By Bronwyn Hastings

Horsham Arts Council’s Godspell and The Last 10 Years have been recognised in the Music Theatre Guild of Victoria awards.

Noah Mibus is a finalist in first feature performance, The Gladys Moncrieff Award, for his portrayal of Godspell’s Jesus.

Godspell’s ensemble is a finalist alongside amateur theatre groups at Geelong, Willliamstown, Albury-Wodonga and Wonthaggi, while The Last 10 Years is a finalist in the revue category.

Mibus also received a commendation for his role of Jesus, in lead performer in a male presenting role, and Mack Williams was commended for cameo or minor role in The Last 10 Years.

President Nick Wilson said HAC had won several guild awards in the past, including lighting, program design, a past Godspell’s ensemble, and his own cameo in What’s New Pussycat.

“This is as good as it gets for Victorian amateur theatre, it’s so exciting,” he said.

“We’re up against every other theatre group in Victoria, excluding the professionals, of course. 

“We’re a very small group, but we do our best to put on the best shows we possibly can. 

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“It’s a very big honour, to be compared to some of those bigger groups, especially the Melbourne guys, Werribee, and Geelong.”

Wilson said members of the Victorian Theatre Guild were eligible to be nominated, and were judged by volunteers who travelled across the state, attending multiple stagings of shows as often as they could.

“We don’t have a single person in our group who’s paid,” he said.

“We’re all there for the love of performing and theatre and costuming and all the rest of it, and I think that’s probably the big thing that separates us from the professionals. 

“It’s a very big honour for our group to be nominated or even get commendations – we’re not putting shows on to win awards. That’s not what we’re about. We are there to put on the best shows we can, but it’s always nice when you do get a nomination or a commendation for what we do – I guess we’re doing the right things.”

Award winners will be announced at an event at Camberwell on December 16. 

Yellow Brick Road

Wilson said HAC’s next performance was in the early planning stages.

“We’ve been approved for the rights for The Wizard of Oz, we’ve just got to have the right team to get it together and put it on stage,” he said.

“We’ve never done it before, in our 60 years, and we decided as a committee that it would be a good show for bums on seats and ticket sales, especially coming off the coat-tails of the Wicked fever.”

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