Ghost, Octagon, Lowry & Royal Exchange win Manchester AwardsDate: 15 March 2012The 2011 Manchester Theatre Awards have been announced and reflect the diversity of the performances that entertain audiences across the region. The Octagon Theatre, Bolton, has won four of the 17 annual awards – Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best New Play and the highly-coveted Best Production. Their artistic director David Thacker put his indelible stamp on a succession of productions, ranging from new plays to classics of modern theatre, and – in one of the latter – helped his wife Margot Leicester pick up the Best Actress award. Another of his productions, Arthur Miller’s The Price saw all four cast members nominated in four separate categories, while the play itself was winner of Best Production. At the other end of the scale, The Lowry in Salford, unsurprisingly maintained its dominance as the region’s production powerhouse with six top awards, ranging across opera, ballet, major touring productions, a star-studded world premiere and a tiny studio performance. At the heart of a city proud of its theatre heritage, the Royal Exchange again proved it can more than hold its own with a Best Supporting Actress award in a startling new play that stemmed from the venue’s unique Bruntwood playwriting challenge, as well as Best Actor and Best Newcomer awards. The contribution that he has made to this outstanding venue is recognised in a special award to outgoing artistic director Braham Murray. Ghost The Musical - another world premiere, won Manchester Opera House two awards, and the creativity of adapting the Dickens’ classic Hard Times to its performance inside a disused cotton mill won the Manchester Library Theatre design award.
The full list of winners from the 2011 Manchester Theatre Awards is as follows: BEST PRODUCTION The Price, directed by David Thacker for the Octagon Theatre, Bolton Con O'Neill, in A View From The Bridge at the Royal Exchange BEST ACTRESS Margot Leicester, in Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? at the Octagon Theatre, Bolton BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE Kenneth Alan Taylor, in The Price at the Octagon Theatre, Bolton BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE Shannon Tarbet, in Mogadishu at the Royal Exchange BEST NEW PLAY Secret Thoughts, by David Lodge at the Octagon Theatre, Bolton BEST NEWCOMER Matthew Tennyson, in Beautiful Thing at the Royal Exchange BEST STUDIO PERFORMANCE Matthew Ganley, in God Wept And The Devil Laughed at The Lowry Studio BEST OF THE FRINGE Sherica, from Balloon Head and Shred Productions at the 24:7 Festival BEST DESIGN Hard Times, design Judith Croft; light Nick Richings; sound Peter Rice, Library Theatre at Murrays’ Mills, Manchester BEST MUSICAL Ghost The Musical, at the Opera House BEST VISITING PRODUCTION One Man, Two Guvnors, from the National Theatre at The Lowry BEST ACTOR IN A VISITING PRODUCTION Rory Kinnear, in Hamlet, from the National Theatre at The Lowry BEST ACTRESS IN A VISITING PRODUCTION Sharon D Clarke, in Ghost the Musical at the Opera House BEST SPECIAL ENTERTAINMENT The Life And Death Of Marina Abramovic, for Manchester International Festival at The Lowry OPERA The Portrait, from Opera North at The Lowry DANCE Cinderella, from Birmingham Royal Ballet at The Lowry SPECIAL AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION TO THEATRE IN THE NORTH WEST Braham Murray, artistic director Manchester Royal Exchange Related Content
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