ITA Finley Award Winners

Congratulations to all the ITA Finley Award winners, and thank you to everyone who came along and had such a good time on such an enjoyable evening. For those of you who couldnÂ’t make it, the Award Recipients were:

Plays Category:
1st Place - "Too Far to Walk", directed by Geoff Leeder, Kwinana Theatre Workshop;
2nd Place - "Twelve Angry Men", directed by Norma Standing, Garrick Theatre;
3rd Place - "Butterflies Are Free", directed by Geoff Leeder, Melville Theatre.

Musicals Category:
1st Place - "Cabaret", directed by David Gardette, Playlovers;
2nd Place - "Assassins", directed by Alex McLennan, Playlovers.

Sheila Buchanan AdjudicatorsÂ’ Encouragement Award: Melville Theatre.


Congratulations to Playlovers for sweeping the Musicals Category - I canÂ’t remember such a thing happening before (anyone else?). Well done also to Geoff Leeder for scooping first and third place in the Plays Category (still room for improvement though, GeoffÂ…). And how embarrassing for Rockingham Theatre to win an AdjudicatorsÂ’ Award, and have no one there to receive it.


My apologies for a couple of things:

The evening did go on a little longer than expected - a couple of naughty groups exceeded the ten-minute limit on their excerpts, but the standard was so high I donÂ’t think people minded too much.

Because the evening was running long, I tried to wrap things up quickly, and in so doing, neglected to properly thank a few people. Huge thanks of course must go to David Crewes who produced the show, coordinated with the venue, wrote the script, supervised the rehearsals, and - basically - ensured we had a show. Speaking of the venue, many thanks to David Yardley, owner and manager of the Bridge Theatre. David did absolutely everything he could to make us welcome and provide technical support. Technical support also came from the lovely Marie Corrigan, and the not-quite-so-lovely, but equally invaluable, Stan Brannick, both of whom ran things backstage with grace and efficiency. Attributes also credited to a not-in-the-best-of-health Kim Shaw, who nevertheless took bookings and managed FOH despite a few unfortunate mishaps. "Not in the best of health" also, was Mandy Crewes, who was originally slated to co-host with Conrad Crisafulli, but missed the evening. Thanks to Conrad who soldiered on regardless, and get well soon, Mandy. And on a selfish note, thanks to Helen McFarlane for reprising the wonderful Sally Bowles. (Sorry, Helen, I know that last year I stated, "Gaffa tape holds the universe together," but for holding up stockings, suspenders are generally preferable.)

JB

In additiona to the main awards the following adjudicator's certificates were awarded:



Garrick Theatre Club -Set design “The Boys”
Kwinana Theatre Workshop -Lighting design “Too Far To Walk”
Playlovers - Properties & set dressing “Come Blow Your Horn”
KADS - Creation of atmosphere “Picasso at the Lapin Agile”
Garrick Theatre Club - Direction of choreography “Twelve Angry Men”
Harbour Theatre - Clarity of diction “Habeas Corpus”
Kwinana Theatre Workshop - Ensemble work “How the Other Half Loves”
Old Mill Theatre - Excellence in set design & innovation “Jack the Ripper”
Playlovers - Excellence & authenticity in costuming “Assassins” & “Cabaret”
Playlovers - Ensemble & characterisation “Assassins”
Roleystone Theatre - Choreography “Me & My Girl”
Old Mill Theatre - Musical direction “Jack the Ripper”
Playlovers - Original interpretation “Cabaret”
Rockingham Theatre Effective direction of talented youth “Peter Pan”
Act One, Scene One - Vibrant enthusiasm “Chicago”

I must say I had a really good time during the Finley Awards. Congratulations to Geoff and David. I saw both their shows during the year and I thought they were excellent, although "To Far To Walk" was a little too harrowing for me to want to see it again.
Who was the prat with the microphone? He seemed to be only interviewing people that he was familiar with. I also thought his camera crew (didn't they read the programme) were taking thing far too seriously for such a fun evening.

I was pleasantly surprised at the magnificent quality of some of the musical segments at the Finley Award Night. Jarrod apologised for the length of the evening, and I hope I don't sound too churlish if I make a couple of comments.

The night started over 10 minutes late. I suspect we would all complain bitterly if that happened at a member club performance.Why can we not get up on time??

Some of the items were far too long, which brings me to a point. This was the Finley Award Night, and yet the awards were tucked away at the end to be got rid of in the shortest possible time. I really feel we should make a big thing out of the awards and have any entertainment as a secondary feature.

