Underbelly is surprise leader in Stage Awards nominations

Published Friday 15 August 2008 at 14:40 by Alistair Smith

Full coverage of the Edinburgh Festivals

Underbelly has emerged as the surprise leader in the nominations for this year’s Stage Awards for Acting Excellence at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, with a total of seven entries.

The venue operator has never topped the nominations before and last year was only recognised in two categories. Regular frontrunners the Traverse and Pleasance follow behind with six and five nominations respectively. Assembly - which received six nods last year - lags behind with three.

Deepcut, produced by Sherman Cymru Theatre at the Traverse, is the leading production with three nominations - Ciaran McIntyre in the Best Actor category and both Rhian Morgan and Rhian Blythe for Best Actress.

Now in their 14th year, the Stage Awards are the only honours for professional theatre presented by a national UK publication at the fringe.

They 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, for the third time, The Stage has included a category for Best Solo Show, recognising one-person shows as an Edinburgh staple, which require a different style of acting talent to ensemble shows.

Stage Edinburgh team head William McEvoy said: “The presence of verbatim theatre is notable on this year’s shortlist. The Ensemble category is bigger and more varied than usual, provoking debate and deliberation even at the nominations stage. We were also impressed with the variety of work on display in the solo performance category, now in its third year. It should be an exciting week of judging.”

Winners will be announced on Sunday, August 24 at an awards ceremony at Cafe Hub, Castlehill, Edinburgh.

The nominees for the Stage Awards for Acting Excellence 2008 are:

Best Actor

• Ciaran McIntyre for Deep Cut (Traverse) [review]
• Simon Merrells for On the Waterfront (Pleasance Courtyard)
• Jud Charlton for ABFCAP: The Life and Times of Ian Dury (Zoo) [review]
• Will Lyman for The Patriot Act (Gilded Balloon Teviot) [review]
• Jot Davies for Lough/Rain (Underbelly) [review]

Best Actress

• Rhian Morgan for Deep Cut (Traverse) [review]
• Rhian Blythe for Deep Cut (Traverse) [review]
• Helen Embleton for Motherland (Underbelly)
• Kate Donmall for Lough/Rain (Underbelly) [review]
• Geraldine Alexander for Fall (Traverse) [review]

Best Ensemble

• Kudos for Face in the Crowd (Underbelly) [review]
• You Need Me for How It Ended (C Cubed) [review]
• Big Wow for Dark Grumblings (Underbelly) [review]
• The Paper Birds for In a Thousand Pieces (Gilded Balloon Teviot) [review]
• Traverse Theatre Company and Birmingham Repertory Theatre Company for Pornography (Traverse) [review]
• Live Theatre for Motherland (Underbelly)
• East Productions and Nottingham Playhouse for On the Waterfront (Pleasance Courtyard)

Best Solo Performer

• Peter McDonald for Nocturne (Traverse) [review]
• Matthew Zajac for The Tailor of Inverness (Assembly @ George Street) [review]
• Karen Dunbar for A Drunk Woman Looks at the Thistle (Assembly) [review]
• Cameron Stewart for My Grandfather’s Great War (Underbelly’s Baby Belly) [review]
• Jim Jarrett for Vincent (Assembly @ George Street) [review]
• Stefan Golaszewski for Stefan Golaszewski Speaks About a Girl He Once Loved (Pleasance Courtyard) [review]