An actor known for penetrating the surface of stage characters to show us their inner workings was presented with the Helen Tsongas Award for Excellence in Acting at the ACT Arts Awards on Tuesday evening. 

Joel Horwood was singled out by the theatre critics for a poignant interpretation of Konstantin in Seagull for Chaika Theatre and empathetic performances in Queers for Everyman Theatre and Ordinary Days for Q the Locals.

Originally hailing from the southwest of WA, Horwood was trained in theatre at Monash University then at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts.

On graduating, Horwood moved to Canberra in 2018 for personal reasons and quickly got into the theatre scene, first appearing in Chris Baldock’s production of the Laramie project in 2019 at Canberra Rep Theatre.

After being spotted by director Jordan Best performing in Sam Shepard’s Fool for Love in Sydney, she later approached Horwood to perform in Echo Theatre’s production of Wolf Lullaby, and a whirlwind of performances followed including, in the past year, a moving and totally believable performance as the tormented Konstantin in Chekhov’s Seagull at ACT Hub.

By day a staffer at The Q, Horwood is by night one of our most talented actors, but the theatre critics also noted an impressive record as an emerging director, with Echo Theatre’s King Lear and ACT Hub’s Every Brilliant Thing in the past year and a spot directing A Doll’s House, Part 2 for Canberra Rep in 2025.

But with work at such a high calibre, change is in the wind. 

“I’m planning to head overseas after a while to do theatre, potentially for further study and directing and I’d like to see what the theatre landscape looks like in London,” Horwood says. “I’d like to see what’s out there in the world.”

The late Helen Tsongas, who would have been 46 this month, was a dramatic actor admired for her roles in both tragedy and comedy. She worked at Arts ACT for many years and then moved to the then Commonwealth Office for the Arts.

She died with her husband in a motorcycle accident 13 years ago shortly after their marriage and her family has established this award in her memory. 

The Helen Tsongas Award takes the form of a cheque to the value of $1000 and a certificate going to the best Canberra actor of the year, with no restrictions on age or gender, as judged by the theatre panels of the Canberra Critics Circle, and will continue over the coming years.