Daily Echo Curtain Call Nominations 2009

Congratulations to those members of WOS who have received nominations for this year’s Curtain Call Awards, to be held at the De Vere Grand Harbour Hotel in Southampton on Friday January 29th.

Best Opera or Musical

The Mikado – Clever updating, excellent staging and great singing.

Best Musical Director

Derek Beck – The Mikado - A very high standard with the witty adaptations well sung and clearly audible.

Best Performance in an Opera

Tony Blackshaw (Pooh-Bah) – The Mikado – Provided a mix of chaos and comedy as a hapless employee.
Penny Bullough (Katisha) – The Mikado – Great depth of character and stage presence.
Kate Freemantle (Santuzza) – Cavalleria Rusticana – Beautiful singing in this complex opera.

Our friends at The Chesil Theatre and Encore also picked up some nominations, as did some other past and current members of WOS:

Best Musical Director
Martin Paterson – Red Hot & Cole – RAODS. Martin showed great stamina and skill in this musically intense show.

Best Supporting Actor in a Drama
Stephen Thomas (Tom) – The Glass Menagerie – Chesil Theatre. Especially moving in portraying his tenderness for the memory of the sister and mother he finally deserted.

Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy or Comic Drama
Ian Fraser (Tim Atkinson) – Whipping It Up – Chesil Theatre. His appropriately broad playing as the new boy in the Government Whips Office got plenty of laughs.

Best Lighting, Sound and Effects
David James and Martin Humphrey – Blood Wedding – Chesil Theatre. Helped to create an electrifying moment when the moon called out for blood to warm her!

Best Actor in a Drama
Tom Maggs (Leonardo) – Blood Wedding – Chesil Theatre. Striking presence and a fine voice as the defiant lover.

Best Actress in a Drama
Karen Fitzsimmons (Amanda) – The Glass Menagerie – Chesil Theatre. Comic, maddening and touching as the mother whose genuine concern for her difficult children is undermined by nostalgia for her Southern Belle glory days.

Best Actor in a Comedy or Comic Drama
Malcolm Brown (The Chief) – Whipping It Up – Chesil Theatre. Splendid moments of corruption, duplicity and genuine political passion.

Best Actress in a Comedy or Comic Drama
Suzanne Hall (Landlady) – Two – West Meon Theatre. Exceptional in all her accents, expressions and mannerisms.

Best Actor in a Shakespeare Play
Tom Maggs (Antipholus of Syracuse) – Comedy of Errors – Chesil Theatre. Wonderful tone of voice, full of intention and emotion; physically natural aptitude for comedy.

Best Actress in a Shakespeare Play
Nicola Pink (Adriana ) – Comedy of Errors – Chesil Theatre. A suitably bewildered and indignant Adriana.

Best Director of a Drama
Tim Robbins – The Glass Menagerie – Chesil Theatre. Poignant and sensitive treatment of this Tennessee Williams play.

Best Actor in a Youth Production
Steven Lilly (Jesus) – Jesus Christ Superstar – Centrestage Productions Youth Theatre. Steve was a shining light at the centre of the piece, as befits the role, creating a vulnerable and empathic Jesus.

Best Supporting Actor in a Youth Production
Chris Challis (The Pirate King) – Pirates of Penzance – Encore Youth Theatre. Chris dominated proceedings with a beautifully comic and
flamboyant turn.

Best Director of a Youth Production
David Tatnall – Les Misérables – Footlights Youth Theatre. Under David’s assured direction FYT produced a visually stunning, briskly confident production, populated with excellent performances.

Youth Ensemble Award
Pirates of Penzance – Encore Youth Theatre. This was an exuberant, sparkling and above all immensely fun show, with some of the best comic performances of the year.

Best Costumes
Susan Beckett – Pirates of Penzance – Encore Youth Theatre. This was one of the most colourful and beautifully dressed productions of the year.

Production of the Year
The Glass Menagerie – Chesil Theatre. Every aspect of this production was of an extremely high standard.
Pirates of Penzance – Encore Youth Theatre. A fantastically realised production with excellent production values.

The full list can be found online at:

http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/leisure/stage/curtaincall/nominees_2009/