Helpmann Awards 2007

[Hannah]

Besides which, I think you're selectively viewing. Here are the "vs." statistics for nominees:

BEST PLAY
STC vs. Griffin vs. Company B vs. STC

BEST DIRECTION OF A PLAY
STC vs. STC vs. SA Theatre vs. Company B

BEST MALE ACTOR IN A PLAY
MTC/STC/HothouseTheatre vs. SA Theatre/QTC vs. STC vs. STC

BEST FEMALE ACTOR IN A PLAY
Company B vs. Black Swan vs. Maly Theatre (Syd Fest) vs. STC

BEST MALE ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
STC vs. MTC vs. MTC vs. SA Theatre

BEST FEMALE ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
STC vs. Malthouse vs. STC vs. Company B/Malthouse

[Yonkers]

Based on the above nominations:

27 nominations. 17 to NSW, 5 to Victoria, 3 to South Australia, 1 to Western Australia, 1 to Queensland. Hardly encouraging to any companies outside of Sydney. I still maintain that if the awards are to be considered truly national then they need to cast their net a little further than they are. You can't help but wonder were the STC's 10 nominations above part of a farewell gift to Robyn Nevin. lol. After all her tenure there was hardly brilliant.

[Hannah]

So are you attacking the awards for STC or for Sydney? Because I think it's fruitless attacking a city for having good theatre... You argued against STC getting the awards over MTC before, and not Sydney over Melbourne. I think that's an important distinction to make in your argument.

Again, I would like to think that perhaps the nominations were due to brilliant productions and performances, and not due to Robin Nevin... *shudders* I said before that pretty much all of the STC nominations came from 2 plays. Usually, if a show is exceptional, it is exceptional in a number of respects (which would logically result in a number of different nominations). I'm not arguing that the board do not travel enough to other states, but I'd hazard a guess they all got to Melbourne quite a lot...

[Also, I know this is nit-picking, because it doesn't really matter in the scheme of things... but...

I really don't think you could call the Maly Theatre from St Petersburg a Sydney production, despite being in the festival.... nor the joint project with MTC/Hothouse Theatre - an overseas production brought here by the companies.]

[Yonkers]

I just think in order for the awards to be considered national they need to look abit further afield than Sydney or Melbourne. If they can't do that then do what I mentioned previously have some awards allocated by region.

The Kosky effort was virtually canned by all who saw it, as a self indulgent, eight hour bore, yet it received noms (?!?). How did that happen?

Even taking out the two productions you mentioned, leaves 25 nominations to Sydney theatre. This is my point they are NOT national.

On aussietheatre.com Nick Ferranti has written an excellent column on the awards. It is worth a look.

[Hannah]

I disagree on The Lost Echo. It was not "uniformerly (sic) canned by all who saw it". Many people who saw it said it was amazing (although a consensus seemed to be that the first half was better than the second). It was definitely out of the ordinary for STC - very much an experimental art-theatre piece you'd expect from independent theatre instead of a very mainstream theatre company. I applaud anything that stretches STC, and I think the Helpmann's were doing the same.

Oh and, 15, not 25.

[Yonkers]

There has to be awards by region eg. Separate awards for WA, SA, VIC, NSW, QLD, TAS, NT, if these are going to be truly national awards. And don't get me started on the musical nominations, and orchestral concerts, opera and ballet in the same ceremony. Oi vey.

[benz]

Have to say that Hanna makes a fine argument and I'm with here on this issue. But moving on, imagine how hottly contested the awards will be next year with so many fabulous roles up for nomination!!