On Monday Night 18th January 2016, all the winners of the 2015 Sydney Theatre Awards were announced in a star-studded gala ceremony. This year thirty-six Awards were presented, shared between nineteen Sydney productions, seen on stage during calendar year 2015.
The musical theatre categories were this year expanded to recognise the increased breadth of work across both the commercial and independent sector in 2015. Reflecting the recent growth in musical productions in Sydney, additional categories received awards this year.
Over 350 members of the Sydney theatre community gathered in the auditorium at Paddington RSL Club, to celebrate all the winners of the 2015 Sydney Theatre Awards. At the ceremony, you very quickly learn about how very many people it takes to keep a city of theatre going, and an example is MATILDA which has over two hundred people actively involved in the production.
The Annual Sydney Theatre Award for Lifetime Achievement was presented to one of the doyennes of Australian theatre, veteran producer Christine Dunstan, who has hundreds of productions to her name.
Over an extraordinary fifty year career, Dunstan has been “the first female” to undertake significant production roles for most of the major Australian theatre companies. Dunstan set up her own company in 1993, and CDP is an award-winning and nationally recognised touring theatre production house.,
Entertainment included delightful singing performances with six of the cast members of The Sound of Music on the stage performing a medley of songs from the Nick Enright songbook. Performers on the night included Annie Aitken, Johanna Allen, Du Toit Bredenkamp, Colin Dean, Anthony Harkin, Stefanie Jones, Esther Hannaford, Dash Kruck.
Later in the evening Esther Hannaford was on stage to sing I’ll Hold On composed by Max Lambert. Presenters at the Sydney Theatre Awards 2015 included Kelley Abbey, Simon Burke, Philip Dodd, Daniel Edmonds, Wesley Enoch, Kate Fitzpatrick, Geraldine Hakewill, Damon Herriman, Maggie Kirkpatrick, Stephen Mahy, Katrina Retallick, Tess Schofield, Sal Sharah, Yael Stone, Helen Tonkin and Matthew Whittet.
The Sydney Theatre Awards are run by a group of theatre critics to celebrate the strength, quality and diversity of theatre in Sydney. This was the 11th annual celebration, of the best of the past year’s work as judged and decided by some of Sydney’s leading theatre critics, that include Daily Review’s Ben Neutze, Elissa Blake (Sun Herald), Jason Blake (Sydney Morning Herald), Dee Jefferson (Time Out), Deborah Jones (The Australian), Jo Litson (Sunday Telegraph), John McCallum (The Australian), Diana Simmonds (stagenoise.com), Polly Simons (Daily Telegraph) and Cassie Tongue (AussieTheatre).
Eamon Flack’s acceptance speech highlighted the constant need to demand investment at all levels, in the creation of works that contribute to everyone’s “National Public Life”. Blazey Best also honoured her fellow nominees, and stated that when she was nineteen years of age, that she looked to the women that shared her category, for the inspiration that helped her in her career. Josh Robson acknowledged the incredible support received from Hayes Theatre and also mentioned their strong subscriber base, that allows relatively unknown works to have successful runs.
2015 SYDNEY THEATRE AWARD WINNERS
BEST MAINSTAGE PRODUCTION
Ivanov (Belvoir)
BEST INDEPENDENT PRODUCTIONN
Of Mice and Men (Sport for Jove and Seymour Centre)
BEST DIRECTION OF A MAINSTAGE PRODUCTION
Eamon Flack (Ivanov)
BEST DIRECTION OF AN INDEPENDENT PRODUCTION
Iain Sinclair (Of Mice and Men)
BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE IN A MAINSTAGE PRODUCTION
Eryn Jean Norvill (Suddenly Last Summer)
BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE IN A MAINSTAGE PRODUCTION
Hugo Weaving (Endgame)
BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE IN AN INDEPENDENT PRODUCTION
Kate Cole (Grounded)
BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE IN AN INDEPENDENT PRODUCTION
Thomas Campbell (Misterman)
BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A MAINSTAGE PRODUCTION
Blazey Best (Ivanov)
BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A MAINSTAGE PRODUCTION
John Howard (Ivanov)
BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN AN INDEPENDENT PRODUCTION
Taylor Ferguson (Good Works)
BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN AN INDEPENDENT PRODUCTION
James Bell (The Aliens)
BEST STAGE DESIGN OF A MAINSTAGE PRODUCTION
Nick Schlieper (Endgame)
BEST STAGE DESIGN OF AN INDEPENDENT PRODUCTION
Michael Hankin (Of Mice and Men)
BEST COSTUME DESIGN OF A MAINSTAGE PRODUCTION
Alice Babidge (Suddenly Last Summer)
BEST COSTUME DESIGN OF AN INDEPENDENT PRODUCTION
Angela White (Heathers)
BEST LIGHTING DESIGN OF A MAINSTAGE PRODUCTION
Paul Jackson (Love and Information)
BEST LIGHTING DESIGN OF AN INDEPENDENT PRODUCTION
Hartley TA Kemp (Misterman)
BEST SCORE OR SOUND DESIGN OF A MAINSTAGE PRODUCTION
The Sweats (Love and Information)
BEST SCORE OR SOUND DESIGN OF AN INDEPENDENT PRODUCTION
Nate Edmondson (Misterman)
BEST NEW AUSTRALIAN WORK
The Bleeding Tree (Angus Cerini)
BEST NEWCOMER
Lauren McKenna (Heathers)
BEST ENSEMBLE CAST
After Dinner (Sydney Theatre Company)
BEST PRODUCTION OF A MAINSTREAM MUSICAL
Matilda (The Royal Shakespeare Company, Louise Withers, Michael Coppel and Michael Watt)
BEST PRODUCTION OF AN INDEPENDENT MUSICAL
Violet (Blue Saint Productions in association with Hayes Theatre Co)
BEST DIRECTION OF A MUSICAL
Mitchell Butel (Violet)
JUDITH JOHNSON AWARD FOR BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL
Amy Lehpamer (The Sound of Music)
JUDITH JOHNSON AWARD FOR BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MUSICAL
Hayden Tee (Les Miserables)
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A MUSICAL
Elise McCann (Matilda)
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A MUSICAL
James Millar (Matilda)
BEST MUSICAL DIRECTION
Lucy Bermingham (Violet)
BEST CABARET PRODUCTION
Josie Lane (Asian Provocateur)
BEST PRODUCTION FOR CHILDREN
The 52-Storey Treehouse (CDP)
BEST PRODUCTION FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
War Crimes (ATYP)
SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Molly Barwick, Sasha Rose, Georgia Taplin, Bella Thomas (Matilda)
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Christine Dunstan