(Pic by Val Adamson. Back Row: Jailoshini Naidoo; Neil Stuart-Harris; Megan Levy; Jessica Sole; Clinton Marius; Tina le Roux; Liam Magner; Tim Wells; Sue Clarence; Shika Budhoo and Janine Bennewith. Seated: Wesley Maherry (Catalina UnLtd); Clare Mortimer; Margie Coppen; Lisa Bobbert; Charon Williams-Ros and Ronnie Govender. In front: Evan Roberts; Nhlakanipho Manqele; Peter Court; Greg King; Steven Stead; Dhaveshan Govender and Thomie Holtzhausen)
The Mercury Durban theatre Awards were held last night (November 21) at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre, honouring excellence in productions originating in Durban and presented from October 1, 2010, to September 30, 2011. Always a glamorous event, it was attended by the “Who’s Who” in the Durban performing arts industry.
Once again, KickstArt proved itself the main driving force of theatre in Durban and swept the boards with no less than 20 awards for their musical theatre productions Cabaret and I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change and drama, The God Of Carnage.
Cabaret and The God Of Carnage won the production awards in their categories with Steven Stead winning both Director awards.
Cabaret also won awards for Megan Levy (sound design); Tina le Roux (lighting design); Neil Stuart-Harris (costume design); Greg King (set design) and Janine Bennewith (choreography). Evan Roberts and Justin Southey jointly won the Musical Director award. Charon Williams-Ros and Peter Court won Supporting Actress and Actor: Musical Theatre while Lisa Bobbert and Sascha Halbhuber won the awards for Lead Actress and Actor: Musical Theatre.
Award winners for The God of Carnage were Jailoshini Naidoo and Tim Wells (Comedic Performance by a Female and Male respectively); with Tim Wells also winning the award for Lead Actor. Clare Mortimer won the award for Lead Actress.
I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change won Poster Design for Shirley Berko and Greg King and New Performer-Female for Jessica Sole.
Last year’s adult panto, Peter Pan, won the Music Revue Production award for Sue Clarence Promotions as well as the Performer award in this category for Thomie Holtzhausen.
The Fantastical Flea Circus garnered all the awards in the Children’s Theatre category with Shika Budhoo and Dhaveshan Govender winning Lead Actress and Lead Actor, Clinton Marius receiving the Director award and Catalina UnLtd collecting the Production award.
The award for New South African Script was won by Liam Magner and Jacobus van Heerden for their Tokoloshe Come Again!.
Nhlakanipho Manqele won the New Performer – Male and Supporting Actor awards for his performance in The Coolie Odyssey. Thami Mbongo won the Solo Performance award for his role in A Plague of Heroes.
The Judges Award for Lifetime Achievement went to playwright and director Ronnie Govender while Margie Coppen won the Monica Fairall Memorial Award for her promotional work in generating young audiences.
The evening was hosted by popular actress and MC, Jailoshini Naidoo, who also won The Mercury Theatre Personality of the Year Award Floating Trophy.
The programme included excerpts from festive season productions with Georgina Mabbett and Lyle Buxton in a scene from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Donnagh Roberts performing a number from this year’s adult panto Alice in Wonderland. Tim Pullen and ClaviTech donated a ClaviTech CK68 61-note, touch-sensitive keyboard for a lucky draw prize.
The Mercury Durban Theatre Awards are administered by Peter Taylor. Judges are: Stavros Anthias, Christa Biyela, Musa Hlatshwayo, Glynis Horning, Maurice Kort, Debbie Lutge, Sally Scott, Caroline Smart, Billy Suter, Jean van Elden and Janet Whelan.
The Mercury Durban Theatre Awards is grateful for the generosity of its sponsors and partners in supporting this year’s awards ceremony. Without this support the event would not take place. Principal sponsors are media partner The Mercury, the Bartel Arts Trust, the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre, Troubadour Productions, DarkHorse Productions, Black Coffee Design, Stuart Edwards & Company, Publicity Matters, Makulu Events, Monica Fairall Memorial Trust, ClaviTech, artSMart, Val Adamson Photography and Sunshine Factory.
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