The prestigious annual Fleur du Cap Theatre Awards, celebrating 47 years in 2012, have introduced several new categories in a bid to be more representative of what is happening on the local stage. The new categories focus on musical theatre and musicals as well as on design in lighting, sets and props, costume and masks, and sound and puppetry.
Irma Albers, the Arts and Culture Controller for Distell said that Musical Theatre plays a vital role in the lives of a wide cross-section of South Africans. The Fleur du Cap Theatre Awards are the standard against which performing artists are measured, and to ensure they remain as significant and relevant as they are now, Distell is placing a greater emphasis on musical theatre by creating a separate set of categories for this genre. She added that at the same time, Distell wanted to promote technical skills by creating specific categories to cover the important work of designers across a wider range of disciplines. Albers also confirmed that the Awards organizers have improved the nominations and judging process, which is now being audited and overseen by the legal firm Cluver Markotter Inc.
The Fleur du Cap Theatre Awards are funded by the Distell Foundation and are ranked by the Performing Arts fraternity as the most important acknowledgement of South African theatrical excellence. The Award, which carries a R15 000 cash prize and a silver medallion, is highly coveted by local performers, and the glamourous Awards ceremony is frequently compared to the Tony Awards in New York.
The Nominees list will be released on Thursday 9 February and the Winners of all categories will be announced at a star-studded gala event at the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town on Sunday 18 March, 2012.
The 15-member panel of judges, which includes local critics, journalists, writers and drama educators, select nominees for productions performed over the period of one calendar year. The judges are Marianne Thamm, Len Ashton, Dr. Beverley Brommert, Mariana Malan, Marina Nel, Africa Melane, Dr. Gabriël Bothma, Wayne Muller, Peter Tromp, Gillian Mitchell, Rone Arendse, Coreen Lloyd, Jill Makram, Denise Bester and Herman van der Westhuizen.
As an additional initiative within its Arts and Culture programme, Distell is also supporting a mentoring and training programme to nurture young and talented directors and theatre makers who are entering the theatre industry. During 2011, Distell supported two bursaries towards the Emerging Theatre Director’s Bursary Project, which is being administered by the Theatre Arts Admin Collective.
The Fleur du Cap Theatre Awards take place at 6pm on Sunday 18 March at the Baxter. A limited number of tickets will be available to the public via Computicket.