The winners of the Journal and the Gazette Culture Awards, held this year in association with Middlesbrough Council, were announced at the presentation night on 23 May 2019 at the refurbished Middlesbrough Town Hall.
Those of theatre interest are:
Arts Council Award
Southpaw Dance Company: Robby Graham’s dance company’s devised community theatre show Erimus reopened Middlesbrough Town Hall.
Best Arts & Business Partnership
Unfolding Theatre and xsite architecture: For a partnership that has enabled the theatre company to take up residence and earn a large sum in match funding.
Best Event: Tees Valley
Erimus : a community theatre performance devised by Southpaw Dance Company to reopen Middlesbrough Town Hall after refurbishment.
Performance of the Year
Don’t Forget the Birds, Live Theatre: mother and daughter Cheryl and Abigail Byron played themselves in a play based on their testimonies when Cheryl was an inmate at HMP Low Newton.
Performing Artist of the Year
Brian Lonsdale and Bryony Corrigan: Tom and Amy in My Romantic History at Live Theatre.
Writer of the Year
Laura Lindow: she adapted The War of the Worlds for Northern Stage and wrote the play Woven Bones for Cap-a-Pie theatre company (at Alphabetti).