The winners of the second Rural Touring Awards were announced on Wednesday at the National Rural Touring Forum New Directions conference in Worcester.
Apphia Campbell was given the music performance of the year award for Edinburgh Fringe sell-out show Black is the Colour of my Voice, and stage performance of the year went to theatre company Ragged Edge for their début production, the part-comedy play, part-cooking demonstration, The Chef Show written by Nick Ahad.
The National Rural Touring Forum, a member-led organisation supporting the delivery of arts programmes and promoting rural and community touring, provides a Special Award to recognise an outstanding contribution.
This year the Award went to Barbara Slack, who has grown touring in Cumbria, County Durham and Northumberland over 21 years working at the Highlights rural touring scheme.
Highlights rural touring scheme also took home the award for Touring Scheme Collaboration of the Year for new site-specific musical Beyond the End of the Road.
Mike Greener from Spittal, Berwick-Upon-Tweed, was named voluntary promoter of the year and the Forest Young Promoters who each year programme up to three shows for rural touring in Gloucestershire were awarded Young Person of the Year.
An independent panel made up of Deborah Clarke from Action with Communities in Rural England, playwright Sayan Kent, The Stage's Natasha Tripney and rural touring promoter Des George, winner of last year’s Best Promoter award, chose the winners from a shortlist.
Music Performance of the Year
- Apphia Campbell - Black Is The Color of My Voice
- Clive Carroll – A Thousand Years of Music
- Whalebone – UK Tour
Stage Performance of the Year
- The Chef Show – Ragged Edge
- Forget Me Not - The Alzheimer's Whodunnit - Rob Gee
- The Deep - 10ft Tall Theatre
Touring Scheme Collaboration of the Year
- Beyond the End of the Road – Highlights rural touring scheme (Northumberland, Cumbria and County Durham) and November Club working together to create and tour a site-specific musical
- Common Lore – Solo storytelling show created via a collaboration between Spot On Lancashire, Cheshire Rural Touring, Lancashire Libraries and Sophia Hatfield.
- Inn Crowd – An initiative enabling rural pubs to host spoken word-inspired live performance led by touring schemes Applause Rural Touring and Creative Arts East in partnership with Writers’ Centre Norwich and Pub Is The Hub.
Voluntary Promoter of the Year
- Mike Greener - Highlights (Northumberland, Cumbria and County Durham)
- Christine Reilly – Creative Arts East (Norfolk, Suffolk and the East)
- Janet Wood – Highlights (Northumberland, Cumbria and County Durham)
Young Person of The Year
- Forest Young Promoters - Arts in Rural Gloucestershire
- Crystal Zillwood (Dance Artist - Devon)
- Hannah Wood (Technical Stage Manager, Hampshire, Surrey and Wiltshire)