Buxton Festival Fringe presents 2008 awards
PRESS RELEASE: For immediate release July 28 2008
Buxton Festival Fringe presented its eagerly anticipated Fringe Awards on Sunday (July 27) in the impressive surroundings of the Fine Dining Room at the Dome, home of Fringe sponsor, the University of Derby Buxton.
Chair John Wilson, who plans to retire from the role this autumn, hailed it as 'My best ever Fringe and a wonderful Fringe to bow out on'. Bigger than ever, the 2008 Fringe featured some 126 entries with around 448 performances and John made special mention of the fact that 46 of the entries were examples of 'New Writing', confirming the Fringe's role as a place to try out new material and dare to be different.
Fierce competition resulted in a large number of nominations. Among the eventual award-winners were Non Stop Cabaret Theatre Company winning Best Theatre Production for its highly physical, visceral version of Jean Genet's classic The Maids, and in the Music section, Marios Argiros and Dimitris Dekavallas (Music for Oboe and Guitar) and City of Manchester Opera (Opera Night) sharing a joint top prize.
Several awards were also made for individual performers in various categories and a special Spirit of the Fringe award was presented to Chapel Youth Centre Jam Nite (The Story of Jam) for its community work with young people and overall support for the Fringe (in full Fringe T shirt finery!).
John also thanked all the performers, award-winning or not, for making the Fringe such a success and gave thanks to the 70 or so volunteers who have helped to organise the event. He also made special mention of VIP guests including Nick Watterson from The Old Clubhouse, sponsor Trevor Osborne from the Buxton Crescent Hotel and Thermal Spa Company Ltd and from the Festival, new chair Dame Janet Smith.
Award winners receive free entry to next year's Fringe plus certificates. The full list of nominations is as follows with the winners printed in bold:
New writing:
- Clever Peter
- Something about nothing (Lab Monkey)
- Evacuees by Martin Beard
- ContreCoup by Ross Andrews
- Halfway (Vista Theatre Company)
- Lady in Bed (Weird Sisters)
- Saturday Boy (RuthEBlue Theatre)
- Whacker Murphy's Bad Buzz (Back of the Hand Theatre)
- Womb Man (RJ Arts)
Comedy:
Best show
- Clever Peter
- It is Rocket Science!
- Something about nothing
Best individual performer:
- Tam Hinton (The Man Who Said Too Much)
- Matt Pritchard (Lab Monkey)
- Helen Keen (It is Rocket Science!)
- Edward Eales White (Clever Peter)
- Andrew O'Neill (GOSH in the Barrel Room)
Dance:
Nomination and winner:
For Families:
- Evacuees by Martin Beard (The Young REC Drama Scool)
- Story of Jam (Chapel Youth Centre)
- Five go mad in Buxton - again! (Black Box Theatre Company)
- Pride and Prejudice (Act one Drama Studio)
Music:
Best Entry
- Are we there yet? (Dawn Foxall, Diana Sharp)
- Crazed and in love (Rebecca Lea and Tom Wilkinson)
- Katuš
- Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque Music (Partita)
- Music for Oboe and Guitar (Marios Argiros and Dimitris Dekavallas)
- Opera Night (City of Manchester Opera)
- Sam Dunkley
- Songs from Life (Edward D'arcy Hatton)
- String Quartet Masterpieces (Quatuor Deconet)
- Summer Concert (High Peak Orchestra)
- Tideswell Male Voice Choir in Concert
- Un/Plugged: Amplified and Acoustic Trios (Expatrio)
- Underground Jazz Club
Best Performer
- Katuš
- Marios Argiros (Music for Oboe...)
- Dimitris Dekavallas (Music for oboe and Guitar)
- Margaret Fergusson (City of Manchester Opera)
- Mary Dainton (cello, Amaretti Chamber Orchestra (and High Peak Orchestra))
- Emma Souza Lima (Recital of piano music, by Joao Souza Lima)
- Sasha Johnson Manning & Holly Marland (Accordes)
- Edward D'arcy Hatton (Songs from life)
- Alison Bletcher (Summer Serenade)
Spoken Word
- Advice to Humanity (Mark Twain)
- In the Light of This (Mark Gwynne-Jones and the Psychicbread)
- Philip's Poetry and Piano (F Philip Holland)
Theatre
Best Production
- ContreCoup by Ross Andrews (Second Nature Theatre Company)
- Hamlet (1623 theatre company)
- Lady in Bed (The Weird Sisters)
- The Maids (Non Stop Cabaret Theatre Company)
- One Big Blow (RLT)
- Saturday Boy (RuthEBlue Theatre)
- Tape (Northern Outlet Theatre Company)
- The Tragedy of Richard III (Black Box Theatre Company)
- Trojan Woman (Eyewitness Theatre)
- Whacker Murphy's Bad Buzz (Back of the Hand Theatre)
- Womb Man (RJ Arts)
Best actor
- Hazel Earle (ContreCoup)
- George Telfer (Do You Still Throw Spears...)
- Phil Minns (Halfway)
- Jamie Brown (Hamlet)
- Alison Goldie (Lady in Bed)
- Tom Philips (The Maids)
- Andrew Travis (The Maids)
- Adam Urey (Now Breathe Out)
- Daniel Wallace (Saturday Boy)
- Ric Ward (Tape)
- Peter Hawkshaw (The Tragedy of Richard III)
- Nell Corrin (Trojan Women)
- Edwin Mullane (Whacker Murphy's Bad Buzz)
- Ricky Payne (Womb Man)
Best young actor
- Cara Hurst (Cracked)
- Melissa Ward (Cracked)
- Robert Shaw (Mercy)
- Sarah Coomer (Mercy)
- Dan Large (Our Country's Good)
Visual Arts
- Annual Art Exhibition (Burbage Art Group)
- Derbyshire Open 2008 (Buxton Museum & Art Gallery)
- Exhibition of Paintings (Alan Bailey)
- Great Dome Art Fair (Peak District Products)
Spirit of the Fringe:
- Chapel Youth Centre - The Story of Jam
PRESS: For further information contact Press Officer Stephanie Billen tel 01298 79351 or Send message to Press