The Stage

Edinburgh’s finest nominated for The Stage Awards for Acting Excellence

Published Monday 23 August 2004 at 13:40

The Assembly Rooms has won back its title as the venue with the most nominations for The Stage Awards for Acting Excellence at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Eight productions presented by the George Street venue feature on the shortlist of 18 nominees in the best actor, actress and ensemble categories.

The Traverse received nominations for four shows, with a further two going to Pleasance productions. One nomination each is awarded to performers at Pod Deco, Cowgate Central@Wilkie House, Gilded Balloon, Teviot and the Hill Street Theatre.

The Stage Awards, which celebrate their 10th anniversary this year, are adjudicated by the newspaper’s festival reviewing team and aim to recognise outstanding work by individuals in the Best Actor and Best Actress categories and companies as a whole in Best Ensemble.

The winners will be announced at an invitation-only ceremony at The Royal Society of Edinburgh, this Sunday evening (August 29).

Managing director of The Stage Catherine Comerford, who will be presenting the awards, added: “Once again, our team has reviewed and re-reviewed a huge number of productions to draw up the shortlist for the awards. I look forward to meeting them on the night and congratulating them on their major contribution to the high quality of drama at this year’s Fringe.”

The nominations in full include:

Best Actor:

Nick Chee Ping Kellington - The Smallest Person, Pod Deco

Des Keogh - The Love-Hungry Farmer, Assembly Rooms

Mike McShane - Fatboy, Assembly Rooms

Paul Rajeckas - Notes to the Motherland, Hill Street

Christopher Simon - When the Bulbul Stopped Singing, Traverse

James Urbaniak - Thom Pain (Based on Nothing), Pleasance

Best Actress:

Angela Clerkin - Third Finger, Left Hand, Assembly Rooms

Lynn Ferguson - Biographies in a Bag, Assembly Rooms

Pauline Goldsmith - Not I by Samuel Beckett, Assembly Rooms

Lesley Hart - Shimmer, Traverse

Caroline O’Connor for Bombshells, Assembly Rooms

Shelly Stover - Crooked, Cowgate Central@Wilkie House

Best Ensemble:

Ethan Sandler and Adrian Wenner - Epitaph, Metro Gilded Balloon Teviot

Grid Iron - Fierce: An Urban Myth, Assembly Rooms

Nica Burns for Theatreshare - One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Assembly Rooms

Mouthpeace (South Africa) - Fuse, Traverse

NIE (New International Encounter) - My Long Journey Home, Pleasance

Traverse Theatre Company - Shimmer, Traverse

The Stage Awards for Acting Excellence were founded by the newspaper in 1995 to celebrate the best performances in theatre-based productions each year at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and are now the event’s premier performer awards for drama.

The judging panel consists of the four principal critics for The Stage at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe - Jeremy Austin, Gerald Berkowitz, Thom Dibdin and Duska Radosavljevic. Their nominations are made from the 300 professional theatre shows reviewed in the newspaper, representing the most comprehensive Fringe coverage provided by any nationally available publication.

Previous Stage award-winners include:

2003

Best Actor: Richard Dormer - Hurricane, Assembly Rooms

Best Actress: Cait Davis - Those Eyes, That Mouth, Abercrombie Place

Best Ensemble: 78th Street Theatre Lab and Paper Hat Productions - Boy Steals Train, Assembly Rooms

2002

Best Actor: David Calvitto - Horse Country, Assembly Rooms

Best Actress: Sandy McDade - Iron, Traverse

Best Ensemble: Bomb-itty International - Bomb-itty of Errors, Pleasance

2001

Best Actor: Guy Masterson - Fern Hill and Other Dylan Thomas, Assembly Rooms

Best Actress: Nichola McAuliffe - Bed Among the Lentils, Pleasance

Best Ensemble: Theatre O - 3 Dark Tales, Assembly Rooms

2000

Best Actor: Greig Coetzee - White Men with Weapons, Pleasance

Best Actress: Paola Dionisotti - Further Than the Furthest Thing, Traverse

Best Ensemble: Grid Iron Theatre Company - Decky Does a Bronco

1999

Best Actor: Tony Cownie - A Madman Sings to the Moon, Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh

Best Actress: Jacqueline Linke - Often I Find That I Am Naked, Assembly

Best Ensemble: Kaos Theatre UK - The Kaos Importance of Being Earnest, Theatre Workshop

1998

Best Actor: Chris Pickles - Love! Valour! Passion! Bedlam

Best Actress (Joint Winners):

Siobhan Redmond - Perfect Days, Traverse

Alison Baker - The Glace Bay Miner’s Museum, Quaker Meeting House

Best Ensemble: Theatre 28 - Love! Valour! Passion! Bedlam

1997 (Ensemble award introduced in 1998)

Best Actor: John Stahl - Anna Weiss, Traverse

Best Actress: Eileen Walsh - Disco Pigs, Traverse

1996

Best Actor: Edward Halstead - Bartleby, Theatre Workshop

Best Actress: Beth Fitzgerald - The House of Correction, Pleasance

1995

Best Actor: Mark Pinkosh - Road Movie, Traverse

Best Actress: Lynn Ferguson - Heart and Sole, Gilded Balloon