BEST OUTFITS

Amid a sea of monochrome, dark-suited attendees, the youngest nominees present, Summer Rae, six, and Lola Rae, nine, had the most eye-catching costumes by far, not to mention the wackiest take on The Wolf Of Wall Street-inspired dress code.

Little Summer was in a wolf onesie, a costume she had inherited after a school performance. And Lola pepped up her look with sequinned animal masks from Accessorize. The girls are pictured here with their grandmother, Eleanor Song, 67. The three of them were part of spell#7's quirky Family Duet and were nominated for Best Ensemble.

MOST UNASSUMING WINNER

Chinese theatre veteran Johnny Ng, 60, who clinched the award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as a juror in Twelve Angry Men (Nine Years Theatre), was visibly shocked to hear his name called.

Dressed casually in a striped polo T-shirt and black pants, the actor said in Mandarin: ''Firstly, I must apologise because I didn't know what I should wear to the event, so I feel a bit underdressed. For this, I am truly sorry.

''I had been telling the team earlier, I need to leave at 1pm. I came here to just register my name and say I was present. I never thought that the first award category to be announced would be this one. Thank you, everyone, for your support and please continue to support Chinese-language theatre in Singapore.''

BEST PUN

Theatre practitioner Paul Rae, co-founder of performance group spell#7, went on stage to receive the Best Sound Design award on behalf of musician and performer Zai Kuning, who is in Malaysia.

Rae, 40, said: ''There is therefore no speech, except to say, perhaps, that we think Zai thoroughly deserves this award. He's a wonderful, wonderful musician, composer and artist.''

To laughter and applause, he added, citing the song made popular by Frank Sinatra: ''If he was here, I'm sure he would not say - but he should - 'I did it Zai way.' Thank you.''

MOST EXCITED NON-WINNER

A huge yelp echoed through the John Jacob Ballroom when it was announced that national serviceman Marcus Lee, 22, had won a night's stay at The St. Regis Singapore hotel.

But the yelp did not belong to him, it came from his cousin Benedict Leong. The 21-year-old is a project executive with the Singapore International Festival of Arts' pre-festival programme, The O.P.E.N.

To laughter and applause from the audience, Mr Lee ran up on stage to receive his prize, with the loudest cheers coming from Mr Leong.