Clowns Rule at the NZ Fringe Festival Awards!

Media Release for Immediate Use: Monday 5th March
From: NZ Fringe Festival 2012

Clowns Rule at the NZ Fringe Festival Awards!

The 22nd New Zealand Fringe Festival wrapped up Sunday night with an Awards Ceremony celebrating 60 shows in 30 venues over three weeks with more than 600 participants.

With a short and sweet ceremony hosted by the delightful duo Adam Page and Hannah Clarke, emphasis was placed on how important the work of the participants is. “With out you we don’t have a festival. So thank you,” said Fringe Producer Emma Giesen

The big winner on the night was Thomas Monckton who won Stand Out Performer, Best Theatre and Best of the Fringe with his one man clowning show Moving Stationery. “I’m a mime and I used up all my words accepting the last Awards but thanks!” – said Monckton upon winning Best in Fringe.

The Best Production Design was shared between two polar opposite shows – Performance Arcade and Puppet Fiction. The judges appreciated the massive scale and extreme professionalism shown by Performance Arcade, and the impressive intricate details in the puppets created by Jon Coddington within the perfect world of the show of Puppet Fiction.

The Fringe Rogue Award was given to Adam Page and Benjamin Henson by the Fringe Festival team in recognition for extreme spirit of Fringe Both gentlemen had multiple rolls within the Festival - Ben wrote one show, directed two, venue managed and worked hard to get to Wellington (he's from Auckland) and Adam has been a huge positive advocate for the Fringe, hosting all three of our Fringe events and running his own fantastic show. We salute their hard work and Fringeness!

Artist and Venue liaison Hannah Clarke said of Fringe 2012; “This has been an incredible journey culminating in three exciting weeks of extraordinary work from all walks of live. The diversity, enthusiasm and hard work from every participant has made this a fabulous Fringe Festival to have been involved in. As a team, the awards are an opportunity for us to salute the artists for making it all happen!”

Fringe 2012 wouldn’t have been possible with out the support and generosity of our sponsors. We sincerely thank Wellington City Council, Creative New Zealand, Wellington Community Trust, Pelorus Trust, The Lion Foundation, Creature Design, Resene, Capital Times, Dash Tickets, Radio Active, Big Image Print and BATS Theatre.

We congratulate all the winners, nominees and wonderful participants for making 2012 such an amazing Fringe – we look forward to being delighted, amazed and intrigued by what you create 2013!

AND THE WINNERS ARE . . .

Best Theatre - Moving Stationery

(Winners in Bold, Nominees in alphabetical order)

BEST NEWCOMER: Honey - Nominated: An Unfortunate Willingness to Agree, Confessions
BEST MARKETING: Out of Bounds Sounds - Nominated: Part Time Prostitute, Sea of Stories
PRODUCTION DESIGN: Performance Arcade and Puppet Fiction
- Nominated: An Unfortunate Willingness to Agree (Honourable Mention for Sound Design), Confessions
BEST OUTDOOR: Performance Arcade - Nominated: Wacky Chad!
BEST COMEDY: Part Time Prostitute - Nominated: No Nonsense Parenting Show, Out of Bounds Sounds
BEST DANCE: An Unfortunate Willingness to Agree - Nominated: Ab-surd
BEST MUSIC: Eidolin - Nominated: Adam Page- Chairman of the Beard
BEST VISUAL ART: Performance Arcade - Nominated: The Amazing Brapants, Featureless/Brighter Futures
BEST THEATRE: Moving Stationery - Nominated: Echolalia, Honey, Should We Stay or Should We Go?
BEST SOLO SHOW: Echolalia - Nominated: Moving Stationery, No Nonsense Parenting Show
STAND OUT PERFORMER: Thomas Monckton (Moving Stationery) - Nominated: Jenny McArthur (Echolalia), Jonny Potts (No Nonsense Parenting Show), Virginia Frankovich (Honey and Confessions)
MOST ORIGINAL CONCEPT: Out of Bounds Sounds - Nominated: Puppet Fiction
FRINGE ROGUE AWARD: Adam Page and Benjamin Henson
BEST OF THE FRINGE: Moving Stationery

ENDS

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