppins (St Philip’s Christian College)

 

Costume Design: Melanie Hunt, I(Hunter Drama)

 

Hair, Make-up and Wigs: Claire Thomas, Cats: Abridged (Young People’s Theatre)

 

Set and Props Design: Guil Noronha, The Diary of Anne Frank (Maitland Repertory Theatre)

 

Lighting and Audio Visual Design: Lyndon Buckley, Mary Poppins (St Philip’s Christian College)

 

Sound Design: Huw Jones, Home (Tantrum Youth Arts, in collaboration with PACT)

 

 

 

The Conda Awards for 2017 were held at Wests Leagues Club - Starlight Room on Saturday the 2nd of December and another wonderful night of celebrating the theatre year was had.

 

Greg Paterson, a musician and musical director who has helped to develop the talents of countless singers, actors, and band and orchestra members of all ages in the Hunter Region over several decades, has received his own deserved reward. He was named as the recipient of the 2017 CONDA Inc Award for Outstanding Contribution and Achievement in Newcastle Theatre at Saturday’s awards night, after earlier receiving the trophy for Musical Director or Vocal Director for his audience-riveting work with a large orchestra on the Metropolitan Players’ musical Les Miserables, a story set against a student-led revolt aimed at ending a dictatorship in France in the early 19th century. Greg Paterson announced after the show’s season that he is retiring from theatre work, but musical theatre fans will undoubtedly continue to recall their rapt reactions to the results he achieved with orchestras that generally included between 20 and 30 musicians. He previously won CONDAs for his musical direction of two other Metropolitan shows, Shout! in 2007, and The Phantom of the Opera in 2013. The CONDA judges – Shane Bransdon, Michael Cooper, Michelle Gosper, Carl Gregory and Ken Longworth – said Greg Paterson had been a supportive mentor and teacher to thousands of emerging artists through his role as musical director of the annual public schools event Star Struck from 1998 to 2007. Throughout his career, he had volunteered as a piano accompanist, vocal director and conductor for most musical theatre companies in Newcastle, working on shows ranging from musicals such as Wicked, cabaret-style events including Ultra Swing Lounge, and the CONDA Awards ceremony. He had been a player and conductor in or on virtually every orchestra pit and stage in Newcastle, and was highly respected for dedicating a lifetime to the development of young performers throughout the region. Greg Paterson’s Musical Director or Vocal Director Award this year drew praise from the judges for giving the music “formidable strength and beautifully layered consideration”.

 

The strength of Newcastle musical theatre was recognised in this year’s awards with seven diverse musical works receiving trophies.

 

Two school musical productions were among the seven, with the St Philip’s Christian College staging of Mary Poppins at the Civic Theatre winning five trophies, including Best Musical Production, and Hunter School of the Performing Arts taking one, with Catch Me If You Can.

 

The other musicals, as well as Les Miserables, were Rent (Pantseat Performing Arts), Seussical KIDS (Hunter Drama), Cats: Abridged (Young People’s Theatre), and Don Giovanni (Opera Hunter).

 

The judges noted that Mary Poppins, which shows how a broom-flying governess helps to resolve a family’s problems, was “boundlessly colourful and exceptionally realised, presenting an impressively strong ensemble that capably matched the high demands of the imaginative and energetic production” and “effortlessly ferried audiences between worlds of magic and mirth without compromising on spirited performances, or impressive production details”.

 

The musical’s other trophies were for: Director (Musical), Robert Stuart; Ensemble Acting; Choreographer, Eva-Marie Irwin and Natalie Baker; and Lighting and Audio Visual Design, Lyndon Buckley. Stuart was praised for “establishing a mesmerising fusion of ensemble and core cast, without sacrificing the whimsy and wondrousness that characterised the production”, the young ensemble was noted as “fully realising the endless effervescence and effortless wonder of the source material”, the choreography was applauded for being “infectious and energetic” and “injecting fun and magic into the musical numbers”, and the lighting was applauded for instilling “a beautiful juxtaposition between the magical world of Mary and the comparative realism of the family members’ lives”.

 

The Pantseat production of Rent won awards for two of its leads, with Liam Bird and Konstanze Koedam named respectively for Excellence by a Male Actor in a Musical and Excellence by a Female Actor in a Musical. The story is set among New York people trying to get work as entertainers. The judges said that Liam Bird “excellently balanced his character’s inner melancholy against the energetic and emotional outer drama surrounding him”, and praised Konstanze Koedam for “transitioning between animalistic sensuality and achingly human vulnerability” in a “captivating, dynamic, and achingly sympathetic” manner.

