Traverse Theatre and Pleasance lead nominations for Stage Awards for Acting Excellence

Published Tuesday 22 August 2006 at 13:30 by Liz Thomas

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For the second year running, The Traverse Theatre and the Pleasance are ahead of the field with both venues receiving five nominations each for The Stage Awards for Acting Excellence at this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

The Traverse’s much-lauded play Black Watch, which is based on interviews with young soldiers serving in Iraq with the regiment and is already being lined up for a screen adaptation, is a contender for Best Actor and Best Ensemble - helping to push the theatre’s tally one better than in 2005.

Last year’s Best Actor winner Phil Nichol is again nominated, one of four stand-up comics that have made the crossover into fully scripted theatre. Lizzie Roper, Daniel Kitson and David Benson have also secured nominations.

Productions at The Udderbelly and the Assembly Rooms are contenders for three awards, with shows at the Bongo Club, C Venues and Gilded Balloon also shortlisted.

The Stage Awards, now in their 12th year, are adjudicated by the newspaper’s festival reviewing team and aim to recognise outstanding work by individuals in the Best Actor and Actress categories and companies as a whole in Best Ensemble. In addition, this year for the first time, The Stage included a category for Best Solo Show, recognising one-person productions as an Edinburgh staple, which require a different style of acting talent to ensemble shows.

Winners will be announced at an invitation-only ceremony at The Fruitmarket Gallery, this Sunday evening (August 27) .

Catherine Comerford, managing director of The Stage, who will be presenting the awards, added: “I eagerly await the announcement of our award winners - best actor, best actress, best ensemble and new for this year, best solo performer - this coming Sunday. Some may be established actors, some may be straight out of drama school, some may have had no training at all. They could be of any age. Whatever, they will each have given, in the opinions of The Stage’s experienced reviewers, the very best performances at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe.”