Join us at The Hannah on 6 December for the Wellington Theatre Awards, Ngā Whakarākei O Whātaitai 2026, celebrating excellence in theatre.
We are excited to announce our new creative team for 2026: Co-hosts Maeve O'Connell and Raureti Ormond, and Creative Director, Parekawa Finlay.
For more information, please go to News page.
Photography Credit: Renati Waaka
Nominations open for 2027 Judging Panel
We are seeking expressions of interest for three new judges to join our wonderful judging panel for 2027! This is a volunteer position. For more information, please go to Current Vacancies page. Or submit your nomination here:
Nominations open for 2026 Community &
Backstage Awards
⭐️ Community Awards: We invite you to submit your nominations for individuals or companies that have made a significant and positive impact on our community in their work and practice across the last year for a
Especially those whose efforts are behind the scenes and sometimes go unnoticed - from Ushers, Volunteers, Publicists and all our unsung heroes across Te Whanganui-a-Tara.
⭐️ Backstage Award: We invited you to submit your nominations to recognise the theatre practitioners that work backstage and have demonstrated excellence vital to the success of theatre in Wellington this year. The Backstage Award is open to nominations from the wider sector and the winner is selected by the judges.
The specific roles that are eligible are Operators, Production Managers, Stage Managers. This can be summed up as: Excellence in the fields of Technical Operation (Sound, Lighting, Vision) or Arts Management (Stage, Production or Technical).
Community Award Nominations and Backstage Award Nominations also close at 10pm on Thursday 12th November 2026.
Submit your nomination here:
The 2026 Awards are proudly supported by:
Current Judges
The winners and nominees of the annual Wellington Theatre Awards are selected by a panel of judges, comprising a diverse range of theatre lovers, practitioners, critics, old hands and fresh energy.
An Arbiter chairs the meeting at which nominees are selected, and later counts the votes after the judges have voted by secret ballot.
The current Judging Panel consists of:
-
Lia Kelly
-
Kate Anderson
-
Phoebe Caldeiro
-
Christopher Yu
-
Amy Tarleton
-
Lucas Neal
-
Jthan Morgan
-
Brynne Tasker-Poland
-
Regan Taylor
-
Simon Howard
-
Sameena Zehra
-
Marshall Rankin
The judges were nominated and selected by Wellington’s Theatre Cluster, comprised of representatives from: The Hannah, Barbarian Productions, BATS Theatre, Circa Theatre, Playmarket, Taki Rua Productions, Tāwhiri, PAYPA, Tahi Festival and NZ Fringe Festival.
Show Eligibility
All professional New Zealand theatre performed in Wellington is deemed eligible.
If a show is staged as a development season, it does not become eligible until its premiere season. This is to avoid a show being “marked down” while it is still a work in progress.
A return season of a prior year’s production is also considered ineligible, as you can’t have the same show winning the same awards in multiple years.
Inviting Judges
Please fill out the following form to invite judges to your performances.
For judging, please make tickets available to all our judges (one per judge), preferably early in the show season.
We understand that not all venues and productions will be able to offer all our judges complimentary tickets. Please offer as many as you can. If you have any questions around eligibility or inviting judges, please email wgtnta@gmail.com