At the end of each year, the Sydney Theatre Critics Circle announce their award nominations for the year. I am not in the Sydney Theatre Critics Circle, but I think it is valuable to look back in order to look forward.

I don’t offer awards – or “winners.” I find it nearly impossible to claim that something is “the best.” How can one assert who is better – Whitely or Turner or Van Gough or Monet or Koons or Kippenberger? How can one possibly rank Ravel, Puccini, Liszt, Bach, Satie? I can’t, I would be lying and so I simply refuse.

For those keen to find out what was included in the STA nominations you can check them out here: http://www.sydneytheatreawards.com/2010.php

Earlier last year I was invited along to see a week’s worth of short plays at Short and Sweet. I thought I had been invited as “industry” just to check out the talent of the participants as a polite FYI. At the end I was asked by the organizers to vote as an industry judge. I balked. They smiled at me. I felt the need to be polite – after all I have just taken 2 tickets to look at their work and perhaps this was the charge of the free tickets. My pen hovered… and hovered and flitted between all the plays listed on the slip of paper… I felt sick. Stomach churningly sick. I marked something arbitrarily. I handed it in… I took three steps onto the street. Stopped. Apologized to my theatre date. Ran back up the stairs and asked for the slip back. Narrow eyes squinted at me as I marched back in and I was asked “don’t believe in competition, huh, Gus?” I said something to the effect of “No. It feels wrong, I’m sorry. I think each piece and each artist has something to offer. I’m sorry, I can’t do this.” The paper was thrust back at me, I was then ignored, and I left lighter and happier.

I see a lot of shows – or it feels like I do and I try to. There are large holes in my theatre going where I’ve been in rehearsal or had a show of my own on and so my list of acknowledgements may not echo other reviewer’s acknowledgements… though there maybe a ven diagram in there somewhere.
I know how difficult it is to get reviewers along to your shows: I haven’t had any of the STCC attend my shows and I have been working for 10 years in the industry and have provided platforms for over 509 artists in the last 4 years. I don’t produce, direct or write for the acknowledgement of critics – and I sincerely hope that no one really does. I hope that people make work to answer a question in themselves or in the outside world that needs answering.

I have formulated this list as a means to remember those live experiences I have participated in this year (outside of my own practice) that has moved, delighted, transformed or entertained me as a punter. This is a list of art that made me feel or think differently about what I do, who I am, how I feel, what I want. There is no best… there is a list of “thank you for your work.”

One Person Shows
The Pitch | Darlinghurst Theatre
Death In Bowengabbie | Arts Radar
Under Milkwood | Bambina Borracha
Bouganville Photoplay project | Version 1.0
Angela’s Kitchen | Griffin Theatre Company
Henry Rollins | Enmore Theatre

Children’s/ Youth Theatre
Midnite | New Theatre
The Book of Everything | Company B, Belvoir St Theatre
The Magic Hat | Drop Bear Theatre
Insert title here | Shopfront Theatre Junior Ensemble

Imports
Hamlet | Sydney Festival
Oedipus Rex | Sydney Festival
Waiting for Godot | Sydney Opera House
11 & 12 | Sydney Theatre

New Australian
Anna Robi and The House of Dogs | Tamarama Rock Surfers
Death In Bowengabbie | Arts Radar
Bang | B Sharp
Quack | Griffin Theatre Company
The Sweetest Thing | B Sharp

Devised
The Fences | Urban Theatre Projects
Nyuntu Nglai | Big hArt
The Folding Wife | Performance Space
We are Skating on Very Thin Ice | UNSW Students
A Distressing Scenario | Version 1.0 & B Sharp

Residency programs/showings
YAK Showing | Shopfront Theatre
Blueprint | Queen Street Studio
Unsettilngs | PACT impact ensemble
Together Alone Alone Together | Shopfront Artslab
ATYPs Under The Wharf Program

Dance & Cabaret
Smoke and Mirrors | Sydney Festival
Happy as Larry | Sean Parker
Stockholm | Sydney Theatre Company

Music
Faith No More | The Hordern Pavillion
Australian Rock Symphony | The State Theatre
Nigel Kennedy | Sydney Symphony Orchestra
Harmony from Heaven| Sydney Symphony Orchestra
The Grimm Brothers | Home Brew Festival

Fringe
Death In Bowengabbie | The Old Fitzroy Hotel
Cronic Ills of Robert Zimmerman | The Old Fitzroy Hotel
My Private Parts | The Sydney Fringe
Zetland | The Sydney Fringe
One Thumb Out | The Old Fitzroy
The Cauliflower Homicide: A Love Story| The Sydney Fringe
The Hideous Demise of Detective Slate | The Sydney Fringe

Readings
Bison| Lachlan Philpott
Belongings | Rebecca Clarke
Kicking Down the Doors | PlayWriting Australia
Griffin Award won by Aiden Fennessy | Griffin Theatre Company

Brave work by Emerging Artists
Crave & Lots Wife | Dir, Felicity Nicol & Carolyn Eccles
Orestes 2.0 | Cry Havoc dir. Kate Revz
Alaska | Under The Wharf dir. Janice Muller
Bronte | Under The Wharf dir. Paige Rattray
Fat Boy & Electronic City | New Theatre dir. Scott Selkirk & Ngaire O’Leary
The Colour Blind Short Play Festival | Josipa Draisma & Stephanie Son

Independent Company
The Seagull | Siren theatre Company
Bug | Griffin Independent
Macquarie | Buzo Company

Talks and Forums
Damage The Collected works of John Romeril
The Philip Parsons Lecture 2010 by John MacCallum
So you Want to be a Broadway Producer by John Frost
Not the Premiere’s Literary Awards by NSW playwrights at The Raval

Artists to watch who debuted/made a splash in 2010
Lucy Goleby (Actor)
Megan Holloway (Actor)
Jasper Marlow (Playwright)
Ngaire O’Leary (Director)
Paige Rattray (Director)
Felix Jozeps (Actor)
Luke Carson (Actor/Playwright)
Sarah Hodgettes (Actor/Playwright)
Alice Cooper (Performer)
Clara MacDermott (Performer)
Dominic Mercer (Director)