AustLit logo

AustLit

image of person or book cover 8469878891169086166.png
Sydney Theatre Awards
Subcategory of Awards Australian Awards
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

History

The Sydney Theatre Awards are run by a group of theatre critics to celebrate the strength, quality and diversity of theatre in Sydney. They were established in December 2005, when nominations were publicly announced for the inaugural awards. The awards have been given annually since then.

Source: http://www.sydneytheatreawards.com/ Sighted: 10/12/2013.

Notes

  • The Sydney Theatre Awards were inaugurated in 2005, the winners for that year being announced in mid-January 2006. The Awards reinstate an annual recognition of theatre achievement in Sydney following the disbanding of the Sydney Theatre Critics' Circle Award in 1995.

Latest Winners / Recipients (also see subcategories)v1611

Year: 2017

winner (Best Original Score of a Mainstage Production) Muriel's Wedding : The Musical P. J. Hogan , Kate Miller-Heidke (composer), Keir Nuttall (composer), 2017 single work musical theatre

'Muriel Heslop is back! In this highly-anticipated world premiere, the iconic Australian film is set to become an equally iconic laugh-out-loud musical.

'Stuck in a dead-end life in Porpoise Spit, Muriel dreams of the perfect wedding – the white dress, the church, the attention. Unfortunately, there’s one thing missing. A groom. Following her dreams to Sydney, Muriel ends up with everything she ever wanted – a man, a fortune and a million Twitter followers. That’s when things start to go really wrong.

'The film’s original writer-director PJ Hogan has updated his screenplay into a dazzling new stage show, bringing the story into the present but keeping all the irreverence and naughtiness of the film along with its dark edge.' (Production summary)

recipient (Special Award) Monkey Baa Theatre for Young People

for 20 years of excellence and extraordinary service to the children and young people of Australia

Year: 2015

winner Hugo Weaving for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Mainstage Production (Endgame)

Year: 2013

(Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Mainstream Production) y separately published work icon The Floating World John Romeril , 1974 (Manuscript version)x400870 Z498503 1974 single work drama (taught in 11 units)

Les Harding, onetime Japanese prisoner-of-war, takes a package cruise to Japan with his wife. As he draws near, long-repressed memories of suffering well up. A rich, ironic study of Australian xenophobia..

Source: Currency Press

(http://www.currency.com.au/product_detail.aspx?productid=210)

Awarded to actor, Peter Kowitz
winner (Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Mainstream Production) Small and Tired Kit Brookman , 2013 single work drama

'Orestes has come back to bury his father. He has been away a long time. His mother is hardened, his sister is strangely ill. He will see them, he will bury his father, and then, in all likelihood, he will drift away again. But in a bar one night, slightly drunk, he meets a gentle soul called Pylades...

'Kit Brookman's play springs from the myth of Orestes and the House of Atreus, but Brookman's leap of imagination has been to fully dissolve the myth into the contemporary world.' (Source: http://www.stagewhispers.com.au/news/2013-season-belvoir )

Awarded to actor, Susan Prior
winner (Best Stage Design in an Independent Production) Summertime in the Garden of Eden Ash Flanders , Declan Greene , Sisters Grimm , 2012 single work drama

'"The South will fall, and so will her pride... ...In the greatest love story ever told." Georgia. 1861. A faded Southern belle returns to the family plantation after ten years away from home. But where has she been? Why did she run? And what secrets are buried in the ol' greenhouse? A sweeping romance, set against the backdrop of the American Civil War.'

Source: www.sistersgrimm.com.au/ (Sighted 20/02/2012).

Awarded to Marg Horwell
winner (Best Costume Design in an Independent Production) Summertime in the Garden of Eden Ash Flanders , Declan Greene , Sisters Grimm , 2012 single work drama

'"The South will fall, and so will her pride... ...In the greatest love story ever told." Georgia. 1861. A faded Southern belle returns to the family plantation after ten years away from home. But where has she been? Why did she run? And what secrets are buried in the ol' greenhouse? A sweeping romance, set against the backdrop of the American Civil War.'

Source: www.sistersgrimm.com.au/ (Sighted 20/02/2012).

Awarded to Marg Horwell
winner (Best Score or Sound Design in an Independent Production) Delectable Shelter Benedict Hardie , 2011 single work drama

'A black comedy about white terror, 'Delectable Shelter' is a no-holds-barred portrait of the privileged, facing the end of the world as they know it.

'In a bunker deep within the earth, five survivors plan a utopian society. Their dreams are lavish, their visions grand and their aspirations (somewhat) noble. But saving the world is the easy part; the hard part will be learning to share it with those they thought were beneath them.

'Taking cues from Moliere, Brecht and Chris Morris, 'Delectable Shelter' lampoons the prejudice ingrained in our prosperous Western society as it declines from dominance in the 21st Century in a grotesque comedy of the not-too-distant future.

'A new play from multi-award winning theatre renegades The Hayloft Project and Critical Stages, 'Delectable Shelter' is a laugh-out-loud funny production that speaks directly to our modern society in a sharply clever way.' (Publisher's blurb)

Awarded to Benny Davis and Alister Mew

Year: 2011

winner (Best Mainstage Production) The Wild Duck Simon Stone , Chris Ryan , 2011 single work drama

'Are there some truths it’s better not to know?

Winner of three Helpmann Awards (2011) and four Sydney Theatre Awards (2011), this taut, stripped-back rendition of a modern classic never lets up. Director Simon Stone has developed from a wunderkind of Melbourne’s indie theatre to an established force on Australia’s mainstages. Here he transplants Ibsen’s characters into the contemporary world in a new play tailor-made for an astonishing cast led by Ewen Leslie.

Hjalmar Ekdal grew up rich but scandal cast him into poverty. Now he lives in a tiny flat with his father, his wife, his daughter and a duck. When his old friend Gregers Werle returns with unfinished business, the truth Gregers brings could shatter the world Hjalmar has built around himself.

A bittersweet portrait of family dysfunction, deception and denial, The Wild Duck resounds for a new age.' (Source: Malthouse Theatre website)

Other Awards:

Best Actress in a Supporting Role of a Mainstage Production (Anita Hegh)

Best Actor in a Supporting Role of a Mainstage Production (Anthony Phelan)

Year: 2006

(Lifetime Achievement Award) Rodney Seaborn

Works About this Award

Ivanov and Matilda Girls Honoured at Sydney Theatre Awards Elissa Blake , 2016 single work column
— Appears in: The Age , 19 January 2016; (p. 11) The Sydney Morning Herald , 19 January 2016; (p. 11)
Chekhov Brings Accolades for Belvoir’s Flack Simone Fox Koob , 2016 single work column
— Appears in: The Australian , 19 January 2016; (p. 13)
Gender Parity under Spotlight on Theatre Stages Elissa Blake , 2015 single work column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 28 January 2015; (p. 11)
Henry Blitzes, and It's Roxburg by a Nose Ashleigh Wilson , 2015 single work column
— Appears in: The Australian , 20 January 2015; (p. 12)
Critics Reward Sydney Musicals – Just Not Baz’s Elissa Blake , 2014 single work column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 17 December 2014; (p. 16)
X