The Pink Hammer cast and crew, director Jenni Hill said success at the Zony's was down to a whole team effort. Photo / MTNZ
The Pink Hammer cast and crew, director Jenni Hill said success at the Zony's was down to a whole team effort. Photo / MTNZ
A 2019 local production of The Pink Hammer nailed it at the recent Musical Theatre New Zealand Zony Awards held in Rotorua.
The Zony Awards are put on by Musical Theatre New Zealand and recognise excellence in performance and production in plays and musical theatre. Centre Stage Taupō was competingagainst amateur theatre groups from zone 2, covering Thames to Hamilton to Gisborne to Te Awamutu.
The Pink Hammer won five awards: best props design - Christine Gordon, Frances Collins, Jo Burch, Eliana Kemp; best leading male in a play - John Curtis as Woody; best leading female in a play - Mel Isaacson as Siobhan; best direction of a play - Jenni Hill, and best play.
The Pink Hammer director Jenni Hill said the award was a reflection of a whole team effort. She said it was especially nice that most of the cast and backstage crew were there on the night to receive the award.
"It was great for the crew to get some kudos. The prompt was there, the stage manager and the props team. The crew are on every night but they don't get the rapture from the audience," said Jenni.
She said the actors and backstage crew tend to change around a bit at Centre Stage.
Centre Stage Taupō director Jenni Hill won best director for The Pink Hammer in the recent Musical Theatre New Zealand Zony Awards. Photo / File
"They might think, 'I was out the front acting in the last play, it's my turn to have a go out the back now. Or otherwise they do it because they love it, they might be a bit shy about being out the front."
Playing at Centre Stage just over a year ago, The Pink Hammer is about four women who walk into a workshop expecting female empowerment via carpentry lessons. However instead of tutoring from female furniture maker Maggie, they encounter her grumpy husband Woody, who is not at all impressed to find his man cave taken over by a bunch of sheilas.
The first half of the play drew lots of laughs and the second half draws out more of each character's back story and offered insights into how they ended up in Woody's workshop.
Centre Stage Taupō spokeswoman Kylie Dumble said all the shows are produced and created entirely by volunteers and she said the win was great recognition of the hard work everyone put into The Pink Hammer.
