Australian producer wins New York's Drama Desk Award
24 May 2005
Australian theatre producer Ross Mollison has found success in New York with his production Slava’s Snowshow, which won the Drama Desk Award for Unique Theatrical Experience on Sunday night.
Mr Mollison said from New York today, “I am so thrilled to see Snowshow win this prestigious award. Snowshow is a rare theatrical experience. It has had huge audiences, with over 100,000 people having already seen the show in New York. We are looking forward to a long run in New York and to our second company opening in San Francisco in April next year. We plan to take the joy of Snowshow to people all over the United States.”
Slava’s Snowshow opened Off-Broadway at the Union Square Theatre on 8 September 2004. Over the last eight months, audience members have included David Bowie, Jessica Lange, director Spike Lee and popstar Shakira.
Created in 1993 by renowned Russian clown, Slava Polunin, Snowshow has enthralled audiences around the world with its famous snowstorm finale, which engulfs the entire theatre. Snowshow has won many international awards including Australia’s own Helpmann Awards, although until now no producer had been successful in bringing the show to the world’s theatre capital.
Ross Mollison’s previous producing credit in New York is the 2001-2002 Off-Broadway season of Australia’s own Puppetry of the Penis, which ran for an impressive 13 months at the John Houseman Theatre, prior to a national tour.
The 50th Annual Drama Desk Awards were presented in New York on Sunday night, hosted by Harvey Fierstein. The Drama Desk is the only theatre organization whose award nominations honour Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off Broadway and not-for-profit theatre productions equally in multiple categories. The Drama Desk membership includes over 140 voting theatre critics, reporters and editors. Presenters on the evening included Alan Alda, Jeff Goldblum, Ethan Hawke, Lynn Redgrave and Kathleen Turner.
Other nominees in the Unique Theatrical Experience category included Matthew Bourne’s acclaimed Play Without Words.