 

Tristan Entwhistle won the award for Excellence by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance as the sidekick of the womanising title character in Don Giovanni. His commendation noted that he provided “light-hearted comic relief without compromising a robust and skilful operatic performance”. Declan Dowling was the recipient of the Excellence by a Male Actor Under 18 trophy for his role in Catch Me If You Can as an FBI agent trying to capture a con man and prove that he’s a crook. The judges said he “showcased a skill beyond his years, with all sides of his performance presented in a unified, energetic and engaging manner”.

 

Melanie Hunt collected the Excellence in Costume Design CONDA for Seussical KIDS, with the citation noting that she had “established a visual feast, vividly realising the imaginary fantasy world of Dr Seuss”. And Claire Thomas’s make-up for Cats: Abridged won her the Excellence in Hair, Make-Up and Wigs trophy, with the judges praising her work as “lovingly detailed, with every cat in the production individually distinguished and elaborately defined through skilful use of make-up”.

 

The Best Dramatic Production CONDA went to Newcastle Theatre Company’s Picnic, a comedy-drama that shows how a holiday weekend community picnic in a small United States rural town impacts on the lives of the people living there. The citation described the show as “a whirlwind of emotional resonance, marrying earnest drama with a wondrously spirited sense of humour”, and with the performances and production values making it “an utterly captivating and impactful drama”.

 

One of the Picnic actors, Alison Cox, won the award for Excellence by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role. She played a very demanding teacher, and the judges noted that she “executed abrupt and dramatic emotional shifts with deft skill and believability, while also engendering significant audience sympathy”.

 

Another double CONDA winner was Maitland Repertory Theatre’s The Diary of Anne Frank, with directors Guil Noronha and Lesley Coombes collecting the trophy for Excellence by a Director, Drama or Comedy. Noronha also won the award for Excellence in Set and Props Design for the set which showed the small multi-level attic area of the Amsterdam office building where Jewish people hid from Nazi officials during World War II. The citation notes that it had “tightly focused and beautifully considered direction” which contributed to it being an “overwhelmingly impactful drama”. Noronha’s set was seen to be an “impressively authentic and detailed reproduction of the spaces that the Frank family occupied in their final days” so that it became “an additional character”.

 

Mathew Lee won the award for Excellence by a Male Actor in a Leading Role in a Drama or Comedy for his role in Knock and Run Theatre’s Grace as the male half of a married couple who move to a Florida beach town with the aim of setting up a religious organisation. The judges said Lee’s performance was “carefully considered and altogether electric” as he helped take the audience “on an overwhelming emotional journey”.

 

The CONDA for Excellence by a Female Actor in a Leading Role in a Drama or Comedy went to Katy Carruthers who played a sharply worded defence counsel in Newcastle Theatre Company’s court-room drama Inherit the Wind. The judges described her performance as “powerfully empathetic and impassioned”, while at the same time “maintaining a distinct and believable presence”.

 

Alexandra Jensen collected the award for Excellence by a Female Actor Under 18 for her role in The Crucible, staged by Lindsay Street Players in association with Young People’s Theatre. She played a young maid who makes false accusations of immoral behaviour against a former employer. The award citation said she delivered “a powerfully nuanced and incredibly dextrous portrayal”.

 

The Excellence in Sound Design CONDA went to Huw Jones, for his “imaginative and wonderfully distinct contribution to the atmosphere and audience engagement” in Home, staged by Tantrum Youth Arts, in collaboration with Sydney group PACT. The show had “an eclectic mix of sounds and music”, reflecting the diverse emotions the 11 performers had in relation to the concept of “home” as a result of their experiences.

 

Newcastle writer Sally Davies took home the award for Best New Play or Musical Written for a Newcastle Company for her comedy Festive Spirit, which was staged by Newcastle Theatre Company. The judges viewed the work, which had family members getting together for a Christmas meal, as “engaging and relatable, bringing out the humorous absurdities and communitive spirit of the Christmas season in a whimsical fashion” and being “at all times light, lively, and fun”.

 

Micro Theatre Festival 2017, put together by Micro Theatre Pty Ltd, won the Best Special Theatrical Event category. The judges noted that it “provided an imaginative and varied range of scripts and performances, each of high standard” and that it was “an intimate and engaging experience”.

 

The CONDA Awards overall went to 15 productions and were staged by 13 companies, organisations and schools.

