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2023 Victorian Drama League Awards


05 December 2023

We're proud to share Ballarat National Theatre's success at the 2023 Victorian Drama League Awards on December 3. 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 Terry Pratchett's: Wyrd Sisters. Many cast and crew involved were involved in other performances on the same day as the awards so a group of four 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 2023. This included BNT's own Yvonne Downing and we were grateful to the VDL for the opportunity to have Yvonne acknowledged and remembered.

We received 13 acknowledgments throughout the evening for Wyrd Sisters, as well as a BNT member being nominated for their performance with another company. BNT was nominated in every technical category and took home awards in 5 categories including Best Show and Best Director. For the category of Best Actor Minor Role (Comedy) we had three of the five nominations and one of our actors took home the award as well. 

In her award acceptance speech for Best Director (Comedy), Liana thanked the Ballarat Arts Foundation for an out-of-round grant she received at the start of the year which enabled her to undertake the Victorian Drama League's online course for directors. She also thanks the City of Ballarat for the Community Impact Grant that enabled the production to go ahead and present the work of all those who took part in it for consideration in the awards.

NOMINATION - Best Set Design for a Drama or Comedy - Liana Emmerson
NOMINATION - Best Lighting Design for a Drama or Comedy - Mathew Heenan & Tayla Harbour
WINNER (SILVER) - Best Sound Design for a Drama or Comedy - Charlie Hughes
WINNER (SILVER) - Best Costume Design - Liana Emmerson
NOMINATION- Best Prop Design - Shell Pryor
NOMINATION - Best Actor Minor Role (Comedy) - Jack Brown
NOMINATION - Best Actor Minor Role (Comedy) - James Wait
WINNER - Best Actor Minor Role (Comedy) - Barry Kay
NOMINATION- Best Actress Supporting Role (Comedy) - Ruby Penhall
NOMINATION- Best Actor Supporting Role (Comedy) - Reuben Morgan
NOMINATION - Best Actor Lead Role (Comedy) - Joe Appleton
WINNER - Best Director (Comedy) - Liana Emmerson
WINNER (Tied with Torquay Theatre) - Best Production (Comedy) - Terry Pratchett's Wyrd Sisters

Also congratulations to BNT member Casey Bohan for a NOMINATION - Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Drama) for her role in Revlon Girls with Brighton Theatre Company.

The members present had a lot of people coming up to them after the event to say that they felt they should get to Ballarat to see some theatre! We had to agree. We are so happy that the hard work of the cast and crew of the production was so widely recognised and that it sparked interest in the wider Victorian theatre community.