ANNUAL AWARDS
THE TOSCARS – 2024
Our annual TOSCARS were held on Friday 23rd February.
The Toscars celebrate the truly talented people who create the amazing shows you see on stage at Little Theatre.
We had three excellent shows last year –
The Sunshine Boys by Neil Simon, directed by Viviene Baty.
Perfect Arrangement by Topher Payne, directed by Antony Saywell.
T’was The Fight Before Christmas by Devon Williamson, directed by Mary Barron.
Adjudicated again this year by Krystal and Mark Leuthard.
Hosted by the amusing duo, Stella McCallum and Bryan Vickery, along with a few entertaining comedy skits, and some fantastic musical numbers from Karen Clarke and Elicia-May Hitchcock. A fun night of merriment was had by all.
Congratulations to all our winners!
President’s Cup………………GILLIAN GIBBON Front of House Trophy…………PHIL BATES Best Club Member……………..CHRISTINE KING
Technical Excellence … NATHAN GRANGE Backstage Excellence…. JESSICA KNIGHT Best Set …………..FIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS
Most Promising Actress…….SOPHIE FINN Best Supporting Actress…… NICCI SMITH Best Supporting Actor…… MIKE BUGBEE
Best Lead Actress……….. KELSEY MCEWAN Best Actor in a Lead Role …. DAVID ROHE Best Play………PERFECT ARRANGEMENT
Distinguished Services to the Theatre…… VIVIENNE BATY
ANNUAL AWARDS
HERE IS A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE ORIGINS OF THE NPLT AWARDS
Margaret and Brian Hannam came to New Plymouth in 1967 after spending some years living and working overseas. They had been members of the Hamilton Player Guild in Hamilton, Ontario in Canada. The Guild is reputed to be the oldest Theatre Company in North America. Amongst their various traditions was the Annual Awards night. This was always planned to be the biggest formal social event of the theatre calendar. It was hugely popular and very prestigious.
The Hannams noted how these awards seemed to impact upon production standards and were much respected by the participants. Any recipient was proud to have been selected and competition for the awards was real. After joining NPLT the Hannams proposed the concept of the awards to the Committee (probably at one of the informal Committee meetings in the White Hart Hotel on a Friday night) It was agreed to stage the event on a annual basis with awards for Best Production. Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Stage design etc. Two trophies were commissioned and made by local sculptor Guy Gibson. Members donated several other trophies and the list of awards grew over the first few years.
The first Awards Night was formal and held at Burgess Park on December 14 1968. The adjudicators were the drama critics for the Taranaki Herald and Daily News, Trish Gribben and Bryan James. In the early years the Awards Night maintained its importance as a social event and a number of memorable events were staged at various venues around New Plymouth.
At the time NPLT were the ONLY theatre group in NZ to have such Awards at that time. There are now a few organisations who have similar Theatre Awards.
A LIST OF AWARD WINNERS OVER THE YEARS WILL BE ADDED SOON!