35th Green Room Awards

Green Room Awards
9 April 2018
Comedy Theatre
greenroom.org.au

Tonight the 35th Green Room Award winners were announced in a ceremony at the Comedy Thearte; the nominees were announced in February.

The Green Room Awards are Melbourne’s only peer-assesssed performing arts industry awards.

Cabaret

YUMMY

Artiste: Gillian Cosgriff  for 8 Songs in 8 Weeks (Gillian Cosgriff, The Butterfly Club as part of MICF)

Ensemble: YUMMY, Valerie Hex, Karen From Finance, Tanzer, James Andrews, Beni Lola, Hannie Heldsen, Benjamin Hancock and Zelia Rose (YUMMY, Melba Spiegeltent as part of MICF)

Writing: Gillian Cosgriff  for 8 Songs in 8 Weeks(Gillian Cosgriff, The Butterfly Club as part of MICF)

Original Songs: Jude Perl for Roommates: The Musical and Let's Hang Out (Hot Mess Productions, The Butterfly Club, The Coopers Malthouse as part of MICF)

Musical Direction: Mark Jones for Cyrens (Melissa Langton, Amanda Harrison and Chelsea Gibb, Chapel Off Chapel as part of Melbourne Cabaret Festival)

Production: YUMMY (YUMMY, Melba Spiegeltent as part of MICF)

Outstanding Contribution To Cabaret: Ron and Margaret Dobell

Contemporary and Experimental Performance

 

Performer or Ensemble: wãni Le Frère in Tales of an Afronaut (Arts House)

Sound Performance: Between 8 and 9 (Chengdu Teahouse Project) (Chamber Made Opera and Sichuan Conservatory of Music, co-presented by Castlemaine State Festival and Melbourne Recital Centre for Asia TOPA)

Design: Emily Barrie, Michael Carmody, Jethro Woodward and Richard Vabre for For The Ones Who Walk Away (Nadja Kostich and St Martins)

Curatorial Contribution: Asia TOPA, Asia-Pacific Triennial of Performing Arts

Curatorial Contribution: Yirramboi, First Nations Arts Festival

Contemporary Circus: Chasing Smoke. Natano Fa'anana, Director (Circus Oz/BLAKflip)

Community Collaboration: All The Queens Men Body of Work,  Congress, The Coming Back Out Ball and Fun Run.

Puppetry: Life is a Carousel (Sanctum Theatre and Magic Lantern Studio)

Work for Young Audiences: Junk (Flying Fruit Fly Circus)

Production: We All Know What's Happening (Samara Hersch and Lara Thoms)

Dance

Female Performer: Lilian Steiner for Body of Work

Male Performer: Kimball Wong for Be Your Self (Australian Dance Theatre)

Ensemble, Duo or Trio: Split (Lucy Guerin Inc)

Visual Design: Fausto Brusamolino, Boris Morris Bagattini, Clare Britton, Victoria Hunt, Annemaree Dalziel and Justine Shih Pearson  for TANGI WAI...The Cry of Water (Victoria Hunt)

Music Composition and Sound Design: Senyawa (Rully Shabara and Wukir Suryadi) for Attractor (Dancenorth and Lucy Guerin Inc.)

Shirley McKechnie Award for Choreography: Lucy Guerin for Split (Lucy Guerin Inc)

Concept and Realisation: Split (Lucy Guerin Inc)

Independent Theatre

Meciless Gods. Sapidah Kian

Performer: Dushan Philips for Angels in America (Cameron Lukey and Dirty Pretty Theatre in association with fortyfivedownstairs)

Performer: Jennifer Vuletic for Merciless Gods (Little Ones Theatre in association with Darebin Arts Speakeasy)

Ensemble: Song For a Weary Throat (Rawcus in association with Theatre Works)

Lighting Design: Amelia Lever-Davidson for Looking Glass (New Working Group in association fortyfivedownstairs)

Set and Costume Design: Eugyeene Teh for The Happy Prince (Little Ones Theatre in association with La Mama)

Music Composition and Sound Design: Jethro Woodward and Gian Slater for Song For a Weary Throat (Rawcus in association with Theatre Works)

Writing: Dan Giovannoni after Christos Tsiolkas for Merciless Gods (Little Ones Theatre in association with Darebin Arts Speakeasy)

Direction: Stephen Nicolazzo for The Happy Prince (Little Ones Theatre in association with La Mama)

Production: Song For a Weary Throat (Rawcus in association with Theatre Works)

Music Theatre

Female Lead: Christie Whelan Browne for Vigil (Arts Centre Melbourne)

Male Lead: Charles Edwards for My Fair Lady (Opera Australia and John Frost)

Female in a Supporting Role: Robyn Nevin for My Fair Lady (Opera Australia and John Frost)

Male in a Supporting Role: Reg Livermore for My Fair Lady (Opera Australia and Frost)

Lighting Design: Natasha Katz for Aladdin The Musical (Disney Theatrical Productions)

Set Design: Bob Crowley for Aladdin The Musicall (Disney Theatrical Productions)