The lighting was dismal in the extreme. Come on people, it should have been a big, bright colourful night, yet when it came to the Awards themselves, one tiny corner of the stage was lit and that not very well.

I'm probably pushing my own favourite option, but I would love to see a cabaret style night tried, with a table (or tables) for each club and maybe just two or three good pieces of musical entertainment.

Tim,

The guy doing the interviews was Adam Webb from Channel 31. I heard that they are televising some or all of the night. Does anyone else have any info?

Cheers, Gill

Tim,
Channel 31 asked for permission to come along and photograph & possibly interview the winners and talk to various people on the night.
They were NOT filming the entertainment segments, they know and it was also made clear than they were not allowed to film the copyrighted segments from the various shows.
hope this clears up any misconceptions.

I'd like to reply to Stuart, and anyone else who may have the same concerns
We were just as cross at the late start - the reasons lie with some of the audience, 'we didn't know where the place was & had trouble finding it' & 'Oh, we thought it started at 8 o'clock' were two comments.
Also the amount of changing tickets, leaving tickets, + complicated explanations as to who they were for, proffering $50 notes and Kim almost running out of change (& patience).
a number of clubs had not booked tickets, leaving it to their individual members to 'turn up on the night' The reason we send out booking forms is to try to avoid just these problems
If you can find me a solution to these problems I'd be very pleased!
Length of items: Yes fully agree. Everone is told 10 mins but it's not easy to curtail the enthusiasm of the Musicals folk especially!
(and they were all very good) we have thought of using only musicals for the entertainment, but complaints from 'play people' are valid.
We have already had an apology from the Theatre management about the lighting, I agree it was unfortunate but ...
Finally, Cabaret style, it's worth a look. Perhaps we could ask Grant to put a poll on site to canvass opinions

Oh duh.........., mind you it seemed to me that they were recording the whole show, although my comment about the programme was only a joke, and Adam Webb was still selective about the people he interviewed.

Hi all

Norma Davis wrote:
-------------------------------
> Perhaps we could ask Grant to put a poll on site to
> canvass opinions

Were you planning a donkey vote?

;-)

The power is of course in your hands - or the click of your mouse finger. The link is there on the front page, if anyone would like to suggest a poll



Cheers
Grant

Hi Grant,

Thanks for the banner headline, "WA Finley Award Winners," at the top of the webpage, accompanied by that wonderful photo of the always lovely Helen... MacDonald? What? No longer "Helen McFarlane", rather, "Helen... MacDonald"? Say it isn't so, Grant. SAY IT ISN'T SO!

JB

Hi all and especially Helen/s

Jarrod Buttery wrote:
-------------------------------
> Thanks for the banner headline, "WA Finley Award Winners,"
> at the top of the webpage, accompanied by that wonderful
> photo of the always lovely Helen... MacDonald? What? No
> longer "Helen McFarlane", rather, "Helen... MacDonald"? Say
> it isn't so, Grant. SAY IT ISN'T SO!

Argle!

IT ISN'T SO!

Grovelling apologies to all and in particular both Helens - both MacFarlane and MacDonald.

It's now corrected.

Cheers
Grant

Adam told me that it would air in two weeks (but I don't know the exact date)...

I'd have to agree that cabaret-style would be good fun & better for schmoozing with our buddies, & possibly less disturbing as performers could then get up to go & do their bits onstage without disturbing other audience members.

I attended the Finleys for the first time this year and found the whole experience to be less than enjoyable. If the point of the night is to reward the pursuit of excelence in amatuer theatre why are the awards at the end of the evening and why are there none acknowledging stand out performances on and off the stage? Personally I would like to see the night become more like the Oscars. Lets have awards for best musical and play(as do already exsist) and lets also have Best Director(play and musical),
Best Costuming(play & musical), best scenery(P & M), Best actor/actress and best supporting actor/actress (play and Musical). Get the picture? Best lighting and best Musical Director would be good. How about creating a 'Finley' (like an Ocsar statuette)? One idea is the tradgedy/comedy masks that all associate with the theatre. If the idea is to truly promote theatre and all it's aspects then I firmly believe this is the way to go. Have the awards spread over the evening so the excerpts from musicals and plays are still used but please keep them short (whilst I was impressed with the standard of the plays the musical numbers left a bit to be disired except 'Chicago' which was very good but still too long. 'All that Jazz' would have been sufficient). Obviuosly the technical difficulties with the lighting and computer screen will have to be ironed out. Aim for the stars people. Amatuer by name need not be amatuer by nature. Congrats to all the winners.

Craig,
Have you forgotten that the meaning of the word "Amatuer" is ..... for the love of?
In which case we are all amatuers because we love what we are doing.

