Off West End Theatre Awards Ceremony Set for February 5

The Off West End Theatre Awards were launched in 2010 to recognise and celebrate the excellence, innovation and ingenuity of independent theatres across London. The awards help raise the profile and status of independent theatres in London by giving them greater power to promote their work individually and collectively and to reward the new talent that they nurture that is essential to the future of our theatre industry.

The long list of nominees is proposed by 40 Off West End Assessors over the calendar year who see over 300 shows in independent theatres across London. All productions taking place at over 100 theatres listed on OffWestEnd.com are eligible for nomination (with a minimum requirement of a 3 week run).

There are two categories of nominations: The Public Category and The Panel Category.
Theatregoers everywhere can now vote in The Public Category for the following awards: The People’s Favourite Male Performance, The People’s Favourite Female Performance, Most Welcoming Theatre, Best Theatre Bar and Best Theatre Foodie Experience.

The Panel Category short-list of finalists and subsequent winners are chosen by a Panel of Theatre Critics including Mark Shenton (Sunday Express, The Stage), Ian Shuttleworth (Financial Times), Matt Wolf (International Herald Tribune), Daisy Bowie-Sell (The Telegraph), Andrzej Lukowski (Time Out), Paul Vale (The Stage) and Roger Foss (LBC). The awards are for: Best Female Performance, Best Male Performance, Best Production, Best New Musical, Best Musical Director, Best Choreographer, Best Entertainment, Best New Play, Most Promising New Playwright, Best Director, Best Lighting Designer, Best Sound Designer, Best Set Designer, Best Costume Designer, Best Marketing Campaign, Best Producer, Best Artistic Director and Special Achievement Award. To see the full long-list visit http://www.offwestend.com/index.php/pages/the_offies

This year, for the first time, there will also be one award chosen by the young people’s division of OffWestEnd.com, The Offiettes. They will meet up with The Guardian theatre critic Lyn Gardner to choose the award for Best Production for Young People which will be announced at the Awards Ceremony.

The shortlist of finalists will be announced on Monday 23 January 2012.

All winners will be announced at the Off West End Theatre Awards Ceremony at Theatre Royal Stratford East on Sunday 5 February 2012. This will be hosted by Simon Callow and celebrity guest presenters (currently Hugh Bonneville, Nica Burns, Louise Jameson, Alex Jennings, Paterson Joseph, Linda Marlowe, Ann Mitchell, David Morrissey, Alison Steadman, Janet Suzman, Don Warrington and Danny Webb) in front of an audience of 450 actors, writers, producers and stars from the heart of the theatre industry.