Franco MilazzoThe OffWestEnd.com Awards 2011: The Results
One of the great reasons to live in London is its fringe theatre scene. There’s nary a borough without a venue over a pub or in its own building. It was surprising then to hear that the website OffWestEnd.com was organising the first awards recognising these many bastions of experimental and innovative works.
The awards are the brainchild of Sofie Mason and her team at OffWestEnd.com. Speaking to us, she said the awards were there to raise the profile of the theatres which correspond to New York's Off-Broadway which in London had no corresponding term.
Held in the East End's Wiltons Music Hall, the compere Simon Callow held the proceedings together as awards were handed out in some traditional and, well, less traditional categories (Best Marketing Campaign?). Guest presenters included Don Warrington, Simon Russell Beale, Ann Mitchell and Alex Jennings.
The Union Theatre did well with two awards including Best Production (Assassins) as did the Finborough with awards for best artistic director (Neil McPherson) and best director (Thom Southerland for Me And Juliet). Nina Raines’ Tribes at the Royal Court garnered the Best New Play award and its lead actress, Michelle Terry, the Best Female Performance. The Best Male Performance went to Danny Webb for his role in the revival of Sarah Kane’s Blasted in which he nightly ended up, in his words, “bollock naked” in front of an audience which included on one evening his daughter and her friends.
