Press release from The Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance
When asked to nominate the actor whose career they would most like to emulate, Australia’s performers were unanimous – long-time stage stalwart, Peter Carroll came up time and time again.
Actors Equity has named Carroll as the recipient of its inaugural Equity Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by Foxtel.
Equity president, Simon Burke, said: “This award is about us acknowledging our own and as such it’s hard to imagine a more worthy recipient of the inaugural Equity Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by Foxtel.
Peter is the actor’s actor – a performer who throughout his entire career has been bold and brilliant in his work, generous and inspiring with his mentorship, dedicated and fearless when it comes to protecting the rights at work of performers, and most importantly fun in the dressing room.”
Carroll, who has performed in more than 60 Sydney Theatre Company productions, was nominated by Australian actors and chosen by the National Performers’ Committee of Actors’ Equity.
This year alone he has worked on the STC’s production of The Crucible, the Malthouse Theatre’s Happy Days, Company B’s The Book of Everything and Opera Australia’s Peter Grimes.
Carroll has starred in productions alongside Australian performers including Ruth Cracknell, Geoffrey Rush, Toni Collette, Hugo Weaving, John Bell, Jacki Weaver, Leo McKern, Robyn Nevin and Cate Blanchett.
In April he was named best actor at the 2008 Green Room awards for his cross-dressing portrayal of Girlie Pogson in the smash hit Sarsaparilla, which carried away seven of nine “main stage” theatre awards.
It was just the latest in a string of accolades Carroll has notched up during more than 30 years of performing, including Penguin and Variety Awards, Sydney Theatre Critics’ Circle Award, two Mo Awards, two Victorian Green Room Awards, a Glug and a Helpmann Award. In 1977 he won the Queen’s Jubilee Medal for the Arts.
Foxtel chief executive Kim Williams said: “We’re delighted this award has been given to Peter Carroll, whose body of work is so extraordinary. The span of his creativity and his contribution towards how we see ourselves and how we understand the world has been truly remarkable.”
Carroll is also a highly respected voice and acting coach, a former board member of SBS, a former member of the Sydney Theatre Company’s prestigious Actors’ Company, teacher at NIDA, and is currently a board member of Sydney’s Belvoir Street Theatre. He has been a member of Actors’ Equity since 1972.
The award will be presented on Tuesday, November 24 at a ceremony at The Mint in Sydney.