Theatre nominees announced

Twenty-six shows by 13 theatre groups were considered for the awards.

Sweeney Todd, the Abbey Musical Theatre’s March production, has topped Manawatu’s Globe Theatre Awards with eight nominations.

Twenty-six shows by 13 theatre groups, with the Taihape Drama Group included for the first time, were considered for the region’s annual amateur theatre awards.

Others with a good number of nominations across 13 categories included Levin Performing Arts’ November production of Grease, Manawatu Theatre’s The Glass Menagerie, and AMT’S Hair.

Productions of Quilt, Cats, Dusty and Beauty and the Beast also scored well.

From musical theatre to avant garde ensemble productions, there was plenty of variety as well as talent on display, according to assessment panel convenor Sheridan Hickey, who praised the number of high-quality productions.

Best director nominations went to Kelly Harris for Summer Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor, Scott Andrew for Sweeney Todd, Peter Doherty for Feilding Little Theatre Players’ Last of the Summer Wine, Damian Thorne for Hair and Ian Harman for The Glass Menagerie.

Musical direction nominations went to Roger Buchanan for Hair, Wendy Revell for the Taihape Drama Group’s production of Dusty, Colin Taylor for Levin Performing Arts’ Oliver! and Adam Praat for Grease.

Best female actor nominations went to Joanne Sale as Karen in Manawatu Theatre’s Quilt and for Grizabella in Abbey Musical Theatre’s Cats, Tracey-lynne Cody as Mrs Lovatt in Sweeney Todd, Becks Palmer as Burger in Hair, Trudy Pearson as Amanda in The Glass Menagerie, and Amy Hunt as Dusty in AMT’S Dusty.

Nominations for best male performer went to Glen Nesbit as Sweeney in Sweeney Todd, Michael Doody as Munkustrap in Cats, Tony Vincent as Compo in Last of the Summer Wine, Sam Gordon as Tom in The Glass Menagerie, and Asaria Saili as Danny Zuko in Grease.

Nominated in supporting roles were Mady Horman (Johanna), Read Wheeler (Tobias) and Sam Gordon (Judge Turpin) in Sweeney Todd; Read Wheeler (Rodney) in AMT’S Dusty; Sarah Thomsen (Mary O’brien) in Taihape’s Dusty; Nick Ross (Gaston), Danielle Macdonald (Babette) and Grant Miller (Lumiere) in Pahiatua Repertory’s Beauty and The Beast; Aisling Bohan (Rizzo) and Bernard O’brien (Kinecke) in Grease; Gael Haining Ede (Peggy) in Silly Cow; Brie Shaw (Laura) in The Glass Menagerie; and Nathan Webb (Sheldon) in Foxton Little Theatre’s The Old People Are Revolting.

The winners will be announced during an awards ceremony at the Globe Theatre in Palmerston North on Friday, February 24.