By Luke Voogt
Two witches in a local production of Wicked left their competition green with envy after sharing the top award at the Geelong Oscars.
The judges couldn’t decide which witch deserved the Best Female Lead more, splitting the award between Newton’s Sophie Collins and Morgan Heynes.
Collins played good witch Glinda while her Melbourne counterpart Heynes played the evil Elphaba in the same production.
“It’s amazing to be recognised,” Collins said.
“She was slightly disappointed she wasn’t able to be there on Sunday night. But it was well deserved and she was as excited as I was to receive the award.”
More than 200 local theatre stars and glitterati gathered at The Potato Shed on Sunday for the first ever ceremony of the Geelong Theatre Awards.
“That’s an awful lot of people in this industry working hard to produce exceptional quality theatre for our local audiences,” Collins said.
“It’s an event that I hope will grow.”
Collins, or “aunty diva” to her five nieces and nephews, grew up in Geelong and played her first role in Annie at age 12.
She played a small role in Neighbours and worked in England before returning home.
“I’ve never looked back because the quality of theatre here is of a professional standard,” she said.
The 42-year-old won a Music Theatre Guild of Victoria award for best supporting actress in 2016.
She and Heynes will contest for best lead actress at the awards on 9 December, where they will perform a segment for their toughest critics yet.
“We’ve got our fingers crossed that we take home some more trophies from that event as well.”
The Geelong Theatre Awards have run online since 2009.
“But last night was the first we got everybody from the Geelong theatre community in the same room,” explained Entertainment Geelong’s Colin Mockett.
“We set records for champagne consumption.”
Wicked also took out the best musical, while a Geelong production of Pygmalion won best show.
The play used scene changes, normally theatre “dead time”, to create a “delightful piece of theatre”, Mockett said.
“In my years of reviewing I’ve never seen this particular system of scene changing.”
Director Alard Pett said his cast were thrilled with the award.
The inspiration for innovative scene changes came from wanting to use people as part of the set, he said.
“(I wanted) to utilise the talents of those who were playing minor roles.”
Pygmalion was Pett’s first show as director for Geelong Repertory Theatre Company after 15 years of acting and set design.
Newtown’s Ben Mitchell won Best Male Lead for his role in Pygmalion, one of 22 awards on the night.
Geelong’s 33 theatre companies presented 60 plays during 2017, generating more than $2 million for the local economy, according to Entertainment Geelong.
The Geelong Oscars are named for Oscar Ashe, who grew up in Geelong in the early 20th century before becoming an international star on London’s West End.