Costume Design: Gregg Barnes for Aladdin The Musical (Disney Theatrical Productions)

Sound Design: Michael Waters for My Fair Lady (Opera Australia and John Frost)

Music Direction/Supervision: Guy Simpson for My Fair Lady (Opera Australia and Frost)

Betty Pounder Award for Excellence in Choreography: Casey Nicholaw for Aladdin The Musical (Disney Theatrical Productions)

Direction: Gary Young for Hello Dolly! (The Production Company)

Direction: Tyran Parke for Ordinary Days (Pursued by Bear)

Production: Aladdin The Musical (Disney Theatrical Productions)

Opera

Female Lead: Lorina Gore for King Roger (Opera Australia)

Male Lead: Michael Honeyman for King Roger (Opera Australia)

Female in a Supporting Role: Dominica Matthews for Cavalleria Rusticana (Opera Australia)

Male in a Supporting Role: James Egglestone for King Roger (Opera Australia)

Conductor: Andrea Molino for King Roger (Opera Australia)

Lighting Design: Jon Clark for King Roger (Opera Australia)

Set and Costume Design: Steffen Aarfing for King Rogerr (Opera Australia)

Direction: Damiano Michieletto for Cavalleria Rusticana/Pagliacci (Opera Australia)

Production: King Roger (Opera Australia)

Theatre Companies

Wild Bore. Adrienne Truscott

Female Performer: Kate Mulvany for Richard III (Bell Shakespeare)

Male Performer: Paul Blackwell for Faith Healer (Melbourne Theatre Company and Belvoir)

Ensemble: Wild Bore (Malthouse Theatre)

Lighting Design: Paul Jackson for Away (Malthouse Theatre and Sydney Theatre Company) and
Testament of Mary (Malthouse Theatre)

Set and Costume Design: Dale Ferguson for Away (Malthouse Theatre and Sydney Theatre Company)

Music Composition and Sound Design: J. David Franzke for Away (Malthouse Theatre and Sydney Theatre Company)

New Writing/Adaptation for the Australian Stage: Nathan Maynard for The Season (Tasmania Performs)

Direction: Isaac Drandic for The Season (Tasmania Performs)

Production: The Season (Tasmania Performs)


Geoffrey Milne Memorial Award: Candy Bowers

Technical Achievement Award proudly sponsored by ARUP: Jethro Woodward

Lifetime Achievement Award: Sue Giles

Disclosure: I've was on the Independent Theatre Panel in 2017.

Green Room Award nominations

Green Room Awards
9 April 2018
Comedy Theatre

Patron Julia Zemiro hosting the 34th awards Photo by Belinda Strodder

Melbourne's Green Room Award nominations for work in 2017 were announced this morning. This is the 35th year these peer-assessed awards have been presented. The panels change as new members come and go, but these are awards chosen by people who work in the arts industry.

Read them here.

And so begins the social media discussions about whether they are right.

After five years of being on the Independent Theatre panel, I'm having a break and am excited for new voices to join in the stimulating and exhausting discussions; panels really do talk about your shows – a LOT.  Everyone should be on a judging panel, at least once.

See you at the ceremony.

Green Room Awards 2007

Green Room Awards 2007
1 April 2007

I’ve just come from an afternoon of Green Room Awards. Congratulations to everyone. The ceremony was fun, Julia Zemiro was a much better host that Ellen at the Oscars, Suzanne Johnson and Helen Noonan showed us that opera singers are much wittier and funnier than often thought and everyone paid tribute to the outstanding plethora of artists and companies in this amazing city of Melbourne.

“It really is just an honour to be nominated”...but it’s true. The list of Green Room award nominations show how even the most dedicated of theatre, dance, music, cabaret, opera or musical theatre devotees can barely skim the surface of the arts scene in this town. I see more my fair share of shows, but there were nominated names, companies and shows that I hadn’t seen, some I hadn’t heard of. Debt was the tied winner of Best New Australian Play, but was only seen by 270 people. I think the lesson is – see as much as you can, because you never know when a gem is going to appear.

Dance was an especially strong category this year. Lucy Guerin summed up the feeling among Melbourne’s dancers, by acknowledging the strong sense of community and the involvement of everyone. This was supported by Ros Warby, whose award for Monumental was especially welcomed.

Tim Minchin was my favourite winner of the day. Not only did he win Original Songs, beat a phenomenal group of nominees for Cabaret Artiste, but then scored the award for Outstanding Cabaret Show, beating the Famous Speigeltent and the Melbourne Theatre Company. This continues to prove that the best shows are often created by independent artists and found in non-commercial venues. Tim is “so fucking rock” and so fucking deserved each and every award.

“If you get a job you like – you never have to work a day on your life. Maria Frendo from, the fabulous venue, Dantes reminded everyone of this when she collected her award for her Contribution to Cabaret. When you do what you love, it will always shine through in your work. Every nominee and winner today has proven that they love what they do.

This originally appeared on AussieTheatre.com.