There were several occasions when performed sections of the show were blocked from me by the roving camera man, also, his LCD screen bobbing about was very distracting.

Speaking of Chicago......... was it just me or did the excerts of Chicago we saw at the Finley's remind you (ALOT or maybe EXACTLY) of the recent professional production that showed at Burswood near the end of last year, especially in the costuming and choreography departments????

At the risk of showing my extreme musicals ignorance, isn't Chicago always done the same? Don't Kander and Ebb actually specify costuming and choreography in the script (or whatever it is that those wacky, singing type plays have)? I may, of course, be wrong.

Leah, if you are correct (and it is quite plausable that you are as I have not actually seen the script myself) I apologise for my ignorance.

Anyhow seems a silly way to write a script. Doesn't allow for any creative new interpretations.

Either way I was not trying to have a go at the cast as they all did very well (even if they were far to young to even know what sex is let alone exude it, ahhh those youth of today).

If anyone does know if dance and pants are part of the script for sure I'd love to know.

I don't know what is expected of the groups who get the rights to Chicago but I do know that the sexy black, see-through costumes have not always been a part of Chicago's presentation.

In the original Australian Cast Production (I have the LP - remember them?) the "murderesses" wore white outfits with grey stripes and a black ID number printed across the front (do you know the kind of thing I mean?) for the "Cell Block Tango". The reporters all wore suits made of material which had a newspaper print design etc etc...

I believe that the revival production of "Chicago" on Broadway was revamped and that all successive productions have been the same.

As for the choreography, Grant & Julia did have a note in the programme which read "Contains some original choreography by Bob Fosse and Ann Reinking".

Hope that answers a couple of questions.

Cheers,
Gill

You're all kind of right. Costumes and choreography were inspired by the revival of Chicago, as opposed to the older version. Basically it just makes it more modern and less sequins.

And with regards to the choreo, we were trying to keep that in the same style as well. Although you'd find that it wasn't entirely the same as the professional production, and the main reason for that is called "catering for a cast that are hardly professional dancers" :) Same style, easier moves. But we did try to keep All That Jazz as much the same as possible.

Julia.

C'mon Craig, give us a break!
D'you know how taxing it is to choose just the awards we've got??!!

I can't remember what the Play adjudicators gave out, but the musical adjudicators did give out best Set, Costume & Musical Direction awards

The personal awards (director/actor/actress/support) are fraught with danger (you would have to limit adjudicators to those not worried about never working in this town again)
Mind you, it would be an interesting experiment to try it once (?)

On a vaguely connected note - Golden Globes
Does anyone know why Bjork has been nominated Best Actress - Drama for 'Dancer in the dark' as opposed to Best Actress -Comedy/Musical??

Paul Treasure

Yes Phil, it did remind me A LOT of the professional production!

BUT Not as badly as GRADS production of 'Sweeney Todd' about ten years ago.
Anyone remember this one?
It followed the American production (as televised on ABC) so closely that the person playing Mrs Lovett even wiped her nose at exactly the same time and in the same way as Angela Lansberry did...

Personally Opinion:
If you are going to follow the original production/film so closely...
Why not just do us all a favour and hire a projector and a big screen and just show us the video!

You may have guessed that this is one of my pet hates...

Paul

I have come in fairly late to this discussion, but would like to make a few comments re the Awards Night.

I do appreciate the amount of work that goes on before and during the Awards Night - well done to everyone involved.

It would be good to see the awards spread out over the evening - instead of rushed at the end (after all that's what we are all there for!). Comments have already been made re the length of the segments being far too long - I agree. I have never really enjoyed watching segments out of plays - I know it's being fair to have them on - but they are often difficult to appreciate. I like the idea of a cabaret style show - be great to be able to have a drink as well!

Any thought ever been given to not only having best play and musicial but best comedy? An opportunity for the comedies to have a chance.

Congrats to winners and organisers. It's a tough gig!

Hi Tara,

Thanks for the kind words. Thanks also for the feedback - I certainly appreciate intelligent commentary on ITA productions, so thanks again to you, Stuart, Craig, Lisa, and all who have taken the time to comment.

Don't think that the ITA Committee has been oblivious to this debate - the telephone conversations have been going back and forth.

A few people have mentioned the idea of the Awards being spread out over the night. I think this is an interesting idea and might well be worth trying. However, I don't agree that the Awards are the sole reason for attending. I view the ITA Finley Award Presentation as a showcase of some of the highlights of the yearÂ’s theatre (as chosen by the adjudicators, not the committee) with the Awards Presentation as the "icing on the cake". We must charge at least $12 per ticket to cover the hire cost of the venue, but I doubt people would pay that to see twenty minutes of Awards with no accompanying show.

