Plays delight in Foster
THE Bruce Crowl Award for the Most Outstanding Production at the 17th South Gippsland Festival of One Act Plays at Foster on the weekend went to a relatively new Melbourne company, Bitten By Productions.
The company staged Heroes by Gabriel Bergmoser, who also received the playwright’s award.
Runner-up for the Most Outstanding Production was Brighton Theatre Company, whose play Second Sight also earned trophies for Carol Shelbourn as Most Outstanding Lead Female Actor and Matt Phillips as Most Outstanding – Male Support Actor.
Gippsland performances catching the adjudicator’s eye included Lynn Atkinson, in her first performance with FAMDA as Frances in The Wylah Valley Book Club and John Reisinger, who played a wonderfully hammy actor in Three Lovers staged by Latrobe Valley based Here, There and Everywhere Theatre.
The Young Players Festival on Saturday morning got the festival off to a great start with wonderful performances from well trained and enthusiastic young actors playing before a huge audience at the Foster hall.
The most outstanding production trophy was won by Wesley Student Theatre with an adaptation of Euripides’ tragedy Medea, complete with extremely well directed Greek Chorus.
Wesley College student Amy Sutherland earned an outstanding achievement award in the title role.
Grade 5 student Erin Jones-Jacobson from Foster Primary School earned the Adjudicator’s Choice Award for her impressive contributions as writer of Animal Spirit, a play with a strong and well conveyed environmental message.
Koonwarra Village School’s staging of A Crown Does Not a Princess Make was awarded Most Enjoyable Play.
Outstanding Achievement Awards for Koonwarra Village School students went to Siera Hampshire for her eye-catching and thoroughly focused performance as the Princess in A Crown Does Not a Princess Make and to Indigo Aurora for being consistently in the moment as Moonshot in The Apple.
There were also special mentions for Mila Cox for characterisation in a non flashy role in The Apple and to Riley Forrest-Kennedy for the wind and bird noises in A Crown Does Not a Princess Make.
A multiple award winning company was Lilydale based YouthARK, who took home the trophies for Most Outstanding Male Lead Actor, won by Riley Stow, for his performance in Deadline, written by Candice Farrugia-Roberts, who received the Victorian Drama League Encouragement Award.
The Most Outstanding Director trophy went to Sharon Maine for I Dream Before I Take the Stand, staged by Gemco Players from Emerald.
Another trophy heading towards the Dandenongs was the Most Outstanding Female Support Actor won by Donna Cleverley in 1812 Theatre’s delightful poetic comedy Floss.
The Most Outstanding Design award went to Flashlight Theatre Company from the Casey area for the quality of voiceover and sound design in Brooklyn.
Pop Culture Theatre was presented with Adjudicator’s Choice Award for its backstage professionalism.
The company had presented two engaging comedies, The Rules Are the Rules Are the Rules and The Adjudicator.
Full details of festival nominations and awards are listed on www.famda.org.au.
In character: Foster Primary School’s Luca Andreopoulos and Jet Chandler were looking forward to their performance Animal Spirit in the One Act Play festival on Saturday morning.
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Posted by Tayla Kershaw on Aug 22 2017. Filed under Community. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