 

The awards night also saw the announcement of two CONDA Youth Ambassadors aged 18 or under, one male and one female, under a program that was introduced last year to give young performers a broader outlook on the role theatre plays in the lives of participants and community members. Eighteen applicants, all with impressive theatre credits, applied to be youth ambassadors in 2018. The new ambassadors, chosen by the CONDA judges, are Hamish Pickering, 17, and Georgia Vaughan, 16. Hamish has been involved in theatre shows with youth theatre groups since 2012, initially as an actor and more recently also as a tutor and trainee director. Georgia, whose family lives in Armidale, moved to Newcastle this year after being accepted into Hunter School of the Performing Arts, and she also joined a youth theatre group. The Youth Ambassador Program, supported financially by Newcastle theatre promoter Don Mitchell, enables the recipients to attend local theatre company shows on a complimentary basis, be observers at CONDA Inc meetings to learn how the organisation operates, and attend other CONDA functions and the awards ceremony. Support from the theatre industry for young performers is also given by Music Theatre International (Australasia) which sponsors the two CONDA Awards for performers aged under 18.

 

This year’s CONDA Awards were dedicated to the memory of five Newcastle region theatre participants who died in the past 12 months: Cindy Collins, David Grinstead, Ella Knights, Estelle Pryor, and Bob Wiles.

   

40th CONDA Awards – 2018

 

The Winners

 

Dramatic Production: The Lieutenant of Inishmore (The Lowbrow Outfit)

 

Musical Production: The Drowsy Chaperone (High Street Productions)

 

Special Theatrical Event: I Love Books, JD’s World of Magic

 

New Play or Musical Written for a Newcastle Company: Dark Matter, by Anna Kerrigan (Aspire: Catholic Schools Office)

 

Male Actor in a Leading Role in a Drama or Comedy: Lindsay McDonald, The Lieutenant of Inishmore (The Lowbrow Outfit)

 

Female Actor in a Leading Role in a Drama or Comedy: Emily Daly, Constellations (Newcastle Theatre Company and Seated Ovation)

 

Male Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical: Tyran Stig, The Drowsy Chaperone (High Street Productions)

 

Female Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical: Rachel Davies, The Sound of Music (Opera Hunter)

 

Male Actor in a Supporting Role: Phil McGrath, A Mystery Musical – “The Addams Family” (The Very Popular Theatre Company)

 

Female Actor in a Supporting Role: Karen Lantry, Much Ado About Nothing (Upstage Theatre)

 

Male Actor Under 18: Will Parker, Year of the Rooster (Knock and Run Theatre)

 

Female Actor Under 18: Zoe Walker, The Drowsy Chaperone (High Street Productions)

 

Ensemble Acting: The Drowsy Chaperone (High Street Productions)

 

Ensemble Acting Under 18: Dark Matter (Aspire: Catholic Schools Office)

 

Director (Drama or Comedy): Mathew Lee, Cock (Stooged Theatre)

 

Director (Musical): Robert Stuart, The Drowsy Chaperone (High Street Productions)

 

Musical Director or Vocal Director: Mercia Buck, The Sound of Music (Opera Hunter) and James Laundon, The Drowsy Chaperone (High Street Productions) – tie 

 

Choreographer: Lauren Wheatley, Dark Matter (Aspire: Catholic Schools Office)

 

Costume Design: Jennifer Ellicott, Disney’s Aladdin Jr (Hunter Drama)

 

Hair, Make-up and Wigs: George Francis, We Will Rock You (Metropolitan Players)

 

Set and Props Design: Cooper McDonald and Donny McDonald, The Lieutenant of Inishmore (The Lowbrow Outfit)

 

Lighting and Audio Visual Design: Jacob Harwood, We Will Rock You (Metropolitan Players)

 

Sound Design: Sebastian Winter, Constellations (Newcastle Theatre Company and Seated Ovation)

 

Outstanding Contribution and Achievement in Newcastle Theatre: Out of the Square

Youth Ambassadors: Laura McKay and Will Parker

   

TWELVE very different shows shared the trophies in the 23 categories in this year’s CONDA Awards, with the musical The Drowsy Chaperone, which is subtitled “A Musical Within a Comedy”, topping the wins with six awards. And the way the production teams handled the very demanding formats and kept audiences engrossed underlined the impressive growth of theatre in and around Newcastle in the 40 years since the awards began.

 

Thirteen diverse companies and groups were involved in putting together the winning shows, among them a schools training group and experienced opera singers and performers. Likewise, shows that once would not have been considered as attracting audiences played to packed houses and had watchers repeatedly applauding.