The ticket cost provides a nice segue into the next topic: Several people have suggested a cabaret-style presentation. This sounds GREAT! However, I must stress the logistics: In order to comfortably seat 500 or 600 (hopefully more) people at cabaret-style tablesettings, weÂ’d need a venue something along the lines of the Burswood. In which case, weÂ’d probably have to charge something along the lines of $50 per ticket. And whoÂ’s going to organise such a function? Time and cost are the major factors here. Someone did mention the possibility of sponsorships, which is a possible, but danger-fraught, road. I will rot in my cold, cold grave before I see this become the McDonalds Finley Awards, for example.

An alternative would be a Garden Party. Although the weather is generally good in December, many people will remember that it rained most of the day (and night) on the date of the 1999 Finley AwardsÂ…

Someone (Craig?) mentioned the possibility of an Award for Best Director, aÂ’la the Oscars. Well everyone knows that, 9 times out of 10, the Best Director Oscar goes to the Best Film. In theatre, where the Director is often also the Producer, a Best Director Award seems superfluous. (The Director already comes up to collect the Finley Award, anyway.)

Best Actor and Actress? Hmmm, tricky one. I think it was Norma who pointed out that the Robert Finley Award, as set up in the original Trust, was an award to a CLUB (please correct me if IÂ’m wrong, Norma). This is why there are only two Awards (Best Play and Best Musical). The AdjudicatorsÂ’ Certificates are a recent invention, partly to recognise other areas of theatrical achievement.

Best Drama plus Best Comedy? This is actually a suggestion I have made in the past. The perceived difficulty is that some plays are very difficult to categorise. I can see where this would lead to even more recriminations that there already areÂ…

Thanks again to everyone. Please keep up the discussion.

JB

Well hello! Hope everyone had a terrific Christmas and holiday season.

Congrats to all involved in the organisation of the Finleys - an unenviable task indeed - and the winners. The cabaret idea is lovely but please give these guys a break! Tim's comment about doing this "for the love of it" means exactly that. Most of us have full time jobs/familys to contend with firstly before the theatre parasite gets a bite! Organising a cabaret style event would be at least a six month job for a committee and finding a suitable and inexpensive venue would prove difficult if not impossible.

Cut to the chase. This years show was definitely too long. Can we have closer monitoring of the length of segments at rehearsal time and can we have a big bad person ready to say something like CUT IT BY FIVE GUYS? If the highlights of a production can't be presented in 15 minutes max then give it the big CHOP! Plays and musicals alike. How about presenting the show in two "acts" with three 15 minute ONLY segments in each allowing for 15-30 minutes of "presentation" and thereby each act is 1 or 1 1/4 hours long? If we started at 7.30pm (Norma's comments well considered) with an half hour interval the show would finish at 10.30pm. Does that sound too "pie in the sky"? I would also suggest that the nominees are announced in the first act and the winners in the second. Builds the tension a bit doesn't it? I'm sure it's been done that way before with great success.

One last comment. I remember (yes, yes, yes) a time when best male and female actors were awarded at the Finleys. Whilst it would be very exciting to be a contender I think that, as was mentioned, the awards are designed to recognise the club rather than the individual and should stay that way. We all know the size of our own ego!! The other danger is that the same people can win those awards year after year resulting in gun-toting and knife throwing - metaphorically of course! Hmmmm..

Lastly - no really - I want to say a public congrats to KADS Tim Edwards for his choice of play in Steve Martin's "Picasso at the Lapin Agile". Wow! How refreshing to see a new work presented so well by a young director! Go to it Timbo! More! More!

I think I'm done.

Hi guys!

With all the talk about the Finley Awards night I thought I'd put my two bobs worth in.

Generally I think that the format of the evening is fine but I do agree with the closer monitoring of the segments chosen to perform. I'm definitely not in favour of a 'cabaret style' night. It's hard enough get people to listen at the best of times but sitting them at a round table ( with drinks !!! ) would make it near on impossible. Lastly, maybe some standard certificates should be awarded, that are given each year, for example - Best choreography, Best set etc ( just some ideas ). I think that it is very important to recognise the efforts and abilities of these people because as we all know without this group of champions there is no show.

Congratulations to all the winners.

Alex.

P.S. Who were those rude people who go up and left, so loudly, while the winner of the Best Play was making their speech. Who ever you were learn some manners!!!

P.P.S. Merry Xmas & Happy New Year to you all. Best wishes for all your coming seasons.