2017 Green Room Award Winners

The 34th Annual Green Room Awards were presented live at Melbourne's Comedy Theatre on Monday night, March 27, 2017. The Association's Patron, Julia Zemiro, hosted the evening and was joined onstage by some of Melbourne's most influential performers and industry leaders to celebrate the outstanding work presented in Melbourne during 2016.

Featuring live performances by Otto & Astrid of Die Roten Punkte, Victorian Opera Youth Chorus Ensemble and Yumi Umiumare, Melbourne’s premier peer-presented, performing arts industry awards recognised excellence and innovation across a range of categories.

Biggest winners on the night were Matilda the Musical with seven music theatre awards including Best Production and Opera Australia’s The Ring Cycle with wins in six opera categories including Best Production. Animal, by inFlux in association with Theatre Works, took out four awards in the Independent categories. Melbourne Theatre Company’s Miss Julie took out three awards including Best Production in the Company section, an equal number of awards to Lilith: The Jungle Girl, a collaboration between Melbourne Theatre Company and Sisters Grimm.

In addition to the 63 category awards presented, three special awards recognised the exceptional contributions of Richard Murphet, Jenny Hector and Yumi Umiumare. 

The Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Richard Murphet, in recognition of his diverse and comprehensive body of work that spans teaching, directing and writing. Richard’s connection to the theatre is lifelong and prolific, and his mentorship of some of Australia’s most celebrated theatre practitioners is an important and powerful part of his legacy. 

This year’s Technical Achievement Award was made to Jenny Hector, celebrating her outstanding set and lighting design achievements that are driven by collaborations and the space they find themselves in. Jenny set and lighting designs for the Ilbijerri production Blood on the Dance Floor and Jodee Mundy’s Imagined Touch were part of this year’s Sydney Festival, and 2016 also saw Jenny design the lighting for Sandra Parker’s Small Details, Aphids Howl for FOLA, Another Other produced by Chamber Made Opera and Funeral Party for Dark MOfO.

Recognising outstanding contribution to the development of Contemporary and Experimental Performance, the 2017 Geoffrey Milne Memorial Award was presented to Japanese Butoh Dancer and Butoh Cabaret creator, Yumi Umiumare. Yumi has been creating and teaching her distinctive visceral style of performance for the past 20 years and her work has received critical acclaim and been featured in numerous festivals across the globe.

CABARET

Artiste

Ash Flanders, Playing to Win 

Ensemble

Occasional Suburban Witch - Benn Bennett, Sarah Ward and Bec Matthews 

Design

Paul Lim (Lighting), Lisa Fa’alafi (Costumes), Tristan Shelley (Set Design), Libby Harward (Grafiti Art), Hot Brown Honey (Darebin Arts Speakeasy and Briefs Factory)

Writing

Ash Flanders, Playing to Win

Original Songs

Jude Perl, Part of This Complete Breakfast 

Musical Direction

Bec Matthews, Yana Alana Covered 

Innovative Use of Form

Grumble: Sex Clown Saves the World

Production

Hot Brown Honey (Darebin Arts Speakeasy and Briefs Factory)

Outstanding Contribution to Cabaret

Mark Jones

 

CONTEMPORARY AND EXPERIMENTAL PERFORMANCE

Performer

David Woods, The Chat (Arts House)

Sound Performance

Crush, Dylan Sheridan and Sam Routledge (Arts House for Festival of Live Art)

Design

Howl, Aphids (Arts House for Festival of Live Art)

Tremor, Ashley Dyer (Arts House)

Curatorial Contribution

The Substation, 2016 Program

Innovation in Contemporary Circus

Sediment, Company 2 (Melba Spiegeltent for Melbourne Fringe Festival) 

Innovation in Participatory Performance

COMPLETE SMUT Art Auction, Punctum (Arts House for Festival of Live Art)

Innovation in Experiential Performance

Imagined Touch, Jodee Mundy Collaborations (Arts House)

Production

COMPLETE SMUT Art Auction, Punctum

 

DANCE

Female Performer

Lilian Steiner, The Dark Chorus (Lucy Guerin Inc as part of Melbourne Festival)

Male Performer

Benjamin Hancock, The Dark Chorus (Lucy Guerin Inc as part of Melbourne Festival)

Ensemble Performance

CounterMove (Sydney Dance Company)

If_Was_ (Dancenorth)

Visual Design

Ben Cobham for Bluebottle (Set and Lighting Design) and James Sandri and Pete Brundle for PDA (Video System Design), Lucid (Chunky Move)

Music Composition and Sound Design

Duane Morrison, Mermermer (Jo Lloyd and Nicola Gunn for Next Move 9 presented by Chunky Move)

Outstanding Work by an Emerging Artist/Choreographer

Thomas ES Kelly, [MIS]CONCEIVE 

Concept and Realisation

Lucid (Chunky Move)

 

INDEPENDENT THEATRE

Performer (2 awarded)

Zoë Coombs Marr, Trigger Warning

Jane Montgomery-Griffiths, Wit (The Artisan Collective in association with fortyfivedownstairs)

Ensemble

Animal (inFlux in association with Theatre Works)

Lighting Design

Andy Turner, Animal (inFlux in association with Theatre Works)

