London’s Almeida, Barbican and Shakespeare’s Globe theatres are in the running to be crowned London Theatre of the Year at this year’s The Stage Awards.
The esteemed theatre publication has announced the shortlist for its annual industry awards, which celebrate the success and achievements of organisations and people working in theatre across the UK over the past 12 months.
Among the London institutions celebrating a place in this year’s esteemed list are the King’s Cross Theatre – home to current hits The Railway Children and In The Heights – the National Theatre’s NT Futures building and the historic newly reopened Wilton’s Music Hall. The three theatres will face off to take home this year’s Theatre Building of the Year Award.
In other categories, London’s superstar producer Sonia Friedman, whose extensive hits include West End shows The Book Of Mormon, Bend It Like Beckham The Musical, Funny Girl and the forthcoming Harry Potter And The Cursed Child, will face competition from the Edinburgh International Festival and Tooting Arts Club’s Rachel Edwards to be crowned Producer of the Year. The National Theatre will also be keeping its fingers crossed, with War Horse shortlisted for the international Award following its China premiere this autumn.
Speaking about this year’s shortlist, Alistair Smith, Editor of the weekly newspaper and chair of the judging panel, commented: “The Stage Awards represent the full breadth of the industry, from the schools training our future theatremakers to international collaborations that are trading skills across the globe.”
The Stage Awards’ shortlist is compiled following a public nominations process with input from both an industry focus group and senior editorial staff at the publication. Commenting on the process of narrowing down the final shortlist, Smith said: “The Stage Awards recognise innovation and success in theatre, and we’re thrilled so many of our readers took the opportunity to tell us who they thought should be nominated.
“We also had dozens of top-level industry practitioners put forward their own nominations and the judging panel faced some very tough choices putting together this shortlist. It’s a testament to the current quality of UK and international theatre that so many talented, driven and successful organisations did not make the cut this year.”
The winners of 2016’s The Stage Awards will be announced on 29 January at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. As well as the seven shortlisted award categories, there will also be one award presented to an as yet unannounced “unsung hero”.
The Stage Awards 2016 full shortlist:
London Theatre of the Year
Almeida Theatre
Barbican
Shakespeare’s Globe
Fringe Theatre of the Year
Camden People’s Theatre, London
Orange Tree Theatre, London
The Other Room, Cardiff
Regional Theatre of the Year
Chichester Festival Theatre
Royal and Derngate, Northampton
Royal Exchange, Manchester
Producer Theatre of the Year
Edinburgh International Festival
Rachel Edwards
Sonia Friedman
International Award
Good Chance, Calais
Greenwich and Docklands International Festival
War Horse China
School of the Year
Arts Educational Schools, London
Belgrade Theatre, Coventry
University of Warwick, School of Theatre, Performance and Cultural Policy Studies
Theatre Building of the Year
King’s Cross Theatre, London
NT Future, London
Wilton’s Music Hall, London