Surprise successes and predictable victories characterise this year’s awards, announced this evening in Melbourne.

After major award successes in 2015, Opera Australia and the Sydney Dance Company have added more awards to their trophy cabinets at the 33rd Green Room Awards. However, there were a few surprises among the winners in the Musical Theatre categories. The Green Room Awards, Melbourne’s premier peer-presented performing arts industry awards, celebrated work presented in Victoria during 2015.

Opera Australia has continued to dominate the Green Room’s Opera category, taking out all but three awards in that section for their productions of Le Nozze di Figaro, Madama Butterfly, Don Carlos and The Rabbits. Victorian Opera took home the remaining gongs for The Flying Dutchman, with Roger Hodgman receiving the Direction award and the Australian Youth Orchestra receiving the Special Award for Orchestral Excellence for their part in that production.

The Sydney Dance Company’s Frame of Mind programme, which cleaned up at the 2015 Helpmann Awards, has continued its run of success by winning the Duet and Ensemble Performance Awards, Female Dancer (Jesse Scales) and Male Dancer (David Mack) categories. Antony Hamilton and Alisdair Macindoe also did well, receiving awards for Concept and Realisation, Music and Sound Composition and Performance, and the Shirley McKechnie Award For Choreography categories for their work Meeting.

Sydney Dance Company’s Frame of Mind

Dee and Cornelius’s SHIT, presented as part of the Neon Festival for Independent Theatre, blitzed the Independent Theatre section taking home the awards in the Ensemble, Set and Costume Design, Production and Writing categories. Captives of the City, the collaboration between Chamber Made Opera and Lemony S Puppet Theatre, won awards for Puppetry Performance and Design, and Realisation in Contemporary Performance in the Contemporary and Experimental Performance section. In the theatre categories Malthouse Theatre’s production of I am a Miracle was the biggest winner.

Cats and Strictly Ballroom were the surprise winners in the Musical Theatre category, having received largely negative reviews during their respective Sydney seasons. Cats took away the Ensemble and Male in a Supporting Role (Josh Piterman) gongs and Strictly Ballroom won Female in a Supporting Role (Heather Mitchell) as well as the Lighting Design and Set and Costume Design awards. Verity Hunt-Ballard and Martin Crewes took the Female and Male in a Leading Role awards respectively for their performances in Sweet Charity.

2016 Green Room Awards Winners

 CABARET

Production
Briefs 

Artiste
Sheridan Harbridge
Songs For The Fallen 

Ensemble
Briefs
Fez Fa’anana, Mark ‘Captain Kidd’ Winmill, Dallas Dellaforce, Evil Hate Monkey, Louis Biggs, Lachy Shelley and Thomas Worrell

Writing
Daniel Tobias
The Orchid and The Crow

Musical Direction
Daryl Wallis
Strange Bedfellows

Original Songs
Jude Perl
Is It Just Me? 

Outstanding Contribution to Cabaret
John Thorn

CONTEMPORARY AND EXPERIMENTAL PERFORMANCE

Innovation in Contemporary Performance for Young People
Separation Street
Polyglot Theatre with The Suitcase Royale
(Polyglot Theatre and Darebin Arts at Melbourne Fringe)

Innovation in Site Specific Work
MASS
Zoe Scoglio
(Field Theory)

Innovation in Contemporary Circus
Bodies over Bitumen
Skye Gellmann, Naomi Francis, Alex Gellmann and Kieran Law
(at Melbourne Fringe)

Curatorial Contribution to Contemporary Performance
Site is Set
Field Theory

Design and Realisation in Contemporary Performance (TIED)
Endings
Ben Cobham, Peter Knight, Tamara Saulwick, Paddy Mann and Nick Roux
(Arts House and Tamara Saulwick)
AND
Captives of the City
Sarah Kriegler, David Young, Jethro Woodward, Dave Jones, Jacob Williams, Ben Grant, Rainbow Sweeny, Mark Cauvin, Adam Pierzchalski and Matthias Schack-Arnott
(Chamber Made Opera, Lemony S Puppet Theatre and Arts Centre Melbourne)

Puppetry Performance
Captives of the City
Chamber Made Opera, Lemony S Puppet Theatre and Arts Centre Melbourne

Performance (by an individual or ensemble) in Contemporary and Experiment Performance
Nicola Gunn
Piece for Person and Ghetto Blaster
(Arts House and Mobile States)

Contemporary Performance Tex
Oedipus Schmoedipus
(post, Arts House and Belvoir)

Contemporary and Experimental Performance
Piece for Person and Ghetto Blaster
Nicola Gunn
(Arts House and Mobile States)

DANCE

Concept and Realisation
Antony Hamilton and Alisdair Macindoe
MEETING

Duet and Ensemble Performance
Cast of Quintett and Frame of Mind
Sydney Dance Company

Shirley McKechnie Award For Choreography
Antony Hamilton
MEETING
(Antony Hamilton and Alisdair Macindoe)

Female Dancer
Jesse Scales
Quintett
(Sydney Dance Company)

Male Dancer
David Mack
Quintett and Frame of Mind
(Sydney Dance Company)

Design
Ben Cobham
The Boom Project
(Rosalind Crisp/Omeo Dance)

Music and Sound Composition and Performance
Alisdair Macindoe
MEETING
(Antony Hamilton and Alisdair Macindoe)

INDEPENDENT THEATRE

Male Performer
Brian Lipson
EDMUND. THE BEGINNING
(Arts House and Antechamber Productions)

Female Performer
Jillian Murray
L’amante anglaise
(La Mama)

