Fleur du Cap award winners announced

London Road

Nominees and VIP guests mingled to music by saxophonist Judy Brown and harpist Jane Theron. Lara Bye, a previous Fleur du Cap winner, directed the on-stage event, which featured perfomances by David Kramer and his Breyani Band, the Limited Edition Drummers, the Gugulethu Tenors, Thembi Mtshali-Jones and the world champion break dance duo Jed and Duane Lawrence, also known as the Ubuntu BBoys. Entertaining the illustrious crowd in-between the awarding of prizes was the hilarious MC Alan Committee with television personality Charlene Truter his co-host.

Outstanding individuals for theatre excellence

Every year prizes are given to outstanding individuals for theatre excellence, specifically focusing on professional theatre productions staged in the Cape Town metropole and surrounds. The judges are made up of local critics, journalists, writers and drama educators, who base their decisions on having viewed close to 100 productions over 12 months, in several venues in and around the city. The panel consists of Marianne Thamm, Mariana Malan, Marina Nel, Peter Tromp, Len Ashton, Beverley Brommert, Wayne Muller, Herman van der Westhuizen, Zane Henry, Jill Makram, Denise Bester and Conrad Sidego, the non-voting chairman.

London Road bags three

London Road, a production directed by Lara Bye, scooped three awards for Robyn Scott as Best Actress, Ntomboxolo Makhutshi as Best Supporting Actress and Nicholas Spagnoletti for Best New SA Script. Woyzeck, directed by Best Director nominee Lara Foot, was acknowledged in two categories with Bongile Mantsai winning Best Supporting Actor and Leopold Senekal receiving the Fleur du Cap for Best Design (costumes and set). Pieter-Dirk Uys, who was awarded a Teddy in Berlin last month and a Naledi in Johannesburg last week, received his third major award of 2011 when he won the Fleur du Cap for Best Performance in a Revue or Cabaret for his role as Bambi Kellermann in F.A.K Songs and Other Struggle Anthems.

Artistic creation of a production

Each award carries a R15 000 cash prize and a silver medallion. Awards are given for musicals, comedy and drama productions. Special attention is paid to the entire artistic creation of a production, which includes writing of new scripts, acting, directing, plus the challenging technical and design elements.

The category winners were:

Best Performance by an Actor: Warrick Grier for Blackbird as Ray

Best Performance by an Actress: Robyn Scott for London Road as Rose

Best Supporting Actor: Bongile Mantsai for Woyzeck as Drum Major

Best Supporting Actress: Ntomboxolo Makhutshi for London Road as Stella

Best Director: Malcolm Purkey for The Girl in the Yellow Dress

Best Performance in a One-Person Show: James Cairns for Dirt for various characters

Best New SA Script: London Road, Nicholas Spagnoletti

Rosalie van der Gucht Prize for New Directors: Christiaan Olwagen for Woza Andries

Best Performance in a Musical: Ilse Klink for Mamma Mia! as Rosie

Best Performance in a Revue or Cabaret: Pieter-Dirk Uys for F.A.K Songs and Other Struggle Anthems as Bambi Kellermann

Best Design: Leopold Senekal for Costume and Prop Design for Aesop's Fables and for Costume and Set Design for Woyzeck

Best Student Award: De Klerk Oelofse from University of Stellenbosch

Lifetime Achievement Award: Mannie Manim

Award for Innovative Contribution to Theatre: Klein Libertas Theatre in Stellenbosch

People's Choice Award: Members of the public voted online for their favourite production of 2010 by logging on to www.fdcawards.co.za between 28 February and 16 March. This award went to The Mechanicals production of Louis Nowra's Cosi.