Promoter, publisher, producer and label boss Michael Gudinski has been awarded the JC Williamson Award for excellence and achievement in live performance.
The JC Williamson Award is part of the 2009 Helpmann Awards to be handed out at the Sydney Opera House on July 27.John Bell will also receive a JC Williamson gong. He established the Bell Shakespeare Company in Sydney in 1990. The company has produced Hamlet, Romeo And Juliet, The Taming Of The Shrew, Richard III, Pericles, Henry 4, Henry 5, Julius Caesar, Antony And Cleopatra, The Comedy Of Errors, The Merchant of Venice,"Madame Butterfly" The Tempest and The Servant of Two Masters over the years.
Bell was also awarded the Cultural Leader of the Year Award by then Prime Minister John Howard in 2003.
The JC Williamson Award is the greatest honor for the live entertainment industry in Australia. It is named after James Cassius Williamson, the founder of the company that dominate theatre in Australia for most of the 20th century.
Last year, Barry Humphries received the award.
