Helpmann Award Nominations Announced Monday

The Helpmann Awards celebrate distinguished artistic achievement and excellence in Australia’s live performing arts sectors, and nominations for the 13th annual Helpmann Awards will be announced on Monday June 24.

The recognised disciplines include musical and physical theatre, contemporary and classical music, opera, and dance, with a comedy category introduced in 2006, and the winners for all categories will be announced in a gala ceremony at the Sydney Opera House on Monday July 29, 2013.

The Helpmann Awards also incorporates the JC Williamson award (formerly the James Cassius Award) for outstanding contribution to the Australian entertainment industry – among past winners are theatre greats as Jimmy Little, Dame Joan Sutherland, Nancye Hayes, Toni Lamond, Jill Perryman.

Categories include Best Play, Best Musical, Best Direction of a Play, Best Male and Female lead actors and Best Male and Female supporting actors in both theatre and musical theatre.

Best new Australian work is a category highly sort after and the contenders for this years awards will be waiting eagerly for the nominations to be announced. This is an excellent platform for small directors and writers to showcase their work to the rest of the world as the Helpmann Award is held in extremely high regard.

The category of Best Touring production encourages companies to consider the aspect of taking a show on the road. The award is in recognition of the dedication and hard work that involves a touring show.

Categories such a Best Comedy performance again showcase the local genius of the Australian comedy circuit. The Cabaret genre has not been left out and neither has the important category of Children’ presentations.

In 2012 A Chorus Line took out the honours for Best Musical, Moby Dick took the gong for the Best Opera and Angela’s Kitchen collected the accolade for Best New Australian Drama. Kylie Minogue picked up the prestigious award for her Contemporary Concert Aphrodite, Les Follies Tour.

The Helpmann awards have a multitude of categories across many genres of the entertainment industry including the likes of Physical Theatre, Sound Design, Lighting Design and Direction. These awards are in recognition of the dedication and talent that is Australian entertainment to the core.

So it is with great excitement and anticipation that we await the announcement of the nominations for the 2013 Helpmann Awards ceremony this Monday, June 24.

Concurrent announcement ceremonies will be held across the country, and AussieTheatre will be live tweeting from the Sydney event – hosted by Eddie Perfect and Christie Whelan Browne.

For more information, visit the Helpmann Awards website: www.helpmannawards.com.au