Central Australian actor wins Sydney Theatre award
21 January 2009
Central Australian actor Trevor Jamieson has won an award for Best Actor in a Lead Role at the Sydney Theatre Awards for 2008, for his role in the indigenous play Ngapartji Ngapartji, a client of Creative Territory.
The bi-lingual play was also a nominee in two other categories for Best Main Stage Production and Scott Rankin for Best Direction, at a gala ceremony tonight in Sydney.
Trevor Jamieson said, “I am immensely proud of this play. Its evolution over a nine year period has helped hundreds of people both indigenous and non-indigenous explore new ways of working together.”
BIG hART National Creative Director, Scott Rankin added, “Research and development of new theatre work in Australia comes primarily from the small to medium sector; it receives the least funding, but it does the most work – so we are extremely proud to have been nominated for three awards and to have taken one home in the bag”.
“It feels like this is a David and Goliath story, we’re up against some of best names in the industry, so it has been wonderful to work with the Sydney Festival and Company B to bring this Big hART Production to Sydney.”
Ngapartji Ngapartji, which is Pitjantjatjara for something like “I give you something, you give me something”, tells the true story of the Spinifex people (a clan of the Pitjantjatjara people) of the Western desert who were moved off their lands to make way for British atomic testing carried out between 1953 and 1965.
Co-creator Trevor Jamieson is a Spinifex man himself, so the story is personal.
“As a bi-lingual production Ngapartji Ngapartji demonstrates how we can use language to help close the gap between the indigenous and non-indigenous, it encourages cross cultural awareness and recognises the importance of indigenous languages”, says Jamieson.
Since 2006, Ngapartji Ngapartji has sold out to a national audience of 30,000 with standing ovations at every performance. In October 2008 the production took out the prestigious Deadly Award for the ‘Most Outstanding Achievement in Theatre’.
BIG hART mostly works with disadvantaged people in regional, rural and isolated areas of Australia.
Ngapartji Ngapartji official website
