The 2015 Rob Guest Endowment has narrowed its search to 30 up-and-comers

Competition is heating up at the 6th annual Rob Guest Endowment, with a semi-finalist list of 30 of the brightest new talents in musical theatre just announced.

From these 30 participants, six will be chosen as finalists to perform at the Rob Guest Endowment Concert in Sydney later this year, where they will vie for the coveted $20,000 prize and a headshot package provided by Blueprint Studios.

The runner up will receive Melbourne’s East End Theatre District Artist Development Award, a $5,000 prize and the Playbill Future Prospect Award (a cash prize of $1,500) will be awarded to a third finalist. The four remaining finalists will each take home $1,500.

The 30 incredible talents are:

Adele Parkinson, Annie Aitken, Ashlee Smith, Ashleigh Hauschild, Ashleigh Rubenach, Ben Bennett, Blake Appelqvist, Catherine Hancock, Daniel Assetta, Daniel Berini, Daniel Downing, Daniel Raso, Du Toit Bredenkamp, Eloise Martyn, Georgina Hopson, Hilary Cole, Karla Tonkich, Lauren McKenna, Lisa Hanley, Matthew Predny, Nicholas Kong, Rachel Cole, Rob McDougall, Rubin Matters, Ruvarashe Ngwenya, Sophie Weiss, Stefanie Jones, Stephen Madsen, Sophie Wright and Timothy Carroll.

Congratulations to them all!

Past winners and finalists of the Rob Guest Endowment Award are performing in lead roles in musical theatre around Australia, including Samantha Leigh Dodemaide (Anything Goes), Euan Doidge (Marius in Les Miserables), Kirby Burgess (Baby in Dirty Dancing), Joshua Robson (Les Miserables) and Andrew Cook (Matilda – The Musical).

For more information about the Rob Guest Endowment, visit  www.robguestendowment.com.au.