Scooping up the awards...

Last week members of the Coliseum team attended the Manchester Theatre Awards at the Opera House in Manchester. It was a fantastic afternoon – made even more so by the fact that the Coliseum won two awards!

Snookered – written by the hugely talented Ishy Din – won best new play. We premiered the production at University Campus Oldham back in January 2012 before it transferred to the Bush Theatre in London and went on to tour. The play received a very positive critical response and was a standout production of our 2012 season. When I say stand out – it was very different from the productions that we usually programme and I’m extremely glad we took a risk and made it part of the season. It’s absolutely imperative that theatres and arts organisations support new writing without new plays the whole industry would become a museum piece.

Ishy’s career as a playwright has been meteoric, he’s gone from being a Middlesbrough taxi driver to becoming Pearson Playwright in Residence at Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre. Ishy was still a taxi driver when he submitted a play as part of a new writing competition at the Coliseum and he’s gone from strength to strength. He’ll be returning to Oldham in May as part of the Coliseum First Break festival. This is a celebration is new writing and emerging talent. Ishy will be giving a master class on writing for the stage on Saturday 18 May. Tickets are £4 and the event is at Oldham Central Library – make sure you come along (he is an award winner after all).

The other Coliseum winner was Star-Cross’d in the Special Entertainment category. That production was a real first for the Coliseum and every single member of the organisation spent time in Alexandra Park during what was one of the wettest summers in years. It was a huge undertaking and it’s brilliant to have that work recognised. 

Dick Whittington was nominated in this category last year and Cinderella went up against Star-Cross’d this year. I’m absolutely delighted that Star-Cross’d won (but would have been pretty chuffed if Cinderella had won too). This category is titled as such simply because the judges said they found they couldn’t shoehorn the particular productions in other categories but “were absolutely convinced that they deserved honouring.”

See you at the theatre.

Kevin Shaw
Artisitc Director