By Isle of Wight Observer
Following the IW Amateur Theatre Awards a couple of weeks ago, the first IW Youth Theatre Awards, recognising the talent of Island theatre performers under the age of 18, were held at the Jenny Kerry Performing Arts Centre at Ryde School on Sunday.
Around 50 individual awards were presented to young actors, dancers and singers, along with 12 show awards, including Best Singing & Choreography, Best Audience Engagement, Technical Involvement Award and Most Innovative Use of Theatre Techniques.
Guest presenters were mainly drawn from those who had received recognition at the adult awards this year, alongside Simon Dabell, who initiated the return of the IW Theatre Awards, and Elspeth Giddens, of IW Story Festival, who invited and encouraged young people to get involved in the planning of next year’s event.
Headline show winners were TheatreTrain’s ‘Chicago’ – Best Principal Cast; Curtain Call Creative’s ‘Sweeney Todd’ – Best Ensemble and ‘West Side Story’, staged by Ryde School, which won Best Show. There were Bronze, Silver and Gold awards for individual performances: Gold Awards were presented to Enid Rees, Finley Revert, George Sales, Lottie Paine, Olivia Hughes, Sash James and Tom Thorne.
Mal Butler