The Stage

Oldham Coliseum and Menagerie Theatre honoured for new writing initiatives

Published Tuesday 9 September 2008 at 17:35 by Matthew Hemley

Oldham Coliseum and the Menagerie Theatre Company in Cambridge have been honoured for their encouragement and support of new writing.

Both have won Writers Guild of Great Britain Theatre Encouragement Awards, which recognise companies and individuals who treat writers well and prioritise new plays.

Other winners of this year’s awards include Lakeside Theatre in Nottingham and individuals Joe Devlin, the artistic director of Focus Theatre in Dublin, Elske Van Holk, director of Stitching the English Theatre - which produces and promotes English language theatre in the Netherlands - and director Annette Mees.

Guild assistant general secretary Naomi MacDonald said: “As a trade union, we spend a lot of time clamping down on - and trying to prevent and discourage - bad practice. It is wonderful to have the chance to celebrate those people who do a fantastic job in the theatre industry, particularly in regard to new writing.”

Oldham Coliseum was nominated by writer Ian Kershaw, whose play Union Street ran at the venue last October.

He praised the theatre’s creative team, including artistic director Kevin Shaw.

“My play examined the fall of civic pride and the rise of nationalism in Oldham - tricky subjects that could have caused friction between a writer dropping in to write a play and an artistic director who lives and works in that town year after year, but Kevin Shaw never questioned the delicate ground I wanted to stamp,” he said.

Meanwhile, Menagerie Theatre Company was nominated by Danusia Iwaszko, who wrote a piece for the organisation’s Rough Diamonds festival, while Lakeside Theatre was nominated by Stephen Lowe, whose work Smile was performed there last year. He said he had come across “very few theatres with such a warm and committed spirit” in his 35 years a playwright.

Elsewhere, Brian McAvera nominated Focus Theatre’s Devlin, and Cheryl White put forward STET Promotion’s Van Holk. White said Van Holk’s “unfailing humour and knowledge of the local scene” had opened up opportunities she would have had to “work for years to get in London”.

Finally, director Mees was nominated by Paula Stanic and Roland Moore, who both wrote works for a project called The Seven Deadly Sins, which Mees directed.