Awards and Nominations

Eugenia Caruso in Truckstop

2007 has been a year of achievement and recognition for Ipswich-based Eastern Angles Theatre Company, culminating in the company being hailed at the prestigious Theatrical Management Association Awards in London last week.

Eastern Angles was nominated for The Stage Award for Special Achievement in Regional Theatre. For the first time, the judges selected an unofficial runner-up in this hotly contested category, “in recognition of Eastern Angles’ 25 years of producing high quality work in its region”.

Brian Attwood, Editor of The Stage, said, “While there is only one award [which went to Bruntwood Property Group for their arts sponsorship programme], we felt that Eastern Angles’ remarkable contribution should not go unrecorded.”

This honour comes hard on the heels of the company’s success at the Edinburgh Festival. For the first time in its 25-year history, Eastern Angles took a production to Edinburgh, thanks to support from the Arts Council’s Escalator East to Edinburgh scheme. Truckstop, a co-production with Company of Angels, received five-star reviews and was nominated as Outstanding Theatre Show by FringeReview.

The two actresses in the play, Janet Bamford and Eugenia Caruso, were both nominated for The Stage Award for Acting Excellence. Their surprise nomination, the only one outside the Assembly/Traverse/Pleasance dominated list, was reward in itself, but on the night everyone was happy, as – uniquely - the two were announced as joint winners of the Best Actress prize.

Artistic Director Ivan Cutting said “There is no doubt that the profile of the company, since we have been extending our tours beyond the boundaries of the region, has increased exponentially and the company’s reputation as an example of excellence for small scale touring has spread across Great Britain.”