TAGGART star Blythe Duff and a play dedicated to Billy Connolly are among the Glasgow nominations for this year’s prestigious Scottish theatre awards.
Dear Billy, a National Theatre of Scotland production written by and starring Gary McNair, is up for four prizes – best performer, best new play, best director for Joe Douglas and best production – at the Critics’ Awards for Theatre in Scotland (CATS).
Blythe has been nominated for a best performance award for her role in the Tron Theatre Company’s production of Escaped Alone, which is also in the running for best director for Joanna Bowman, best ensemble and best production.
Oran Mor’s A Play A Pie and A Pint lunchtime theatre series has received three nominations - Darren Brownlie for Meet Me At The Knob and Paul McCole for The Sheriff of Kalamaki, which is also shortlisted for best new play.
Bard in the Botanics, the city’s outdoor Shakespeare festival, picked up two nominations, both in the Best Performance Category, for Alan Steele as Falstaff and Nicole Cooper as Lear’s Fool.
Poet and musician Imogen Stirling has received three nominations for Love the Sinner, her re-imagining of the seven deadly sins as alive and well and living in Glasgow.
The production, which was co-produced by Vanishing Point Theatre Company, is shortlisted for best design, best technical presentation and best new play.
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Other Glasgow-based companies Visible Fictions, Sleeping Warrior and Raw Material each have one nomination.
“Like everyone else in Scottish theatre, the critics are intensely aware of the funding pressures Scotland’s theatre-makers are facing”, says CATS co-convenor Mark Brown.
“We are, therefore, full of admiration for the quality and diversity of the work that is being produced.
“It is a testament to the passion and determination of our theatre-makers that they continue to make work of such a high calibre when funding is so precarious.
“The former First Minister committed to doubling arts funding over the next five years. This support cannot come soon enough.”
Last year, there were 139 new pieces of theatre produced in Scotland.
The winners will be announced at a special ceremony in the Theatre Royal on June 16.
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