When Marg Horwell won a Tony Award in June, her family was watching back home in Wagga Wagga.

They filmed the award ceremony on an iPad, which they dropped in their excitement, setting their dogs barking.

It's a story Horwell shared on ABC Radio Melbourne , and illustrates just how far the Aussie set and costume designer has come: from regional NSW, with frequent trips to Sydney to see musicals like Cats, all the way to Broadway.

But the impact of her Tony win — for costume design for "cine-theatre" epic The Picture of Dorian Gray — is significant not only in terms of the designer's career.

"After a time of theatre-making where we were urged to make more frugal work or smaller work, this was a huge show to come out of that time," Horwell tells ABC Arts.

"It's exciting to be th

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