Spacey Scoops Best Actor in TMA Awards

Winners were announced this week for the Barclays Theatre Awards 1998 which, presented by the Theatrical Management Association (TMA), are the only UK-wide awards for excellence in theatre.

Kevin Spacey scooped the Best Actor award for his blistering performance in the Almeida Theatre's revival of Eugene O Neill s The Iceman Cometh. In the Best Actress category, Geraldine McEwan beat out competition from Sinead Cusack and Anita Dobson with her performance in The Chairs, a Theatre de Complicite and Royal Court co-production.

Best New Play went to Bryony Lavery s Frozen at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre while Caryl Churchill s Blue Heart, another Royal Court co-production (with the Out of Joint company), was named Best Touring Production. The Best Musical award was won by Steve Brown and Justin Greene s Spend Spend Spend! at the West Yorkshire Playhouse.

Julian Crouch and Phelim McDermott jointly received the Best Director Award for their work on Shockheaded Peter, a Cultural Industry project produced in collaboration with the West Yorkshire Playhouse and Lyric Theatre Hammersmith.

A new category was added to the awards arcade this year - the Barclays Award for Theatre of the Year. The new award aims to recognise the achievements and innovations of venues across the country with particular reference to their wider role in the community. The areas focused on include programming, access and education initiatives and the development of new audiences. This year's award went to Clwyd Theatr Cymru.

This year's Award for Special Achievement in Regional Theatre went to Mobil for its Mobil Touring Theatre. Since its inception in 1986, Mobil Touring Theatre has been seen by over one million people throughout the UK.

The Awards ceremony, held in Norwich and hosted by Philip Schofield, will be televised on Sunday, November 1, kicking off the first Barclays Theatre Week, a nationwide celebration of regional theatre, developed in association with the TMA.

The remaining winners are as follows.

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE: Pauline Lockhart in An Experiment with an Air Pump, Royal Exchange Theatre Company, Manchester.

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE: Tom Smith for Present Laughter, Royal Exchange Theatre Company, Manchester.

BEST DESIGNER: Neil Warmington for Jane Eyre, Shared Experience Theatre in association with the Wolsey Theatre Ipswich and the Young Vic Theatre on tour.

BEST SHOW FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE: The Oxford Stage Company production of Junk by Melvyn Burgess, adapted by John Retallack.

MOST WELCOMING THEATRE: Grand Opera House, Belfast.

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN OPERA: Welsh National Opera for Billy Budd and The Coronation of Poppea.

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN DANCE: David Bintley for the choreography of Edward II, for mounting the Balanchine bill and for reviving Dame Ninette de Valois The Prospect Before Us for Birmingham Royal Ballet.

For more information on the nominees and the Barclays Theatre Week, check out the previous What's On Stage news story TMA Nominations & Theatre Week Announced.

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