2024 Victorian Drama League Awards

04 December 2024

We're proud to share Ballarat National Theatre's success at the 2024 Victorian Drama League Awards on December 1. BNT was able to submit one show for consideration in this year's awards and due to timing, the eligible BNT show this year was Dancing at Lughnasa by Brian Friel. Many cast and crew involved were involved in other performances on the same day as the awards so a group of six members went down to represent BNT and see if we were nominated for any awards.

The evening began with The Passing Parade, which is a presentation acknowledging those members of the Victorian theatre community who passed away in 2024. This included BNT's own Doug Sarah OAM and Peppa Sindar, and we were grateful to the VDL for the opportunity to have them acknowledged and remembered.

Ciarán Corrigan holding the Silver Award for Lighting Design awarded to Matthew Heenan and Tayla Harbour

AWe received 5 acknowledgments throughout the evening for Dancing at Lughnasa. BNT was nominated in 4 categories and took home awards in 3 of them as well as a special adjudicator award.

ADJUDICATOR AWARD - Neil Barnett Recipient - Ruby Abbott - "Representing the epitome of teamwork in theatre"
WINNER (SILVER) - Best Set Design for a Drama or Comedy - Mary-Rose McLaren
WINNER (SILVER) - Best Lighting Design for a Drama or Comedy - Matthew Heenan & Tayla Harbour
NOMINATION - Best Costume Design - Janette Wotherspoon
NOMINATION - Best Actress Supporting Role (Drama) - Liana Emmerson

We are very proud of all who received accolades and they in turn would like to thank the following people:

Mary-Rose McLaren, Gin O'Brien, Tracey McKeague, Ashlie Ross, Greg Halpin, Carolyn Bolton, Tim Webby, James McLaren, Beth Lamont, the Ballarat & District Irish Association, and the Cast & Crew of Dancing at Lughnasa

We at BNT would also like to thank the Victorian Drama League for putting together such a fantastic night of fun and highly value the connections made with other theatre companies.