The Canberra Area Theatre Awards. Directed by Stephen Pike. Hosted by John Wood and Ian McLean. Musical director James Court. Llewellyn Hall, Saturday February 21, 2015.
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best actress in a musical for Guys and DollsThink of MeThe Phantom of the Opera best actor mThe Boy from Oz WickedCats, sang a medley of songs from the Peter Allen musical that won him the CAT award.
Ninety-five theatre companies - 54 open/adult, 41 youth - from Canberra and regional NSW entered amateur and pro/am productions in the 2014 season.
Canberra's Free-Rain Theatre Company was the biggest winner on the night. Its productions of the play August: Osage County and the musical Legally Blonde won a combined total of 10 awards.
Co-founder and convener of the CAT Awards, Coralie Wood said the judges felt both Free-Rain shows were "very well executed".
Legally Blonde won in five musical theatre categories: best director (Derek Walker, a joint winner with Candy Burgess for Bay Theatre Players' Annie) best featured actress (Jenna Roberts, a joint winner with Eliza Shephard in ANU Interhall Productions' Spamalot), best choreographer (Michelle Heine), best orchestra and best musical director (Nicholas Griffin).
August: Osage County won five awards in the play section: best featured actress (Andrea Close), best lead actress (Karen Vickery), best director (Cate Clelland ), best production of a play and best contribution by a senior (Liz Bradley, who received the award for her work in this and Canberra Repertory Society's Steel Magnolias).
Best featured actor in a musical went to Matthew Sykes for ANU Interhall Productions' Spamalot and best lead actress in a musical to Bronwyn Sullivan for Queanbeyan City Council's Sunset Boulevard.
Best actor in a lead role in a play went to David Preston in Pig Fly Productions' The Importance of Being Earnest and best actor in a musical was won jointly by Ben O"Reilly in Supa Productions' La Cage aux Folles and Matt Burgess in Bay Theatre Players' Annie.
Matt Burgess also received the Gold CAT Award for outstanding achievement in set design, lighting and performance for Annie.
Canberra Repertory Society's production of Arcadia won two awards, for Helen Drum's costumes and Russell Brown's technical achievement in designing and constructing the tortoise and the furniture (shared with Maria Stewart's stage management of Step into the Limelight: Signs for ACT Education and Training Directorate).
In the School or Youth Plays section, Lake Tuggeranong College's production of the comedy Moon Over Buffalo received five awards: best featured actress (Melissa Nuttal); best featured actor (Christopher Brookhouse);best leading actress (Belle Nicol); best director (Emily Tutin); and best production.
The Mary Porter Scholarship was for the first time awarded to two people, Canberran James Court, who is studying music in Sydney, and Olivia Fisher from Bathurst who is studying singing in Brisbane.
Wood said it might become necessary for a name change - to the Combined Area Theatre Awards - to reflect just how much the CATs have spread to regional NSW.
She said that she would "love someone to take over" running the awards but doesn't know who would. And it didn't seem like she was ready to hand them over just yet.
"They're a part of me."
For a complete list of winners visit catawards.com.au.
