Commemorating its twentieth birthday, Camden People’s Theatre has announced the winner of its inaugural People’s Theatre Award, a scheme to support projects that combine innovation with potential for public impact.
The main award has gone to Gameshow and Emily Lim’s Grown Up which explores the questions young people want to know about growing up through a participatory dialogue between adults and children.
The company will receive £1,500 towards the project, as well as rehearsal space and mentoring to develop an initial scratch version of a show.
Two other projects selected from over 100 applications will also receive support. These are the start of a three-year project for Katy Baird, ReDress, which looks at identity and consumption and Venice as a Dolphin’s Camden People’s Radio, a project that will provide a prototype for a highly localised theatre-based radio station.
Brian Logan, artistic director of Camden People’s Theatre, said, “we’re delighted to announce the winners and runners-up of our new People’s Theatre Award. The award was designed both to honour CPT’s two-decade history, and focus our enquiry into the overlaps between popular and experimental performance.
"We were overwhelmed and excited by the volume and quality of applications, through which process we’ve struck up many fruitful new relationships and ended up with three projects we can’t wait to help bring into being.
"This new work by Gameshow and Emily, and those by Katy and Will, rises thrillingly to the challenge posed by the award, to twist theatre into new shapes and, by doing so, connect new audiences and communities with theatre, and with CPT’s work.”