Hudson and Halls Live! co-creator and director Kip Chapman says it showed the play lived up to the hopes its creative team had for it.
"We wanted to make an accessible and funny home-grown piece of work that as many people as possible would love but, at the same time, we also wanted to push ourselves and the creative boundaries we work within," Chapman says. "To receive an Excellence Award shows we achieved both and we're all very happy."
Silo artistic director Sophie Roberts says it was the first show the company has commissioned since 2008 and, given the number of props and challenges such as cooking on stage, it was a risky proposition.
"It's always a massive undertaking for a theatre company to commission a new show because it takes time and a large amount of resource for it to develop and there's no guarantees it will find an audience but Hudson and Halls Live! exceeded all our expectations."
It also won the People's Choice Playmarket Award for Best Line in a Kiwi Play, "She doesn't have a phone in her car - it's not Star Trek!"
The comedy, which plays out as Hudson (Todd Emerson) and Halls (Chris Parker) film a live Christmas cooking special, is likely to tour regional centres next year.
Silo had double the reason to celebrate. As well as Hudson and Halls Live!, its first show of 2015, The Book of Everything, a co-production with The Auckland Arts Festival, also received an Excellence Award for achieving excellence across all aspects of a production.
It is scheduled to play in New Plymouth, Hamilton, Napier and Palmerston North after a repeat season in Auckland in February.
Other Excellence Award winners, chosen by judges former Metro editor Simon Wilson, producer Angela Green, playwright Sam Brooks, actor and director Jason Te Kare, costume designer Elizabeth Whiting and the 2014 lifetime achievement recipient vocal coach Linda Cartwright, were:
• Little Shop of Horrors, Live Live Cinema (achieving excellence across all aspects of the production)
• Tony Rabbit (achieving excellence in set and lighting design for A Doll's House, Auckland Theatre Company)
• All Your Wants and Needs Fulfilled Forever, The Playground Collective (achieving excellence across all aspects of the production)
• Thomas Press (achieving excellence in sound design and composition throughout 2015) Press
George Henare received the Lifetime Achievement Award while Christine Urquhart (set and costume designer), Jordan Keyzer (stage manager and producer) and actor Gaby Solomona took home the Mr Fahrenheit Publicity Newcomer awards.
The People's Choice Award winners were:
• The HACKMAN Cup for Most Original Production: All Your Wants and Needs Fulfilled Forever (Playground Collective)
• Mangere Arts Centre Award for Best Ensemble: The company of The Book of Everything
• The Auckland Actors Award for Best Death: Rose Matafeo in Rose Matafeo is Finally Dead
• The Elephant Publicity Award for Best Poster: Ernest Rutherford: Everyone Can Science!
• The Gail Cowan Award for Best Viral Marketing Campaign: The talking light bulb in All Your Wants and Needs Fulfilled Forever
• The TAPAC Award for Best Entrance: Kate McGill and Frith Horan in The Best Possible Album Party that Anybody has Ever Been to
• The Equity New Zealand Award for Best show by Emerging Artists: Alice Canton in Orangutan
• The Johnson & Laird Management Award for Best Accent: Luci Hare in Lysistrata
• The APRA Award for Best Music: Gareth Hobbs for All Your Wants and Needs Fulfilled Forever
• The Kathryn Rawlings and Associates Award for Best Comeback: Ben Crowder directing Sit on it again
• The South Pacific Pictures Award for Best Technical F*#k up - Declan Greene's note before Eight-Gigabytes of Hardcore Pornography
• The Actors Program Award for Best Nudity: Edwin Beats in Not Psycho
• The Sharu Loves Hats Award for Best Pash: Eli Kent and the mannequin in All Your Wants and Needs Fulfilled Forever
• The Pantograph Punch Award for Best Critic: James Wenley
• The Tour-Makers Award for Travelling Hero: A Boy Wonder.
