Queensland Theatre Company’s critically acclaimed production about the lives of indigenous World War One soldiers has been nominated for Best New Australian Work at the 2014 Helpmann Awards.
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Nominations for the awards, which celebrate live performance, were announced on Monday night, with other Queensland companies including Circa and Expressions Dance Company recognised.
Black Diggers, which premiered at the Sydney Festival earlier this year and will have its Queensland debut at the Brisbane Festival in September, was directed by QTC artistic director Wesley Enoch.
It draws upon extensive research to tell the largely unknown stories of Aboriginal soldiers who left their homeland to fight on the battlefields of Gallipoli, Palestine and Flanders.
The Shadow King, developed in association with the Brisbane Festival, was nominated for the same category.
Directed by Michael Kantor, it reframes Shakespeare’s King Lear into a battle of warring indigenous families.
QTC’s indigenous production of Berthold Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children also received a nomination for lead actor Ursula Yovich.
Expressions Dance Company’s 2013 Brisbane Festival show, When Time Stops, received a nomination for Best Choreography by visionary Natalie Weir and Best Original Score for composer Iain Grandage.
Circa’s Opus, also featured in the 2013 Brisbane Festival, was nominated for Best Visual or Physical Theatre work for
The Bolshoi Ballet’s exclusive season of The Bright Stream at the Queensland Performing Arts Complex was nominated for Best Ballet, while Opera Queensland’s co-production of La Traviata scored two nominations.
Brisbane individual talent was also recognised: Daniel Gaudiello was nominated as Best Male Dancer in the Australian Ballet’s production of Cinderella; while comic actor Russell Dykstra is up for Best Supporting Role in a Musical for his turn as Pumba in The Lion King, which comes to Brisbane later this year.
Nationally, new musical Strictly Ballroom picked up seven nominations, including for the director/designer team of Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin.
The award nominations skewed heavily towards New South Wales-based productions, such as the Sydney Theatre Company’s Waiting for Godot and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, both with four nominations.
Cate Blanchett was nominated for Best Female Actor in a Play for The Maids, which will play in New York next month.