 

The Drowsy Chaperone was the first major production of a new company, High Street Productions. It won the trophies for Best Musical Production, Male Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical – Tyran Stig, Female Actor Under 18 – Zoe Walker, Ensemble Acting, Director of a Musical – Robert Stuart, and Musical Director or Vocal Director – James Laundon. And the quality of the works staged in the judging year – from November 1, 2017, to October 31, 2019 – was reinforced by the judges – Shane Bransdon, Michelle Gosper, Carl Gregory, Ken Longworth, and Guilherme Noronha – also awarding a Musical Director or Vocal Director CONDA to Mercia Buck, the musical director of Opera Hunter’s The Sound of Music.

 

The other shows to win CONDAs were The Lieutenant of Inishmore (The Lowbrow Outfit), Dark Matter (Aspire: Catholic Schools Office), Constellations (Newcastle Theatre Company and Seated Ovation), We Will Rock You (Metropolitan Players), I Love Books (JD’s World of Magic), A Mystery Musical – “The Addams Family” (The Very Popular Theatre Company), Much Ado About Nothing (Upstage Theatre), Year of the Rooster (Knock and Run Theatre), Cock (Stooged Theatre), and Disney’s Aladdin Jr (Hunter Drama).

 

The judges noted in their citation for The Drowsy Chaperone’s Best Musical Production Award that “All elements of this musical production were in delightful harmony, perfectly

 

balanced and timed, supporting and enhancing the charmingly wry atmosphere of this show within a show parody”.

 

The musical had an old man who was a musical fan playing an old recording of his favourite show, The Drowsy Chaperone, which premiered in 1928, with the actors coming alive as he recalled the story and occasionally made errors, so that the cast amusingly brought to life his mistakes. The production’s director, Robert Stuart, won the Excellence by a Director – Musical award, with the citation saying that he “commanded and managed a production that rollicked along with snappy and clever set changes, a hugely talented cast, a visual feast of costuming and props and a uniformly indulgent sense of parody and fun from all”. Tyran Stig collected the Excellence by a Male Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical trophy for his role as the man about to become a bridegroom, which had him roller skating while blinded by a towel in one scene as the old man confused the events, swiftly followed by a tap dancing routine. The judges said that “Tyran demonstrated enormous skill and talent in bringing the character of Robert Martin to life, making him a lovable, genuine, lively, entertaining and humorous oil tycoon while still maintaining the sense of parody of the American Musical of the 1920s”. Zoe Walker won the Excellence by a Female Actor Under 18 category playing the bride-to-be, bringing “skill, maturity and talent to this deceptively complex and demanding role. She was the true triple threat, singing, acting and dancing her way through this musical in a manner that was completely appropriate for the stylistic demands of the show.” And the show’s award for Best Ensemble Acting showed the strength of all the performers, with the citation noting that it had “a brilliant cast of singing, dancing, blind roller skating, slapstick playing talent. All were having a marvellous time with such infectious joy and pure showmanship that audiences were bedazzled, highly entertained and satisfied that they had been in the hands of masters of their craft.”

 

And the same citation given to The Drowsy Chaperone’s James Laundon and The Sound of Music’s Mercia Buck for their Excellence by a Music or Vocal Director awards noted that “The orchestra and vocals were all in perfect pitch and balance throughout the entire production, taking us on an emotional and entertaining journey with aplomb and style”.

 

A second award for The Sound of Music went to Rachel Davies, for Excellence by a Female Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical. The musical is based on the story of the Von Trapp family of singers, who were forced by the Nazi invasion of Austria in the 1930s to flee the country. Rachel played a postulant nun, who was having trouble taking on a religious role, and was sent to look after the children of the wifeless head of the Von Trapp family, and eventually married him. The judges noted that “The role of Maria is a complex and demanding one and Rachel inhabited it with confidence, skill and abundant talent. She brought a genuine warmth and truth to a well known character, ensuring audiences were charmed and convinced by the determination and intelligence of Maria von Trapp”.

 

Two productions each collected three trophies: The Lowbrow Outfit’s The Lieutenant of Inishmore and the Catholic Schools Office performing arts training group Aspire’s Dark Matter. The Lieutenant of Inishmore won the awards for Best Dramatic Production, Male Actor in a Leading Role in a Drama or Comedy and Set and Props Design. And Dark Matter collected those for New Play or Musical Written for a Newcastle Company, Ensemble Acting Under 18, and Excellence by a Choreographer.

