Winners of the 2020 Black British Theatre Awards announced

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Written By Rebecca Wallis
Photo credit: Johan Persson

Photo credit: Johan Persson

The 2nd annual Black British Theatre Awards were held earlier this month and were broadcast on Sky Arts this week, celebrating arts excellence among the Black British Community.

It’s been a great week for &Juliet’s Miriam-Teak Lee, who picked up the BBTA for Best Female Actor in a Musical, whilst also being awarded the Olivier award in the same category. The Best Actor in a Musical award went to Noah Thomas for his portrayal of Jamie New in Everybody’s Talking About Jamie. Nicole Raquel Dennis took the award for Best Supporting Female Actor in a musical for Dear Evan Hansen, with Nicholas McLean winning Best Supporting Male Actor in a Musical for Wicked. The award for Best Musical production went to Thriller Live.

Nadia Latif took home the award for Best Director for the Young Vic Production of Fairview, with Best Producer going to Adrian Grant for Thriller Live. Best Choreographer went to Kenrick ‘H20’ Sandy MBE for Redd at the Barbican Theatre, who also won the award for Best Dance Performance. The award for Best Dance production went to Ingoma for Ballet Black, with this production also picking up the Olivier award in the same category.

Special recognition awards went to Carmen Wright (Light and Sound), Natalie Pryce (Costume Design), Arinze Kene (Book and Lyrics), Ian Oakley (Musical Director) and Isabella Odoffin (Casting Director).

For her performance in On Bear Ridge, Rakie Ayola won the award for Best Female Actor in a Play, whilst Valentine Olukoga took Best Actor in a Play for his performance in The Fisherman. Cherrelle Skeete took home Best Supporting Female Actor in a Play for The High Table, with Nari Blair-Mangat winning Best Supporting Male Actor in a Play for Cyrano de Bergerac. The Best Play award went to Death of a Salesman.

The award for Best Use of Innovation and Technology went to Nicole Raquel Dennis and Ryan Carter for Turn Up, with the LGBTQ champion award going to Layton Williams and the Disability champion award being won by Rachel Nwokoro.

David Blake (WAC Arts) won the award for Best Teacher of Performing Arts as a subject award, with Tonye Scott-Obene (Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts) winning the Best Recent Graduate award.

The lifetime achievement award went to Shirley Thompson.

Congratulations to all of the winners!

Rebecca Wallis

Rebecca is a self-confessed theatre obsessive, with a particular love for musicals. She has loved writing for as long as she can remember and combining this love with her passion for theatre has been one of the best decisions she’s ever made. She is currently studying journalism, with hopes of making her theatre blogging into a career one day. Her favourite ever musical is Half A Sixpence, and she could tell you anything that you could ever want to know about that show. She is honoured to be a part of the West End Best Friend team and cannot wait to see how the page grows and grows.

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