On a busy night for British Theatre, the Black British Theatre Awards were awarded in a ceremony broadcast by Sky Arts channel (Freeview ch 11) on Sunday 25th October.
Personally, I was delighted to see that Nadia Fall really deservedly won Best Director of a Play or Musical for her brilliant production of FAIRVIEW at the Young Vic (see my review here)
I was also very happy to see two rising stars who are in my personal favourite list being honoured – Cherrelle Skeete was awarded Best Supporting Female Actor for her nuanced performance in THE HIGH TABLE (see my review here) and Rachel Nwokoro (who I enjoyed hugely in LITTLE BABY JESUS for which which she recently won The Stage’s Debut Award (see my review here) at the Orange Tree in Richmond) was presented with the Disability Champion Award.
Best Male Actor in A Play was Valentine Olukoga for THE FISHERMEN at Trafalgar Studios, and Best Female Actor in a Play was Rakie Ayola for ON BEAR RIDGE at the Royal Court (see my review here).
DEATH OF A SALESMAN was awarded Best Production Play, whilst the award for Best Male Actor in a Musical went to Noah Thomas for his performance in EVERYBODY’S TALKING ABOUT JAMIE and Best Female Actor in a Musical was won by Miriam Teak-Lee for her work in & JULIET, scooping a double win on the same evening she won the Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for the same show.
How good it is in Black History Month to tell you that The Black British Theatre Awards will be broadcast live on SkyArts Freeview channel on Sunday October 25th at 9.00pm GMT (UK)
With theatre stalled and the Black Lives Matter debate raging, this is a useful time to remind ourselves of the wealth of great Black British talent which has recently come to the fore.
My personal choices within the nominations include Nadia Latif for Best Direction of the Pulitzer-winning FAIRVIEW (produced by the Young Vic) which carefully dissects white attitudes to race. Sharon D Clarke’s deeply-rooted performance as Linda Loman is Best Female Actor in a Play- nominated for the Young Vic’s production of DEATH OF A SALESMAN.
It’s interesting to see that these two productions are also nominated for BEST PRODUCTION PLAY; here FAIRVIEW is definitely my winner (read my review here). Best Supporting Female Actor in a play in my opinion should definitely go to Cherrelle Skeete for her brilliant performance in Temi Wilkey’s play THE HIGH TABLE co-produced by the Bush Theatre (read my review here). Disability Champion Award nominee Rachel Nwokoro has recently won The Stage’s Debut Award for her performance in LITTLE BABY JESUS at the Orange Tree, Richmond, which she thoroughly deserved (read my review here).
Congratulations to all the nominees and eventual winners!
The full list of nominees are below:
BEST DIRECTOR AWARD FOR A PLAY OR MUSICAL
Clint Dyer, Death of England, National Theatre
Nadia Latif, Fairview, Young Vic Theatre
Ola Ince, Appropriate, Donmar Warehouse
Roy Alexander Weise, ‘Master Harold’… and the boys, National Theatre
BEST PRODUCER AWARD
Adrian Grant, Thriller Live, Lyric Theatre
Nicole Raquel Dennis and Ryan Carter, Turn Up, Cadogan Hall
Tobi Kyeremateng, My White Best Friend (and Other Letters Left Unsaid), Royal Court Theatre
BEST CHOREOGRAPHER AWARD
Kenrick ‘H2O’ Sandy MBE, REDD, Barbican Theatre
Lanre Malaolu, Pass Over, Kiln Theatre
Shelley Maxwell, ‘Master Harold’… and the boys, National Theatre
BEST DANCE PERFORMANCE IN A DANCE PRODUCTION AWARD
Kenrick ‘H2O’ Sandy MBE, REDD, Barbican Theatre
Marcelino Sambé, The Cellist, Royal Opera House
BEST DANCE PRODUCTION AWARD
Ingoma, Ballet Black, Barbican Theatre
REDD – Boy Blue, Barbican Theatre
Some Like It Hip Hop – ZooNation, Peacock Theatre
BEST USE OF INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
Nicole Raquel Dennis and Ryan Carter, Turn Up, Cadogan Hall
LIGHT AND SOUND RECOGNITION AWARD
Carmen Wright
Simeon Miller
Tony Gayle
COSTUME DESIGN RECOGNITION AWARD
Jodie Simone Howe
Maybelle Laye
Natalie Pryce
BOOK AND LYRICS RECOGNITION AWARD
Arinzé Kene
Roy Williams
Shirley Thompson OBE
MUSICAL DIRECTOR RECOGNITION AWARD
Ian Oakley
Sean Green
Shiloh Coke
CASTING DIRECTOR RECOGNITION AWARD
Isabella Odoffin
BEST MALE ACTOR IN A PLAY
Lucian Msamati, Master Harold’… and the boys, National Theatre
Paapa Essiedu, Pass Over, Kiln Theatre
Valentine Olukoga, The Fishermen, Trafalgar Studios
BEST FEMALE ACTOR IN A PLAY
Rakie Ayola, On Bear Ridge, Royal Court Theatre
Ronke Adekoluejo, Three Sisters, National Theatre
Sharon D. Clarke MBE, Death of a Salesman, Piccadilly Theatre
BEST SUPPORTING MALE ACTOR IN A PLAY
Arinzé Kene, Death of a Salesman, Young Vic Theatre
Nari Blair-Mangat, Cyrano de Bergerac, Playhouse Theatre
Reice Weathers. The Upstart Crow, Gielgud Theatre
BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE ACTOR IN A PLAY
Cherrelle Skeete, The High Table, Bush Theatre
Michele Austin, Cyrano de Bergerac, Playhouse Theatre
Rosalind Eleazar, Uncle Vanya, Harold Pinter Theatre
BEST PRODUCTION PLAY
Death of a Salesman, Piccadilly Theatre
Fairview, Young Vic Theatre
Three Sisters, National Theatre
BEST MALE ACTOR IN A MUSICAL AWARD
Jason Brock, Thriller Live, Lyric Theatre
Jonathan Andrew Hume, Come from Away, Phoenix Theatre
Noah Thomas, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Apollo Theatre
BEST FEMALE ACTOR IN A MUSICAL AWARD
Aisha Jawando, TINA – The Tina Turner Musical, Aldwych Theatre
Maiya Quansah-Breed, Six the Musical, Arts Theatre
Miriam-Teak Lee, & Juliet, The Shaftesbury Theatre
BEST SUPPORTING MALE ACTOR IN A MUSICAL AWARD
Arun Blair-Mangat, & Juliet, The Shaftesbury Theatre
Nicholas McLean, Wicked, Apollo Victoria Theatre
Tarinn Callender, Hamilton, Victoria Palace Theatre
BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE ACTOR IN A MUSICAL AWARD
Melanie La Barrie, & Juliet, The Shaftesbury Theatre
Sky Arts, the TV channel dedicated to culture, arts and music, becomes available on Freeview and Freesat from today, September 17th.
Sky Arts was created in 2000 and was previously only available for paying subscribers to Sky and other pay-TV companies.
The 24 hour- a -day channel includes in its programming documentaries, movies, operas and more – all related to culture and the arts. They also have a number of shows based around competitions, which may or may not be your “bag”. Not being a Sky customer, I have not experienced the channel before, but I must say that I am naturally suspicious of / resistant to anything which has emanated from the diseased empire of the Murdoch clan.
The channel also has a large library of on-demand content, however this will remain exclusive to NOW TV and Sky subscribers.
On Freeview, you can find SkyArts on channel 11, and on Freesat, on channel 147.