 

The Lieutenant of Inishmore is a dark comedy by Irish playwright Martin McDonagh about a former rebel who returns to his small rural community to bury his pet cat after it dies and faces execution by his one-time associates. The judges noted that “From the moment of entering the improvised theatre space at the Art Incubator and being handed a poncho the

 

audience was captivated, appalled and delighted by this production. The stylised and functional set, simple but atmospheric lighting, glorious splattering of fake blood and body parts and marvellously energetic performances all combined to bring to life this black comedy classic.” Lindsay McDonald, who won the leading male acting award, was praised for giving watchers the character Padraic, “the cat loving ‘mad’ leader of the Irish National

 

Liberation Army with an insanely violent temper and a willingness to kill extending even to his own father, in all its paradoxical glory. He plunged into the violence and mayhem of this black comedy with unbridled energy and commitment to the macabre contradiction of a terrorist who could be emotionally distraught over a cat.” And Cooper McDonald and Donny McDonald, who designed and created the set and props, were hailed for delivering “a stunning example of less is more,” with a bare-framed set using trolleys and other simple devices to contain the action that “rollicked along with much torture and fake blood over everyone and everything”.

 

Dark Matter, which was written by its director, Anna Kerrigan, looked at what happened in a secondary school that was put into an unexpected lockdown, with the students, teachers and assistants having very diverse reactions. The Best New Play citation noted that “Anna’s script presents a complex narrative that gives insight into the various characters that inhabit a school setting, exposing the myriad of fears, anxieties and difficulties that many individuals and groups face on a daily basis. It cleverly provides a platform for diverse theatrical techniques and styles as well as keeping plots and subplots rollicking along”. The Best Under 18 Ensemble Acting category is a new one, introduced this year in view of the impressive work done by actors in very different works staged by theatre youth groups and schools. The judges said that “Every member of this challenging work brought strong commitment and belief to the stage, pushing past stereotypes and delivering real and individual characters with maturity, true emotion and depth.” And Lauren Wheatley’s choreography was noted as “edgy, challenging, exciting and highly physical. She worked brilliantly with the set and costuming, constantly surprising and engaging with completely original and inspired moves. The choreography in the girls’ toilets invoked a feminist strength and determination that enhanced the themes and tone of the script.”

 

Constellations, a play by English writer Nick Payne that looked at the different ways a couple who met at a barbecue reacted to each other or could have reacted was staged by Seated Ovation in association with Newcastle Theatre Company and collected two CONDAs, with Emily Daly winning for Excellence by a Female Actor in a Leading Role in a Drama or Comedy and Sebastian Winter for Excellence in Sound Design. Emily Daly’s citation said “The rapid fire shifts in script, mood and intention required for the role of Marianne were brilliantly managed and delivered by Emily. She demonstrated an inspirational level of emotional, physical and vocal control, commanding the stage with confidence and aplomb.” And Sebastian Winter, who played a piano onstage behind the two actors, was praised for “The subtle compositions he created and performed on stage which underscored and enhanced the mood, tone and atmosphere of this complex and rapidly shifting play, thus creating a dynamic that completely supported the stylistic demands of the work.”

 

The Metropolitan Players musical We Will Rock You, set in a future world where popular music is banned, won two technical awards, with George Francis honoured for Excellence in Hair, Makeup and Wigs and Jacob Harwood for Excellence in Lighting and Audio-Visual Design. The judges said that “This production was greatly supported by George Francis’ elaborate hair, wigs and make-up. The Killer Queen’s towering red beehive, the platinum wigs of the conformist students, Buddy’s hippy locks and the Bohemians’ shaggy creative

 

hairdos and wigs all assisted to create the futuristic dystopian world of iPlanet.” And that Jacob Harwood made “This a visual feast of lighting that enhanced, supported and transported watchers through the epic journey of the Bohemians in a futuristic Orwellian techno world where Rock music is forbidden. From gentle night time forest scenes, to Killer Queen’s futuristic lair and a derelict Tottenham Station, the lighting developed mood, shadows, focus and shape, culminating in a final audience blinding moment of theatrical rock showmanship.”

 

Renowned Newcastle magician Joel Howlett won the Best Special Theatrical Event category with I Love Books, which he presented through his company JD’s World of Magic. The judges noted that “Joel has created a unique and clever travelling special event for young people that incorporates magic, audience interaction, education, live animals and lots of puns and humour into a show that cleverly informs, motivates and engages his young audiences in an educational context.”

 

The awards for actors in supporting roles went to performers in two very different shows. Phil McGrath collected the trophy for Excellence by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role for his character Uncle Fester in The Very Popular Theatre Company’s A Mystery Musical, with that work turning out to be The Addams Family. His citation pointed to “Uncle Fester’s Song to the Moon being an absolute delight in a role that Phil clearly totally enjoyed playing. His focused facial and physical command and subtle humour gently pulled us into his masterful and engaging performance.’ And Karen Lantry, winning the trophy for Excellence by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role for her performance as Dogberry in Upstage Theatre’s presentation of the Shakespeare comedy Much Ado About Nothing, was acclaimed for making the dim-witted character a delight and captivating for audiences through her impressive command of physical comedy, strong sincere characterisation, and sharp comedic timing.

