The Stage newspaper has announced the winners of its Debut Awards, which aim to “highlight breakthrough actors, writers, directors, designers, composers or lyricists to help cement their position in the industry.”
At a ceremony on 1 October 2023 at 8 Northumberland Avenue, London hosted by Divine De Campo, the winners from 45 nominees across 8 categories were announced and presented with a share of a £10,000 prize fund.
Rose Ayling-Ellis won the only public-voted award, Best West End Debut, for her performance in As You Like It at @sohoplace. The Best Performer in a Play award was shared by two winners, Isobel Thomas for I, Joan at Shakespeare’s Globe and Elan Davies for Imrie at Sherman Theatre Cardiff, as was the Best Creative West End Debut award, by Rob Madge for writing My Son’s A Queer, (But What Can You Do?) at the Garrick and Ambassadors Theatres and Tingying Dong for her sound design for The Crucible at the National Theatre and the Gielgud.
Other than Elan Davies, the only other winner for a production outside London was Jessica Lee, whose performance in Miss Saigon at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre won her Best Performer in a Musical.
The Stage editor, Alistair Smith, said, “our wonderful winners highlight just how much emerging talent there is across British theatre. I’m particularly pleased that this year we were able to recognise our first ever winner in a Welsh-language performance.
“Meanwhile, also for the first time this year, I’m delighted to reveal that, in partnership with ATG, we are offering a £10,000 prize fund split among our winners. Along with the exposure these awards bring, we hope this will be a real tangible help to them as they embark on what we have no doubt will be stellar careers.”
The winners in full
- Best Performer in a Play: Elan Davies for Imrie at Sherman Theatre, Cardiff and Isobel Thom for I, Joan at Shakespeare’s Globe, London
- Best Performer in a Musical: Jessica Lee for Miss Saigon at Crucible Theatre, Sheffield
- Best Director: Emily Ling Williams for A Playlist for the Revolution at Bush Theatre, London
- Best Designer: Andrea Scott (video) for My Neighbour Totoro at Barbican Theatre, London
- Best Writer: Anoushka Lucas for Elephant at Bush Theatre, London
- Best Composer, Lyricist or Book Writer: Michael R Jackson for A Strange Loop at Barbican Theatre, London
- Best West End Debut Performer: Rose Ayling-Ellis for As You Like It at @sohoplace
- Best Creative West End Debut: Tingying Dong (sound designer) for The Crucible at National Theatre and Gielgud Theatre and Rob Madge (writer) for My Son’s a Queer, (But What Can You Do?) at Garrick Theatre and Ambassadors Theatre
- Imrie – Nia Morais (Sherman Theatre and Frân Wen)
- A Playlist for the Revolution – AJ Yi (Bush Theatre)
- My Neighbour Totoro – Tom Morton-Smith (Royal Shakespeare Company)
- Elephant – Anoushka Lucas (Bush Theatre)
- A Strange Loop – Michael R Jackson (National Theatre with Howard Panter for Trafalgar Theatre Productions, Barbara Whitman and Wessex Grove in association with the Barbican)
- As You Like It – William Shakespeare
- The Crucible – Arthur Miller (National Theatre)
- My Son’s A Queer, (But What Can You Do?) – Rob Madge