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Dateline: 19th May, 2011
Bradwell Wins Theatre Book Prize The Society for Theatre Research's annual Theatre Book Prize winner was announced on Thursday 18th May at a reception in the Grand Saloon of the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, where theatre and publishing people and a smattering of theatre academics gathered to hear the judges talk about this year's crop of books. Judges were the Artistic Director of the Theatre Royal Stratford East Kelly Michael; Jann Parry, dance writer and critic, whose biography of Kenneth Macmillan, Different Drummer, won the prize last year, and Professor Michael Dobson, from London University's Birkbeck College. Hollywood star and distinguished stage actress Claire Bloom announced the winner which was Mike Bradwell's The Reluctant Escapologist, published by Nick Hern Books. In the review of the year's books by the Judges, critic Jann Parry said of The Reluctant Escapologist, "I'm not sure that Bradwell has ever danced professionally, though he's done everything else, including diving into a pool while chained up and tied in a sack! That was for the Ken Campbell Road Show - Bradwell's affection for the sadly late Ken Campbell knows no bounds - he's a Mike Leigh mate as well, an adept at improvisation. "Because Bradwell immersed himself so enthusiastically in the theatrical experiments of the 1960s and 70s, he's remained a believer even while he's clear-headed - and very funny - about the madder idealism of some of the practitioners. He's provocative, witty, scabrously honest and very angry about admin personnel who believe they're worth more than the artists they're supposed to support. His advice: 'Find a play. Squat a building. Now make a show'." In his acceptance speech, Mike Bradwell said, amongst other things, "Thank you very much, this is for the Tigers, and thank you very much everybody here. In my book I come to a point where I think, 'I don't think theatre is safe in the hands of grown ups', so I hope you all never grow up. Thank you very much."
Please note that all three Archive indices are very long and will therefore take some time to download.
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