 

Will Parker collected the Excellence by a Male Actor Under 18 trophy for his role in Knock and Run Theatre’s Year of the Rooster as a troubled young man living in a small country town where cock-fighting continues to take place. His citation said that “Will took us on a complete character journey arc, from gormless and downtrodden to confident and cocky, then finally somewhat defeated, yet changed. It was a humorous and skilful performance that demonstrated a mature understanding and command of the stylistic demands of the play.”

 

Mathew Lee was named for Excellence by a Director – Drama or Comedy for his staging of Stooged Theatre’s Cock, a comedy-drama by England’s Mike Bartlett that looks at the relationships between a young man who is increasingly unsure of his sexuality, his gay male partner, and a woman he meets while travelling to work, with the pair attracted to each other.

 

The judges said “Mathew kept this play on its toes by stripping the set to a stark bare space with minimal props, thus essentially removing any chance to relax. Hence, the characters prowled and circled one another in a beautifully evocative and playful manner, creating spaces, simulating sexual encounter and creating constant tension and surprise.”

 

Jennifer Ellicott collected the award for Excellence in Costume Design for her work on Hunter Drama’s Disney’s Aladdin JR. The judges noted that watchers “were immediately transported into the world of a mythical, cartoon Arabia by the brilliant costumes. Individually tailored and detailed, all costumes had to be adaptable to support multiple casts yet still create unique characters for every member of the production. Fabrics and accessories were evocative and finely detailed, and everything worked together to create a flowing swirl of colourful fun.”

 

The Award for Outstanding Contribution and Achievement in Newcastle Theatre was presented by the judging team to Out of the Square Media (OOTS), a Newcastle promotional company which recognises the cultural and economic value of our local theatre industry and the need for local businesses to provide support for and promotion of the performing arts.

 

Their philanthropic contribution to the industry has taken many forms. In 2016 OOTS used its professional personnel to develop, launch and manage TheatreNewcastle, a website platform that broadcasts all local productions, auditions and supports practitioner profiles. Since 2014, OOTS has provided the video packages, voiceovers and audio visual elements for the CONDA Awards Ceremony. In 2018 they designed and developed the re-branding of CONDA in conjunction with the launch of the new trophy. They provided an expert on social media to deliver a professional development course at this year’s CONDA Summit. And they have pledged a dollar-for-dollar match for an industry campaign to promote our theatre industry and increase the audience base.

 

The team at Out of the Square are role models amongst the business community. Their contribution and community-minded leadership is inspirational. This award, acknowledges their significant contribution to the Newcastle theatre industry.

 

The awards night also saw the announcement of two CONDA Youth Ambassadors aged 18 or under, one male and one female, under a program that was introduced in 2016 to give younger performers a broader outlook on the role theatre plays in the lives of participants and community members. Thirty-four applicants, all with impressive theatre credits, applied to be youth ambassadors in 2019. The new ambassadors, chosen by the CONDA judges, are Laura McKay and Will Parker.

 

Laura McKay has developed her skills in drama, dance and music, and has a great passion and appreciation for the arts, having worked in all aspects of theatre production for a variety of theatre companies. She demonstrates strong leadership qualities, is confident, reliable and dedicated and regards theatre as an inspiring art form that benefits many lives.

 

Laura believes that youth should be included in the planning for more theatre opportunities and have a greater understanding of how the CONDAs operate and provide opportunities for performers across the region.

 

Will Parker has extensive experience in the region working with a variety of youth and adult companies. He demonstrates strong commitment to and expertise in performance skills and actively seeks and undertakes leadership opportunities in the performing arts arena, having already directed a major production.

 

He wants to gain a deeper appreciation for the skill and dedication of his peers and friends in the Newcastle theatre community and to become more aware of the work of the Newcastle CONDA community with the view to building even stronger working relationships and to become a conduit for the voices of his peers.

 

The Youth Ambassador Program, supported financially by Newcastle theatre promoter Don Mitchell, enables the recipients to attend local theatre company shows on a complimentary basis, be observers at CONDA Inc meetings to learn how the organisation operates, and attend other CONDA functions and the awards ceremony. Support from the theatre industry for young performers is also given by Music Theatre International (Australasia) which sponsors the two CONDA Awards for performers aged under 18.

