This wasn't necessarily a given – but not because of the night itself, but instead because of my occasionally problematic social anxiety issues; last year these turned what should have been a good night into an unpleasant one that I've all-but blocked out any memory of - I didn't even write about it afterward.
I enjoyed the 2010 event a bit more; you can read about that here.
Anyway, this year I was more determined to make this night (the only one of its kind amongst the Adelaide theatre community) an enjoyable one. Factoring into this was the fact the show I'd stage managed last year, The Pillowman, was up for two awards (Best Drama and Best Male Performance for Bart Csorba, who played Katurian); I was very proud of this production (I wrote about it here) and the people involved and I was hoping that it would win one or both the awards it was nominated for, and that I'd be in the mood to celebrate with them if it did.
So between that positive attitude and some planning – mostly making sure I had a very good night's sleep; being tired can affect my mood – I got to the venue, The Observatory on Hackney Road, in an excellent state of mind.
One of my duties for the evening included helping people find their tables, which was a good job in a way, since it meant I got to see a bunch of people straight away, and have a quick chat to them as we went. Once that was out of the way, it was time for the night to get underway.
Host for the night was local musical theatre performer David Gauci, who I'd seen in a few shows over the last few years, most notably in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee1, where he played Barfée; The Wiz, where he was the Evillene; and, most recently, in the stunning production of Hairspray where he played Edna Turnblad – a role he had understudied for the national professional production.
And, it turns out, he's a brilliant MC; by far the best presenter I've seen at an ATG event. Between his jokes and songs – including one supported by a flashmob of about a dozen or so people – and the musical numbers from upcoming shows (specifically, Northern Light's Into the Woods; Adelaide Youth Theatre's Seussical; and Marie Clark's Forbidden Broadway) performed live by cast members, it was a great night of entertainment.
The awards were given out – you can find the full list here – and got my wish twice over, since The Pillowman won Best Drama and Bart picked up Best Male Performance. Other wins I was particularly happy about were State Theatre Company of South Australia getting Best Drama (professional) for The Glass Menagerie (which I loved; you can find my review here); Rosanne Hosking getting Best Female Performance (professional) for Next to Normal, which was a stunning effort (I wrote about it here); and Mixed Salad taking home Best Comedy (amateur) for Feelgood – Mixed Salad, one of Adelaide's finest companies2, has (sadly) gone on hiatus, so it was great for them to go out with a (well-deserved) win.
I didn't give out any of the 'competitive' awards this time around; instead, I got to help ATG head honcho Nikki Gaertner Eaton honour our late friend and colleague (and my predecessor as reviews editor) Richard Flynn by presenting an award named for him, to a person (or people) for sustained excellence and contribution to theatre in South Australia. And I was very happy we chose to give this award to Rob Croser and David Roach of Independent Theatre, who definitely fit that criteria – visit their website here to see why.
During the evening I'd taken advantage of my good mood to have a few drinks and try and catch people I knew to say hello; this worked pretty well, though I didn't get to see anywhere near as many people as I wanted to. And this worked against me at one point 'cause I got so distracted chatting that I missed the delivery of dessert. But it wasn't all bad; when I got back to my table, there was still a couple of servings of tiramisu there – only they'd taken the cutlery away, and I had to eat the damn thing with my fingers.
It was a damn good evening; props again to David Gauci for his stunning work as MC, and the awesome Victoria Beal and her team for doing such an brilliant job. And photographer Daniel Salmond captured many moments on camera, all of which you can find on his website here – including this one of me:
But it didn't end there; between 11.30 and 12.30 we had shuttle buses taking us from The Observatory to The Stag, where we congregated on the balcony an kept the party going. I got the chance to speak to a few people who I hadn't seen at the dinner, to have many more drinks than I'd usually have, and have the best damn night I've had in a long time, getting home just after 3.
So I'm going to come right out and say it.
Best. ATG Awards. Ever.
1I got to be on stage with him in that one, since I was one of the audience members who got to be 'contestants' in the spelling bee.
2They've won numerous awards for a bunch of shows; I played Alonso in their 2010 production of The Tempest.
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