Pinocchio sees double at Helpmann Awards
InReview
Two South Australian theatre companies were among Australia’s best and brightest talent last night at the 2014 Helpmann Awards winning two categories.
A co-production between Windmill Theatre and State Theatre Company of South Australia, Pinocchio, won Best New Australian Work and Best Presentation for Children.
The awards were among 44 in recognition of distinguished artistic achievement and excellence across the major disciplines of Australia’s live performance industry.
The awards were presented at Sydney’s Capitol Theatre on the set of Disney’s The Lion King, previous winner of four Helpmann Awards by some of Australia’s most celebrated talent including Geoffrey Rush, Nancye Hayes and Teddy Tahu Rhodes.
Show highlights included a performance from Adelaide string quartet, The Zephyr Quartet.
Director Rosemary Myers says the awards were confirmation of South Australia’s talent.
“We had an amazing night with six nominations,” said Myers “We also won Best Presentation for Children with School Dance at last year’s awards. Winning the two awards this year with Best New Australian Work made it a pretty crazy night. It was so exciting that a work created by Adelaide artists and for family audiences got that kind of acknowledgement.
“It’s a real tribute to Nathan O’Keefe, who played Pinocchio, designer Jonathon Oxlade and composer Jethro Woodward and all the other artists who helped shape the production from the outset.
“Pinocchio was nominated in some heavy hitting categories alongside big productions with a lot larger budgets than we have.”
Pinocchio was also nominated for Best Lighting Design (Geoff Cobham), Best Original Score (Jethro Woodward), and Best Scenic Design (Jonathan Oxlade). Sydney Theatre Company’s Nick Schlieper won Best Lighting Design for Rosencrantz and Guildernstein is Dead. Ian Grandage was the winner of the Best Original Score award for When the Time Stops. And Gabriela Tyresova won Best Scenic Design for Rosencrantz and Guildernstein is Dead.
Myers was also nominated in the category of Best Direction of a Musical for Pinocchio, alongside Baz Luhrmann’s multi-million dollar Strictly Ballroom the Musical, Christopher Renshaw’s The King & I, and Dean Bryant’s Sweet Charity. Dean Bryant’s Sweet Charity was the winner.
First staged in Adelaide in 2012, Pinocchio has also enjoyed successful seasons in Sydney and Melbourne and is set to play in New York in 2015.
After the excitement of last night, Myers is already back at work with Windmill’s sell-out production Grug and the Rainbow “we just sold 94 tickets in one day” and a film adaptation of this year’s production Girl Asleep.
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Other South Australian productions to receive nominations on the night were Australian Dance Theatre’s Nought (Kimball Wong, Best Male Dancer in a Dance or Physical Theatre Production, and Daniel Jaber, Best Choreography) and G (Garry Stewart, Best Regional Touring Production). Garry Stewart was also nominated for Best Choreography with his work on The Australian Ballet’s Monument.
The State Opera of South Australia’s co-production of La Traviata was nominated for Best Opera and Best Male Performer in a Supporting Role in an Opera (Mario Ballanova) and Adelaide actor Paul Blackwell was nominated for Best Male Actor in a Play for the State Theatre Company of SA and Sydney Theatre Company co-production Vere (Faith).
A number of other South Australian productions and performers were nominated including Sadeh21, Am I, Roman Tragedies, An Iliad, Shadow King, Lady Rizo and Tommy Bradson. The full list of 2014 Helpmann Award nominees and winners can be found here.
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