 

This year’s CONDA Awards were dedicated to the memory of 10 Newcastle region theatre participants who died in the past 12 months: Scott Allan, Luka Burt, Linda Cox, Victor Emeljanow, Carole Frazer, Isaac Lourie, Robyn Thomas, Robert Walker, Ken Walmsley, and Gillian Worthington.

 

 

 

41st CONDA Awards – 2019

 

The Winners

Excellence in Hair, Make-Up and Wigs: Lydia Reynolds & Bree Hood, Where in the World is Frank Sparrow? (HSPA)

Excellence in Costume Design: Coralie Lewis, Pirates of Penzance or The Slave of Duty (Opera Hunter)

Excellence in Set and Props Design: Daniel Stoddart, Rock of Ages (Hunter Drama)

Excellence in Lighting and Audio-Visual Design: Jacob Harwood, Rock of Ages (Hunter Drama)

Excellence in Sound Design: Huw Jones, The Shake Up (Tantrum Youth Arts/Branch Nebula/Newcastle Museum)

Excellence by a Choreographer: Rachel Wilson, Mamma Mia (The Very Popular Theatre Company)

Excellence by a Music or Vocal Director: Susan Hart/Christopher Bearman, Pirates of Penzance or The Slave of Duty (Opera Hunter)

Excellence by a Female Actor Under 18: Anna Davies, Strictly Ballroom, St Philip’s Christian College

Excellence by a Male Actor Under 18: Hugo Hay, Cahoots Macbeth (HSPA)

Best Ensemble Acting: Mamma Mia (The Very Popular Theatre Company)

Best Special Theatrical Event: Safari (Circus Avalon)

Best New play or Musical Written for a Newcastle Company: Cassie Hamilton, Playing Face (Bearfoot Theatre)

Excellence by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role: Emma Wood, Blithe Spirit (NTC)

Excellence by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role: Michael Smythe, Endgame (The Very Popular Theatre Company)

Excellence by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role in a Musical: Tyran Stig, Disney Beauty and the Beast (Metropolitan Players)

Excellence by a Female Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical: Rachel Davies Dogfight: The Musical (NTC)

Excellence by a Male Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical: Tristan Entwhistle, Pirates of Penzance or The Slave of Duty (Opera Hunter)

Excellence by a Male Actor in a Leading Role in a Drama or Comedy: Alan Glover The Sum of Us (Bare Productions)

Excellence by a Director – Musical: Rosie Kennedy, Matilda the Musical (Hunter School of Performing Arts)

Excellence by a Director – Drama or Comedy: Cassie Hamilton, Playing Face (Bearfoot Theatre)

Best Musical Production: Mamma Mia (The Very Popular Theatre Company)

Best Dramatic Production: Playing Face (Bearfoot Theatre)

Outstanding Achievement and Contribution to Theatre: Graeme Black - President and Secretary of CONDA for countless years. Set builder, Stage manager and unsung hero of Newcastle Theatre.

2020 Youth Ambassadors: Zoe Shaw and Samuel Jenkins

 

   

42nd CONDA Awards – 2020

 

The Winners 

 

Excellence in Costume Design: Fran Hodgson, Miss Bennett’s Christmas at Pemberley (Newcastle Theatre Company)

 

Excellence in Set and Props Design: Zac Smith & Drew Holmes, She Loves Me (Opera Hunter)

 

Excellence in Lighting and Audio-Visual Design: Connor Crowe & Logan Crawford, As I Lay Dreaming (Hunter School of Performing Arts)

 

Excellence in Sound Design: Riley McLean & Matthew Hudson, Picnic At Hanging Rock (Young People’s Theatre)

 

Excellence by a Music or Vocal Director: Stuart Brown & Okke Klassen, I’ll Be Home For Christmas (The Grainery Theatre)

 

Excellence by a performer 18 & under in a Play: Ruby Page, As I Lay Dreaming (Hunter School of Performing Arts)

 

Excellence by a performer 18 & under in a Musical: Bridget Ponman, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Jr (Young People’s Theatre)

 

Best 18 & Under Ensemble: I Hope: Thoughts on a Pandemic (Aspire)

 

Best Ensemble Acting: Picnic At Hanging Rock (Young People’s Theatre)

 

Best Special Theatrical Event: Nick, Jess & Simon’s Lip Sync Battle (Southern Cross Austereo)

 

Best New Play or Musical Written for a Newcastle Company: Carl Caulfield, Dali: Hallucinogenic Toreador (Stray Dogs Theatre)

 

Excellence by a Performer in a Supporting Role in a Musical: Jerre Succar, I’ll Be Home For Christmas (The Grainery Theatre)

 

Excellence by a Performer in a Supporting Role in a Play: Phil McGrath, The 39 Steps (Metropolitan Players)

