Taupō production of The 39 Steps clears out Zony Awards

The 39 Steps cast: Lindsey Seaton, John Curtis, Rob Price, Stephen Ross, Clare Leonard, Sue Collett, Melissa Isaacson, Tamara Peez. Photo / Centrestage
Centrestage Taupō’s sellout May production The 39 Steps: A live radio play has all but swept the pool in the play category of the 2023/24 Zony Awards.
On the awards night in Hamilton on Saturday, it won eight of the 10 categories it was nominated for.
The annual awards recognise performance and production excellence amongst members of the Musical Theatre NZ Zone two region which comprises Waikato, Bay of Plenty, and Gisborne.
Kylie Dumble, for whom The 39 Steps was her directing debut, said she was chuffed with the results.
“It was really cool. Every single cast member got nominated. Though some didn’t win, they were competing against each other for the award. It was kind of unheard of.”
Particularly pleasing was that the production was a unique project in collaboration with the Taupō Concert Band, she said.
“We had a vision for where we wanted it to get to, but we really didn’t know whether we were going to get there at the beginning.
“Musical director Donovan Bixley and the band did so much work on the sound effects and the underscoring. It was really cool to have it so well received from the audience but also by the judges.”
Dumble said that, to her, winning so many awards also represented an acknowledgement from fellow theatre companies.
“It was really nice to be recognised so significantly by your peers because we’re all amateur theatre, we’re all volunteers. We’re all just doing it for the love.
“And it was lovely to win best play because we made up about half of it. We thought we’ve got this script but how do we get it into a full night. It was a pretty average script but what we performed was not and the awards show that.”
She said she was constantly surprised with the band and how she could ask for some little musical addition and they would come back with a spooky motif or chilling trill.
“The talent that just came out of the woodwork. Like John Curtis writing the music for our spoof jingles. It was like wow, where did that come from?”
Dumble said Centrestage had had a stellar year, selling out a one-act play festival that would normally only attract about 30 attendees and nearly full houses for the recent Home, I’m Darling, directed by Jo Bixley.
“It was really quality stuff, but I also think we ended up riding the wave of the movie theatre closing. I think our community is hungry for arts and culture and places to go and consume and watch things. That’s really cool.
“Our community has always been so incredibly supportive. It was great to be able to expose our audience to the concert band and also the band audience to us. The sound award is for the band in my mind.”
Looking ahead, she said there weren’t any specific projects on the calendar yet, however, people should “watch this space”.
The 39 Steps A live radio play won awards for: best props, Jo Bixley and Sarah Dempsey; best hair and makeup, Toni Sullivan and Liz Painter; best supporting male, Rob Price; best supporting female, Lindsey Seaton; best lead male, Stephen Ross; best director, Kylie Dumble; best play; best sound, Donovan Bixley, musical director and sound engineer Patrick Bohan.