SINGAPORE, 15 March 2005 - The best and brightest in theatre here will be feted again at Singapore's arts party of the year on Wednesday, 16 March 2005.

Celebrating its 5th milestone this year, the Life! Theatre Awards takes place at 7pm on 16 March, at the SPH News Centre Auditorium at 1000 Toa Payoh North.

Inaugurated in 2001, the Life! Theatre Awards is the only public platformhonouring the Singapore theatre community every year, for productions staged in the previous year.

The evening will be graced by guest-of-honour Balaji Sadasivan, who is the Senior Minister of State for Information, Communications and the Arts and Health.

As in previous years, there are nine awards up for grabs.

Notable among this year's 36 nominations is director Samantha Scott-Blackhall, who is all of 26 years and has set a new individual awards record, with three nominations for Best Director.

The runaway hit theatre troupe with nine nominations this year is luna-id Theatre. Its backstage crews also garnered three Honourable Mentions for technical achievement, namely for Best Lighting Design (two wins) and Best Sound.

The Life! Theatre Awards Honourable Mentions for technical achievement were announced in an earlier ceremony on 28 February 2005. A total of eight backstage talents garnered Honourable Mentions under the aegis of the Life! Theatre Awards.

They included 24-year-old undergraduate Brian Gothong Tan, who is the inaugural winner of the new Honourable Mentions category, Best Use Of Multimedia.

Other multiple nominees include The Necessary Stage for the community effort Sing Song, the small puppetry-mime production Furthest North, Deepest South by The Finger Players and Mime Unlimited (four nominations) and actresses Serene Chen and Natalie
Hennedige, who have two nominations each.

Reflecting Singapore's cosmopolitan outlook, among the nominees this year are the well-lauded Malaysian playwright Huzir Sulaiman, who's up for Best Actor, and Mauritian Ravi Raaj Marimootoo, who's a first-time nominee contending for Best Supporting Actor.

Eight judges voted in the winners this year, and they include the theatre critics of The Straits Times Life! section, as well as Dr K. K. Seet of the Theatre Studies programme at the National University of Singapore.

The night's sponsors include MAC, Origins, Music & Movement, Tiger Beer and Wolf Blass Wines by Maxxium.

Here are this year's full lists of nominees and Honourable Mention winners:

Production of the Year (formerly known as Play Of The Year)
1 Dead Certain by Escape Theatre
2 Furthest North, Deepest South by The Finger Players and Mime Unlimited
3 Sing Song by The Necessary Stage
4 The Physicists by luna-id Theatre

Best Director
1 Samatha Scott-Blackhall for Dead Certain by Escape Theatre
2 Samantha Scott-Blackhall for The Lover And The Dumb Waiter by luna-id Theatre
3 Samantha Scott-Blackhall for The Physicists by luna-id Theatre
4 Sean Tobin and Natalie Hennedige for Sing Song by The Necessary Stage
5 Christina Sergeant for Furthest North, Deepest South by The Finger Players and Mime Unlimited

Best Original Script
1 Chong Tze Chien for Furthest North, Deepest South by The Finger Players and Mime Unlimited
2 Li Xie for Shithole by Drama Box
3 Alfian Sa'at for Landmarks: Asian Boys Vol 2 by Wild Rice

Best Actor
1 Michael Corbidge for The Physicists by luna-id Theatre
2 Hossan Leong for Top Or Bottom by The Necessary Stage
3 Lim Kay Tong for The House Of Sleeping Beauties by luna-id Theatre
4 Lim Yu-Beng for The Lover And The Dumb Waiter by luna-id Theatre
5 Adrian Pang for The Odd Couple by The Singapore Repertory Theatre
6 Huzir Sulaiman for Election Day by Checkpoint Theatre

Best Actress
1 Serene Chen for Wills and Secessions by Toy Factory Theatre Ensemble
2 Beatrice Chia for Dead Certain by Escape Theatre
3 Cynthia Lee-Macquarrie for The Vagina Monologues by The Arts House
4 Karen Tan for The House Of Sleeping Beauties by luna-id Theatre

Best Supporting Actor
1 Micheas Chan for Landmarks: Asian Boys Vol 2 by Wild Rice
2 Alex Ng for Landmarks: Asian Boys Vol 2 by Wild Rice
3 Ravi Raaj Marimootoo for Shanty: Follow That Dream by TheatreWorks

Best Supporting Actress
1 Serene Chen for Landmarks: Asian Boys Vol 2 by Wild Rice
2 Natalie Hennedige for Mardi Gras by The Necessary Stage
3 Sandy Phillips for The Physicists by luna-id Theatre

Best Ensemble Acting
1 Aladdin by Wild Rice
2 Furthest North, Deepest South by The Finger Players and Mime Unlimited
3 Shithole by Drama Box
4 Sing Song by The Necessary Stage
5 Wu Jun Ru And You And Me And Him by The Theatre Practice

Best Set Design
1 Justin Hill for Sandakan Threnody by TheatreWorks
2 Wong Chee Wai for Lovers' Words by The Fun Stage
3 Sebastian Zeng for The Physicists by luna-id Theatre

Life! Theatre Awards Honourable Mentions
For Technical Achievements of the year (all below are winners)

Best Lighting Design
1 Suven Chan for The Sound Of A Voice by luna-id Theatre
2 Thio Lay Hoon for The Physicists by luna-id Theatre

Best Sound
1 Don Richmond for East Side Story by Toy Factory Theatre Ensemble
2 Philip Tan and Darren Ng Tzer Huei for The Sound Of A Voice by luna-id Theatre

Best Costume Design
1 Laichan for The Visit Of The Tai Tai by Wild Rice
2 Mothar Kasim for Aladdin by Wild Rice

Best Use Of Multimedia
1 Brian Gothong Tan for godeatgod by The Necessary Stage

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For more information, plaase contact:

Shahrena Hassan
DID: 6319-5097
EMAIL: shahrena@sph.com.sg.