 

Excellence by a Performer in a Leading Role in a Musical: Zoe Walker, She Loves Me (Opera Hunter)

 

Excellence by a Performer in a Leading Role in a Play - Comedy: Carl Gregory, The 39 Steps (Metropolitan Players)

 

Excellence by a Performer in a Leading Role in a Play -Drama: Carl Caulfield, Dali: Hallucinogenic Toreador (Stray Dogs Theatre Company)

 

Excellence by a Director - Musical: Zac Smith, She Loves Me (Opera Hunter)

 

Excellence by a Director - Drama or Comedy: Angela McKeown, The Fix (Black Sheep Theatre)

 

Best Musical Production: I’ll Be Home For Christmas (The Grainery Theatre)

 

Best Dramatic Production: The Fix (Black Sheep Theatre)

 

Best Online Educational Event or Series: TVS Online In Concert (The Voice Studio)

 

Best Online Special Event: Bearfoot Pride Concert (Bearfoot Theatre)

 

Best Online Live Event: Shrek The Musical Jr (Hunter School of Performing Arts)

 

Best Online Series: Bearfoot Readings (Bearfoot Theatre)

 

Outstanding Achievement and Contribution to Theatre: Riley McLean

 

2021 Youth Ambassadors: Imogen Bamback and Jay Scott 

 

   

43rd CONDA Awards – 2021

 

The Winners 

 

Excellence in Hair, Makeup and Wigs: Callie McLean, Wicked (Newcastle Grammar School)

 

Excellence in Costume Design: Lauren Harvey, The Pecking Order (ASPIRE Catholic Schools Office)

   

Excellence in Set Design: Lisa Little, The Pecking Order (ASPIRE Catholic Schools Office)

 

Excellence in Lighting Design: Lyndon Buckley, Do Your Parents Know You’re Straight (Bearfoot Theatre)

 

Excellence in Sound Design: Simon Ritchie, Things I Know to be True (The Very Popular Theatre Company)

 

Excellence in Audio-Visual Multimedia & Projection: James Chapman & Jacob Harwood, Two Point Oh (Knock and Run Theatre)

 

Excellence by a performer 18 & under in a Play (tied result): Annie McLoughlin, Do Your Parents Know You’re Straight (Bearfoot Theatre)

 

Excellence by a performer 18 & under in a Play (tied result): Shyla Schillert, DNA (Hunter School of Performing Arts)

 

Excellence by a performer 18 & under in a Musical: Bella Williams, Wicked (Newcastle Grammar School)

 

Best 18 & Under Ensemble: The Witches (Hunter Drama)

 

Best Production by a Youth Company or School: Wicked (Newcastle Grammar School)

 

Best Ensemble Acting: A Doll’s House (Maitland Repertory Theatre)

 

Excellence by a Performer in a Supporting Role in a Musical: Carl Gregory Young Frankenstein (Opera Hunter)

 

Excellence by a Performer in a Supporting Role in a Play: Rachel Jackett, Things I Know to be True (The Very Popular Theatre Company)

 

Excellence by a Performer in a Leading Role in a Musical: Silvie Paladino, Chess (The Very Popular Theatre Company)

 

Excellence by a Performer in a Leading Role in a Play -Drama: Rob Dilley Things I Know to be True(The Very Popular Theatre Company)

 

Best New Play or Musical Written for a Newcastle Company: Nicholas Thoroughgood Here, There and Everywhere (Bearfoot Theatre)

 

Best Special Theatrical Event: Chess (The Very Popular Theatre Company)

 

Excellence by a Choreographer: Jo Ford, Things I Know to be True (The Very Popular Theatre Company)

 

Excellence by a Music or Vocal Director (tied result): Daniel Wilson, Chess (The Very Popular Theatre Company)

 

Excellence by a Music or Vocal Director (tied result): Kim Sutherland, Chess (The Very Popular Theatre Company)

 

Excellence by a Director - Musical: Luke Aspinall, Wicked (Opera Hunter)

 

Excellence by a Director - Play: Nicholas Thoroughgood, The Doll’s House (Maitland Repertory Theatre)

 

Best Musical Production: Young Frankenstein (Opera Hunter)

 

Best Dramatic Production: Things I Know to be True(The Very Popular Theatre Company)

 

2022 Youth Ambassadors: Julia Boyd, Evelyn Parkes, Bridget Ponman, Levi Stoddart

 

Legacy Awards: Heather (Ma) Gibson, Kim Jennings, Robyn McLean

 

Achievement and Contribution to Theatre: Ken Longworth