Dynamic duo: Gerry Oman and Ivy Jensen shared the Elaine Tonks award for best performance in a supporting role for their hilarious cameo performance in A Better You.
Echuca-Moama Theatre Company’s success at the recent Georgy Awards was almost only half as good as it turned out on the night.
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Because try as she might, Claire Copp could not convince her husband, Kevan, they should attend the prestigious awards, which cover around 20 active companies across regional Victoria and southern NSW.
She had been given the heads up that Kevan was to be honoured for his years of dedicated service to EMTC — albeit behind the scenes as a master painter of all sets.
EMTC directors did twice convince Kevan to come out of the backstage brigade and tread the boards — first in the 1999 production of Anything Goes and a decade later in Li’l Abner.
But that was it for the modest maestro of the paintbrush.
It was almost the end for Claire as well, until she finally told her man a “little white lie” to make sure he was on hand for this crowning moment in his theatre career.
“Kevan was determined he wasn’t going, and I had just about given up but then we told him he had been specifically requested to present one of the awards on behalf of Janese Denham, who couldn’t make it,” she said.
“Although she did, of course.
“That got him into the venue on the big night, as he and Paul, Janese’s late husband, were very close, and when the announcer called out Kevan’s name as the recipient of the 2022 Ted Malloy award for outstanding contribution to theatre, he was, possibly for the first time in is life, lost for words.
“I think he still is a bit overcome by the award, but everyone at EMTC reckons it was pretty well deserved.”
And everyone there was glad she did manage to lure him along; his acceptance speech had the crowd in stitches of laughter.
Recognition: Kevan Copp enjoyed his moment in the limelight.
Kevan wasn’t the only local star at local theatre’s night of nights.
Ivy Jensen and Gerry Oman shared the Elaine Tonks award for best performance in a supporting role for their hilarious cameo performance in A Better You.
The whole show was a bit of a first for EMTC — there was no singing, and it was presented as a cabaret style show at Radcliffe’s.
The pair slipped back into their roles to accept the award, coming from opposite sides of the stage amid a lot of screaming, a short reprise of their dance routine and a few bows.
“It was far from being a leading role during of my involvement with EMTC,” Gerry said with a laugh.
“It wasn’t even a big role, we came on quite late in the show, but I have been amazed by how many people said they thought it was the highlight.
“We had spent most of the show cramped into a little back room — it might have been the old back bar at some point in the building’s history — before coming out well into the second half of the show.
“I have to admit it wasn’t my favourite show (but he has been warming to it since that Georgy was put in his hand), I was back as Ivy’s stage husband, a role I seem to be cast in over and over, and getting bullied on to, and around, the stage, again. But it was a fun bit of the show and the audience certainly seemed to enjoy it.”
Ivy agreed, saying she loved being on stage with Gerry because he was always up for a good time — from auditions through rehearsals and on to the stage.
She says it was his idea to do the role revival when their names were called out, which included them putting on a short piece from the show, where Ivy twirled out of Gerry’s arms, just hanging on to one hand, twirled back into his arms — much to the delight of the packed house at Mooroopna.
“It was our first show since COVID, so we didn’t want to go for a major, ambitious production,” Ivy said.
“This is the only one I have done without singing, so that was different, and I had to have an overpowering persona on stage, with poor Gerry copping a bit of stick — which happens a lot in roles we share — and it really seemed to get a lot of audience response and laughter.”
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