The 2025 Helen Tsongas Award for Excellence in Acting goes to a performer who began as one of Canberra’s best-known TV and radio presenters before turning to the stage in the early 2000s.

Andrea Close, described by members of the Canberra Critics’ Circle as “a formidable figure in Canberra’s arts community”, has been recognised for her commanding performances this year – as the Machiavellian sister Agatha in The Moors at The Mill Theatre (March-April) and as the powerful corporate figure Jen Lay in Enron, also at The Mill (July-August).

“The Mill Theatre is so tiny,” Close says. “Sometimes the audience has to move their feet to let the actors get by. I love that kind of intimacy – I draw great energy from the room.”

Close has built a reputation for playing full-on, formidable characters such as Agatha and Jen, Martha in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, and Judith Bliss in Noël Coward’s Hay Fever. The latter was a rare comic role, though she recalls that her first CAT Award came years ago for playing Patsy in a stage version of Absolutely Fabulous.

“Let’s face it, I’ve never been cast as a shy or retiring type,” she says. “I’m physically tall, I have a strong voice and strong features, so people tend to relate to me in powerful roles. And now that I’m in my late 50s, I think you grow stronger and more confident as you get older – more inner strength.”

A familiar voice and face from more than two decades as a presenter on local ABC radio, and before that on WIN TV and Capital 10 News, Close has since retired from broadcasting. She now works quietly as a public servant, enjoying life with her dog Johnnie while preparing for her stage roles.

The late Helen Tsongas, who would have turned 47 this month, was a much-admired actor celebrated for her work in tragedy and comedy. She and her husband were killed in a motorcycle accident in 2011 shortly after their marriage. 

Her family established the award in her memory. It carries a prize of $1000 and a certificate recognising 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.