BATA Best Actress Award for Judi
Judi Dench won the Best Actress award at the BAFTA ceremony on Sunday night, for her performance as Queen Victoria in Mrs Brown. The award for Best Actor went to Robert Carlyle for The Full Monty. Baz Luhrmann won the David Lean award for direction. The Full Monty won the Best Film award.
Staff at the Royal Opera House have been told to expect a pay freeze this year, and union members are in an angry mood after large severance payments have been made to executives and money could be found for consultancy fees. They are also angry that they have been told that they are not to be allowed to make any contribution to the new BBC documentary, a follow-up to The House, made last year, on pain of being sacked. Additionally there is anger amongst staff that there was no consultation over the restructuring, which led to the loss of jobs in marketing and box office.
Both the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and the Swan had to be closed for two days when the Avon burst its banks during last week's heavy rains. Although the basement of the complex was flooded, there was no damage to either auditorium.
Allied Domecq Playwright Award
The second Allied Domecq Playwright Award has gone to Mark Tuohy for this play Radio Free Belfast. The play will now be developed as a possible production at the Bush.
Pay for Doing Classic Plays Suggestion
Companies which perform classic, out-of-copyright plays should pay a levy which will fund the production of plays by new writers, Bush artistic dirtector Mike Bradwell has suggested.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport's annual report, publish last week, reaffirmed its main priorities as , access, excellence, education and creativity, but announced no new policies.