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Debuting company This One Show has taken home three of the seven prizes handed out at The 2009 Blue Room Awards on April 9, for their West Australian premiere Winter Arts Festival season of the internationally acclaimed, shocking and controversial Motortown, written by UK playwright Simon Stephens in response to the London bombings of 2005.

The Blue Room, Perth's vibrant hub for locally-produced new works of theatre and contemporary performance, presented their 8th annual awards this month, MCd by comic actors Damon Lockwood and Kerry O'Sullivan, to acknowledge the outstanding shows and artists of The Blue Room's 2008 play seasons.

Motortown's director Marisa Garreffa accepted the awards for Best Box Office, Best Publicity, and the prestigious Best Production, on behalf of first-time producer Renato Fabretti, who is currently pursuing artistic endeavours interstate. Fabretti's work touring as an actor meant he also wasn't able to see the 2008 production take place, but never let go of the passion he  felt for the work.

A visibly chuffed Garreffa stated: "It was Renato's baby, but I had a great team help me bring the project to life". This included lead actor and 2008 Equity Members' Choice winner Richie Flannagan, and Equity Best Newcomer Amanda Woodhams, who was in attendance to help Marisa with the hoard of award trophies, certificates, gift vouchers and bottles of bubbly.

The Best Production prize also includes three weeks free use of The Blue Room Studio in 2010 for development and/or public performance, so stay tuned for This One Show's upcoming projects.

In the Best Production and Best Box Office categories, Motortown narrowly beat leading Perth theatre producers Red Ryder and their WA premiere of Dying City, another international work inspired by recent war atrocities, voted by the New York Times as one of the Top Ten Plays of 2007. Always Working Artists was the third runner-up for Best Production, representing the strength of work inspired, written, created and produced by West Australian theatre artists. Their show Apocalypse Perth presented with pathos and humour the adage 'everyone's a critic'.

In addition to Best Production, The Blue Room judges (Melissa Callanan, PIAF; Sonja Basic, Propel Youth Arts WA; and independent artist Brendan Ewing) awarded the Judges' Choice, this year to Renegade Productions for 'excellence in design' on their two Blue Room efforts: in the shadow of the wild and The Stratagem of Interlocking Rings.

The networking skills of the Art, Duck! ensemble (a collective of Curtin Theatre graduates) earned them the light-hearted Best Host award (formerly named Biggest Bar Tab); and x-roads collective, creators of the Edgar Allan Poe inspired Quest: A Tell-Tale of the Heart, was deemed the Best Production Team.

The night of judging was rounded off with the popular Members' Choice Award, presented by The Blue Room membership to their peers Arielle Gray and Sarah Rueben under the new collaborative Gray Ruby Productions, for their box office and critical success Duck, Duck, Goose!

"It was a huge night," said MC Kerry O'Sullivan. "They all deserve to win, of course, just for getting out there and doing it. I wouldn't want to be judging this year's productions, that's for sure - it seems like every Blue Room season is a step up from the last."


The 8th Annual Blue Room Awards, 2009

Best Publicity
Nominees:
Motortown - This One Show
The Oresteia - The Duck House
The Rusalka Thread – Mythophobic Productions
WINNER: Motortown - This One Show

Best Production Team 
Nominees:
The Duck House - The Oresteia
x-roads collective - Quest: A Tell Tail of the Heart
Renegade Productions - The Stratagem of Interlocking Rings
WINNER: x-roads collective - Quest: A Tell Tail of the Heart

Judges’ Award
WINNER: Renegade Productions – Excellence in theatrical design.
 
Best Box Office
Nominees:
Duck, Duck, Goose! - Gray Ruby Productions
Motortown - This One Show
Dying City - Red Ryder Productions
WINNER: Motortown - This One Show

Best Host (Biggest Bar Tab)
Nominees:
Art, Duck - Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Silence
Longwood Productions - Horse Head
Jenni Sutton - Dance a La Carte
Art, Duck - Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Silence

Members’ Choice
Nominees:
Dying City – Red Ryder Productions         
Duck, Duck, Goose! – Gray Ruby Productions
Horse Head – Longwood Productions
Apocalypse Perth – Always Working Artists
WINNER: Duck, Duck, Goose!, Gray Ruby Productions
 
Best Production
Nominees:
Dying City - Red Ryder Productions
Motortown - This One Show
Apocalypse Perth - Always Working Artists
WINNER: Motortown - This One Show