Ben Apfelbaum

SYDNEY THEATRE AWARDS 2023 : AN EMOTIONAL NIGHT FOR THE SYDNEY THEATRE COMMUNITY

Tony Llewellyn Jones with Australian theatre great Terence Clarke pointing to the light not so far away as he receives his Lifetime Achievement Award
Andrew Macfarlane, Best Supporting Actor
Zara Stanton Best Compser & Musical Direction for Metropolis
Catherine Van-Davies Independent Production best supporting actress
Jane Seldon receives Lifetime Achievement Award from Glenn Hazeldine

Nancye Hayes , Best Supporting Musical Actress
Summer Rain’s Once In A Blue Moon 1989 Original Cast

The winners of the 2023 Sydney Theatre Awards were announced on Monday 29th January 2024 at a star-studded ceremony, with 30 Awards presented, shared between 15 productions which played on Sydney stages during 2023. Almost 500  members of the Sydney theatre community gathered at the York Theatre, Seymour Centre to celebrate. 

Here are the list of winners. Pics on the night are by Ben Apfelbaum

WINNERS OF 2023 SYDNEY THEATRE AWARDS 

BEST MAINSTAGE PRODUCTION 

The Visitors (Sydney Theatre Company and Moogahlin Performing Arts) 

BEST INDEPENDENT PRODUCTION 

A Streetcar Named Desire (Red Line Productions) 

BEST DIRECTION OF A MAINSTAGE PRODUCTION 

Shari Sebbens (Fences) 

BEST DIRECTION OF AN INDEPENDENT PRODUCTION 

Alexander Berlage (A Streetcar Named Desire) 

BEST PERFORMANCE IN A LEADING ROLE IN A MAINSTAGE PRODUCTION 

Catherine Văn-Davies (Constellations) 

BEST PERFORMANCE IN A LEADING ROLE IN AN INDEPENDENT PRODUCTION 

Sheridan Harbridge (A Streetcar Named Desire) 

BEST PERFORMANCE IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A MAINSTAGE PRODUCTION 

Andrew McFarlane (Hubris & Humiliation) 

BEST PERFORMANCE IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN AN INDEPENDENT PRODUCTION 

Catherine Văn-Davies (A Streetcar Named Desire) 

BEST STAGE DESIGN OF A MAINSTAGE PRODUCTION 

Isabel Hudson (Constellations) 

BEST STAGE DESIGN OF AN INDEPENDENT PRODUCTION 

Nick Fry (Metropolis) 

BEST COSTUME DESIGN OF A MAINSTAGE PRODUCTION 

Isabel Hudson (Hubris & Humiliation) 

BEST COSTUME DESIGN OF AN INDEPENDENT PRODUCTION 

Grace Deacon (An ox stand on my tongue)

BEST LIGHTING DESIGN OF A MAINSTAGE PRODUCTION 

Benjamin Brockman (Constellations) 

BEST LIGHTING DESIGN OF AN INDEPENDENT PRODUCTION 

Morgan Moroney (Collapsible) 

BEST SOUND DESIGN OF A MAINSTAGE PRODUCTION 

James Brown (Constellations) 

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE OF A MAINSTAGE PRODUCTION 

Grace Ferguson (On the Beach) 

BEST SOUND DESIGN AND COMPOSITION OF AN INDEPENDENT PRODUCTION 

Zara Stanton (Metropolis) 

BEST NEW AUSTRALIAN WORK 

Hubris & Humiliation (Lewis Treston) 

BEST NEWCOMER 

Abigail Adriano (Miss Saigon) 

BEST ENSEMBLE 

The Visitors  

BEST PRODUCTION OF A MUSICAL 

A Little Night Music (Hayes Theatre Co) 

BEST DIRECTION OF A MUSICAL 

Dean Bryant (A Little Night Music) 

JUDITH JOHNSON AWARD FOR BEST PERFORMANCE IN A LEADING ROLE IN A MUSICAL Ruva Ngwenya (Tina The Tina Turner Musical) 

BEST PERFORMANCE IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A MUSICAL 

Nancye Hayes (A Little Night Music) 

BEST MUSICAL DIRECTION 

Zara Stanton (Metropolis) 

BEST CHOREOGRAPHY IN A MUSICAL 

Vi Lam (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee) 

BEST PRODUCTION FOR CHILDREN 

Waru (Bangarra Dance Theatre and Sydney Festival) 

BEST PRODUCTION FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 

The Lies We Were Told (Shopfront Arts and Monkey Baa) 

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS 

Terence Clarke and Jane Seldon

Featured image : Andrew MacFarlane – Best supporting actor in a supporting role in a mainstream production for Hubris and Humiliation

 

Published by Ben Apfelbaum

My photography began when my father handed me the proverbial brownie box camera as a child. As cameras developed I went through Fujica and Olympus range finders graduating to my first single lens reflex camera, the Minolta SRT101, the latter being the greatest facilitator to my growth as a photographer. Digital photography has only added to this. I was a regular contributor to Camera Craft magazine (Australian Camera ) for over three years. During Australia’s Bicentennial year (1988) I made it a personal project to document the celebrations. This culminated in the creation of a book of my photos which was published in 1989. The book was called CELEBRATING AUSTRALIA and came with an accompanying calendar. My works have appeared in a number of publications including the coffee book entitled MY AUSTRALIA (1989), publisher Robertsbridge Severn. This book had a preface by the then Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke. I was a co-photographer on a book entitled SYDNEY- DISCOVER THE CITY with text written by Robert Treborlang. Major Mitchell Press was the publisher. Also for two years I was the photographer for calendars celebrating Sydney’s multicultural communities. The two calendars were entitled MULTICULTURAL SYDNEY. My work appeared in a group exhibition held at Sydney’s Town Hall pertaining to the diversity of life in South America to raise money for orphanages there. I have over one hundred photos stored in the New South Wales State Library archive. I had a solo exhibition held in 2007 entitled Ben’s Lens at the Sydney Jewish Museum which celebrated the vibrancy of the Sydney Jewish community. Some of these photos are on the Museum’s permanent display. I have exhibited internationally firstly at the Spruill Gallery in Atlanta Georgia, United States, and in an exhibition entitled Kosher and Co at the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Currently I am a regular contributor to J-Wire and this esteemed publication. To celebrate the opening of a permanent Photography Gallery, the State Library of New South Wales selected 400 shots from its archive of over 2,000,000 images to display in the new gallery. An image of mine was plucked out of the multi million photo archive to be part of the inaugural exhibition.