In good company

Former USQ student, Lucas Stibbard has been nominated for a Helpmann Award for 'boy girl wall'

Lucas Stibbard has been nominated alongside Oscar award winner, Geoffery Rush, and high profile Australian actors, Toby Schmitz and Richard Roxburgh, for a coveted Helpmann Award.

Named after Sir Robert Helpmann, the prestigious national awards are Australia’s equivalent to the Tony Awards on Broadway and the Oliver Award in London.

Lucas is a nominee in the‘Best Male Actor in a Play’ category, to be presented in Sydney on Monday 1 August. He described his nomination as “staggering”.

“Mr Rush is pretty formidable, Mr Roxburgh is incredibly talented and Mr Schmitz is one of the most loved actors of our generation, so it’s nice to be around those folks.

“This is my first ridiculously high-profile awards ceremony so I am looking forward to getting a new tux, getting fabbed-out and attending the event at the Opera House."

The University of Southern Queensland (USQ) theatre graduate was nominated for his acclaimed performance in boy girl wall, a production by The Escapists, presented by La Boite.

“It takes a lot of time to be an overnight success. We started work on it three years ago and then two years ago we did a version and last year another version and then this year we got a good season and commercial and critical success.”

Since graduating in 2000, the hard-working actor has performed with the Bell Shakespeare Company, Windmill Theatre, the Queensland Theatre Company and the Brisbane Powerhouse.

“It’s a competitive and fast moving industry, so working is a good thing. And I have been able to keep a lot of consistent work up, mainly in Brisbane but also in theatre across Australia.

“I am currently performing in DragQueensLand, then I am off to Albury-Wadonga for two weeks with boy girl wall, then back to Brisbane and the awards in Sydney.”

Lucas is also looking forward to collaborating with Associate Professor Janet McDonald later in the year, when he co-directs All Sortz for USQ Artsworx with Neridah Waters and Leon Cain.

“Associate Professor McDonald was my theatre lecturer and also my high school drama teacher, so we go back a long way – she is great.

“And, at the time, the USQ theatre course was a magical thing. It was a really valuable time to get tooled-up and skilled-up for work in industry in a safe environment.”