Set and Costume Design

Romanie Harper (AV, Set & Costume), Conviction (Darebin Arts Speakeasy and The Zoey Louise Moonbeam Dawson Shakespeare Company)

Music Composition and Sound Design

Kelly Ryall (Sound Design), Animal (inFlux in association with Theatre Works)

Writing

Zoë Coombs Marr, Trigger Warning

Direction

Susie Dee, Animal (inFlux in association with Theatre Works)

Production

Blood on the Dancefloor by Ilbijerri

 

MUSIC THEATRE

Female Lead

Caroline O’Connor, Funny Girl (The Production Company)

Male Lead

Callum Francis, Kinky Boots (Michael Cassel)

Female in a Supporting Role

Naomi Price, Ladies in Black (Queensland Theatre presented by Melbourne Theatre Company)

Male in a Supporting Role

Jack Chambers, Singin’ in the Rain (Lunchbox Theatrical Productions, David Atkins Enterprises, Michael Cassel and Dainty Group)

Lighting Design

Hugh Vanstone, Matilda the Musical (The Royal Shakespeare Company and Louise Withers, Michael Coppel and Michael Watt with Chokey Productions, Just for Laughs Theatricals, Glass Half Full Productions, Paula Marie Black, Greenleaf Productions and Michael Lynch)

Set Design

Rob Howell, Matilda the Musical (The Royal Shakespeare Company and Louise Withers, Michael Coppel and Michael Watt with Chokey Productions, Just for Laughs Theatricals, Glass Half Full Productions, Paula Marie Black, Greenleaf Productions and Michael Lynch)

Costume Design

Rob Howell, Matilda the Musical (The Royal Shakespeare Company and Louise Withers, Michael Coppel and Michael Watt with Chokey Productions, Just for Laughs Theatricals, Glass Half Full Productions, Paula Marie Black, Greenleaf Productions and Michael Lynch)

Sound Design

Simon Baker, Matilda the Musical (The Royal Shakespeare Company and Louise Withers, Michael Coppel and Michael Watt with Chokey Productions, Just for Laughs Theatricals, Glass Half Full Productions, Paula Marie Black, Greenleaf Productions and Michael Lynch)

Music Direction/Supervision

Stephen Amos, Matilda the Musical (The Royal Shakespeare Company and Louise Withers, Michael Coppel and Michael Watt with Chokey Productions, Just for Laughs Theatricals, Glass Half Full Productions, Paula Marie Black, Greenleaf Productions and Michael Lynch)

Betty Pounder Award for Excellence in Choreography

Peter Darling, Matilda the Musical (The Royal Shakespeare Company and Louise Withers, Michael Coppel and Michael Watt with Chokey Productions, Just for Laughs Theatricals, Glass Half Full Productions, Paula Marie Black, Greenleaf Productions and Michael Lynch)

Direction

Matthew Warchus, Matilda the Musical (The Royal Shakespeare Company and Louise Withers, Michael Coppel and Michael Watt with Chokey Productions, Just for Laughs Theatricals, Glass Half Full Productions, Paula Marie Black, Greenleaf Productions and Michael Lynch)

Production

Matilda the Musical (The Royal Shakespeare Company and Louise Withers, Michael Coppel and Michael Watt with Chokey Productions, Just for Laughs Theatricals, Glass Half Full Productions, Paula Marie Black, Greenleaf Productions and Michael Lynch)

  

OPERA

Female Lead

Lise Lindstrom (Brünnhilde), The Ring Cycle (Opera Australia)

Male Lead

James Johnson (Wotan/The Wanderer), The Ring Cycle (Opera Australia)

Female in a Supporting Role

Eva Kong (Laura), Luisa Miller (Opera Australia)

Male in a Supporting Role

Graeme Macfarlane (Mime), The Ring Cycle (Opera Australia)

Conductor

Pietari Inkinen, The Ring Cycle (Opera Australia)

Design

Robert Kemp (Set) and Matt Scott (Lighting), The Pearl Fishers (Opera Australia)

Direction

Neil Armfield, The Ring Cycle (Opera Australia)

Production

The Ring Cycle (Opera Australia)

 

THEATRE COMPANIES

Female Performer

Rose Riley, The Glass Menagerie (Belvoir presented by Malthouse Theatre)

Male Performer

Rory Kelly, Trevor (Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre)

Ensemble

Lilith: The Jungle Girl (Melbourne Theatre Company and Sisters Grimm)

Lighting Design

Mark Howett, The Secret River (Sydney Theatre Company presented by Arts Centre Melbourke)

Set and Costume Design

Marg Horwell (Set & Costume Design), Lilith: The Jungle Girl (Melbourne Theatre Company and Sisters Grimm)

Music Composition & Sound Design

David Franzke, Picnic at Hanging Rock (Malthouse Theatre)

Digital Media Design and Integration 

Miss Julie (Melbourne Theatre Company)

New Writing/Adaptation for the Australian Stage

Declan Greene and Ash Flanders, Lilith: The Jungle Girl (Melbourne Theatre Company and Sisters Grimm)

Direction

Kip Williams, Miss Julie (Melbourne Theatre Company)

Production

Miss Julie (Melbourne Theatre Company)