Canberra Area Theatre Awards nominations

"Twenty years and we're still here - they said it wouldn't last."

The most nominations for a musical went to Supa Productions' La Cage Aux Folles with 12, followed by Free Rain Theatre Company's Legally Blonde the Musical with 11 and in the play category the most nominations went to Canberra Repertory Society's Steel Magnolias with nine and Free Rain's August: Osage County with eight.

Canberra Repertory Society received 23 nominations across its six productions and Free Rain received 21 nominations across three productions.

The awards - co-founded by Wood, who's now in charge of them herself - were designed to provide recognition to amateur theatre in dramatic and musical societies, schools and colleges and have grown over the past two decades .

"We started with six judges and six companies and now we've got 68 companies and 21 judges," Wood said.

This year, judges have seen four different productions of Seussical and two companies mounted Legally Blonde. There were two productions of The Pirates of PenzanceThe Little Mermaid.

For the first time this year, the judging panel has been expanded beyond the ACT, with four regional judges in Merimbula, Parkes, Orange and Wagga Wagga to provide greater representation to regional theatre and reduce the workload on ACT-based judges.

Eleven companies and schools joined this year from Canberra, Queanbeyan, Wollongong, Mittagong, Wagga Wagga, Albury and Bathurst.

Because of the rise in the number of regional companies entering the CAT Awards, the NSW state government provided a grant of $20,000 this year to help run the event. The CAT Awards' principal sponsor is ActewAGL.

Wood said the judges had noticed a rise in the standard of lighting this year and noted that the quality of productions in schools and colleges remained as high as it had been in recent years.

She said one of the great satisfactions was seeing people who had won CAT Awards go on to professional theatrical careers. Among them was Bill Bourchier, who won the 2009 award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a School or Youth Musical as Judas in Marist College's Jesus Christ Superstar.

"He has recently graduated from the Conservatorium in Brisbane and has been cast as the lead in a new production by Harvest Rain, to be directed by Simon Gallaher, of The Pirates of Penzance. He will be playing the part that Simon made famous so many years ago, Frederic."

Among the other Canberra winners who have gone on to professional theatrical careers are Lorina Gore, who won the first award for Best Actress in a Musical for Guys and DollsMy Fair LadyJoseph and the Amazing Technicolor DreamcoatStrictly Ballroom.

The CAT Award winners will be announced at a gala awards night in Llewellyn Hall on February 21, 2015. Tickets will be available from Ticketek from Thursday.

For a list of nominees and more information on the CAT Awards visit catawards.com.au.