Today’s glittering Offies Award Ceremony ended with the announcement that theatre producer and actor Denholm Spurr is to take over as director of OffWestEnd when Geoffrey Brown steps down in June.
Spurr has been involved with OffWestEnd and The Offies for more than a decade as an assessor and then producing both live and online award ceremonies.
As an actor, his credits include playing the leads in both the Amazon Prime series The Grass Is Always Grindr and the 50th anniversary production of Ken Loach’s Cathy Come Home at the Barbican Theatre.
Early in his career, Spurr experienced homelessness, and it was at this time that he produced his first show in London, Under The Blue Sky by David Eldridge starring Holby City regular David Paisley. He has worked extensively with homeless theatre charity Cardboard Citizens and other producing credits include the international sell-out tour of Happily Ever Poofter and The Beast of Blue Yonder at Southwark Playhouse.
He is an advocate for LGBTQ+ rights and has promoted fair pay and equal opportunities for artists and performers. Producing Disnay Snatched, a parody drag extravaganza competition which supported HIV charity Wandsworth Oasis, is amongst his charity work. He also has experience as a graphic designer, developer, designer and publisher in the gaming sector.
In his speech at the Offies Award Ceremony, Spurr noted Geoffrey Brown’s “tremendous tenure” and spoke of him as “a mentor, a friend, and a constant inspiration”.
Looking forward, he said, “I want OffWestEnd to be not just a pat on the back but a hand to cling onto… My tenure as director of The Offies will be unreservedly radical, marked by a fearlessness in advocating for our community—for practitioners, for venues facing funding and lease dramas and for producers investing in big ideas. I want to be a supporter of, a voice for and a collaborator with our community.”
Spurr also used his speech to invite all UK creatives to get in touch to share their vision of how OffWestEnd can better help support the industry.