Ensemble
Cast of SHIT
(Dee & Cornelius as part of Neon Festival for Independent Theatre)

Set and Costume Design
Marg Horwell
SHIT
(Dee & Cornelius as part of Neon Festival for Independent Theatre) 

Lighting Design
Amelia Lever-Davidson
Body of Work

Sound/Music
Christopher De Groot
Dream Home
(Darebin Arts Speakeasy)

Direction
Luke Kerridge
Dream Home
(Darebin Arts Speakeasy)

Production
SHIT
(Dee & Cornelius as part of Neon Festival for Independent Theatre) 

Writing
Patricia Cornelius
SHIT
(Dee & Cornelius as part of Neon Festival for Independent Theatre) 

Geoffrey Milne Memorial Award
For contribution to the development of Contemporary and Experimental Performance or Independent Theatre
Mary Lou Jelbart

MUSIC THEATRE

Female In A Leading Role
Verity Hunt-Ballard
Sweet Charity
(Arts Centre Melbourne in association with Luckiest Productions, Neil Gooding Productions, Tinderbox Productions and Hayes Theatre Co)

Male In A Leading Role
Martin Crewes
Sweet Charity
(Arts Centre Melbourne in association with Luckiest Productions, Neil Gooding Productions, Tinderbox Productions and Hayes Theatre Co)

Male In A Supporting Role
Josh Piterman
Cats
(Lunchbox Theatrical Productions, David Atkins Enterprises And Base Entertainment Asia; in Association With The Really Useful Group)

Female In A Supporting Role
Heather Mitchell
Strictly Ballroom
(Gerry Ryan and Carmen Pavlovic On Behalf Of Global Creatures; Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin On Behalf Of Bazmark; in Association With Stage Entertainment, Michael Watt, James L Nederlander, Terry Allen Kramer and Peter Arvanitis)

Ensemble
Cast of Cats
(Lunchbox Theatrical Productions, David Atkins Enterprises And Base Entertainment Asia; in Association With The Really Useful Group)

Betty Pounder Award For Excellence In Choreography
Michael Ralph
Loving Repeating
(Vic Theatre Company and Glenn Ferguson)

Musical Direction/Supervision
Kellie Dickerson
City Of Angels
(Life Like Company)

Lighting Design
Hugh Vanstone
Strictly Ballroom
(Gerry Ryan and Carmen Pavlovic On Behalf Of Global Creatures; Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin On Behalf Of Bazmark; in Association With Stage Entertainment, Michael Watt, James L Nederlander, Terry Allen Kramer and Peter Arvanitis)

Sound Design
John Scandrett, David Tonion and Julian Spink
West Side Story
(The Production Company)

Set and/or Costume Design
Catherine Martin
Strictly Ballroom
(Gerry Ryan and Carmen Pavlovic On Behalf Of Global Creatures; Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin On Behalf Of Bazmark; in Association With Stage Entertainment, Michael Watt, James L Nederlander, Terry Allen Kramer and Peter Arvanitis)

Direction
Jason Langley
Loving Repeating
(Vic Theatre Company and Glenn Ferguson)

Production
Strictly Ballroom
(Gerry Ryan and Carmen Pavlovic On Behalf Of Global Creatures; Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin On Behalf Of Bazmark; in Association With Stage Entertainment, Michael Watt, James L Nederlander, Terry Allen Kramer and Peter Arvanitis)

OPERA

Direction
Roger Hodgman
The Flying Dutchman
(Victorian Opera)

Production
Le nozze di Figaro
Opera Australia

Conductor
Guillaume Tourniaire
Madama Butterfly
(Opera Australia) 

Female Lead
Milijana Nikolic
‘Eboli’ Don Carlos
(Opera Australia)

Female In A Supporting Role
Jessica Hitchcock
‘Flinch’ The Rabbits
(Opera Australia and Barking Gecko Theatre Company)

Male Lead
Giacomo Prestia
‘Phillip II’ Don Carlos
(Opera Australia)

Male In A Supporting Role
Carlos E. Bárcenas
‘Steuermann’ The Flying Dutchman
(Victorian Opera)

Design
Jenny Tiramani
Le nozze di Figaro
(Opera Australia)

Lighting

David Finn
Le nozze di Figaro
(Opera Australia)

Special Award for Orchestral Excellence
The Australian Youth Orchestra
The Flying Dutchman
(Victorian Opera)

THEATRE COMPANIES

Female Actor
Melita Jurisic
I Am a Miracle
(Malthouse Theatre)

Male Actor
Ben Prendergast
Dead Centre/Sea Wall
(Red Stitch Actors Theatre)

Ensemble
Cast of North by Northwest
(Melbourne Theatre Company and Kay + McLean Productions)

Lighting Design
Katie Sfetkidis
Meme Girls
(Malthouse Theatre)

Set and Costume Design
Marg Horwell (Set and Costume) and Paul Jackson (Set)
I Am a Miracle
(Malthouse Theatre)

Sound Design and Composition
David Chisholm and Marco Cher-Gibard
I Am a Miracle
(Malthouse Theatre) 

Writing/Adaptation for the Australian Stage (TIED)
Declan Green
I Am a Miracle
(Malthouse Theatre)
AND
Dan Giovannoni
Jurassica
(Red Stitch Actors Theatre)

Production
I Am a Miracle
Malthouse Theatre 

Direction
Leticia Cáceras
Birdland
(Melbourne Theatre Company) 

Technical Achievement Award
Laurel Frank

Lifetime Achievement Award
Malcolm Robertson