12 emerging talents have been awarded £10,000 each to further their theatre careers.
A total of £120,000 has been given to help the next generation of West End stars as part of the Evening Standard Future Theatre Fund, created in partnership with the National Youth Theatre to support the next generation of theatre makers.
The twelve recipients were revealed last night during a virtual ceremony at the iconic Apollo Theatre, hosted by West End stars Aimie Atkinson and Layton Williams.
The fund awards ten recent graduates from the UK’s top drama schools and nominees from theatre programmes working across different disciplines. Two additional recipients were selected for the TikTok Breakout Award – a first of its kind award to support those who may not have received formal training in drama to begin their career in theatre. The TikTok Breakout Awards were received by Ewan Fellows and Jesse Chuku, who submitted nominations on TikTok through the #TikTokBreakoutStar challenge. All the deserving winners, representing the very best of future British theatre makers, will receive £10,000 pounds each as well as mentoring to help their careers progress.
Each recipient of the fund underwent a rigorous selection process, led by a panel of experts including icons of British theatre Andrew Lloyd Webber, Helen McCrory and Kwame Kwei-Armah alongside Nancy Durrant, Arts Editor of the Evening Standard; Rich Waterworth, General Manager of TikTok UK; and Paul Roseby, Artistic Director of the National Youth Theatre, who chaired the panel.
The twelve winners are as follows:
- Musical Theatre – Beth Hinton-Lever
- Musical Theatre – Emily Aboud
- Acting – Adam Fenton
- Acting – Selina Jones
- Directing/Theatre Making – Omar Bynon
- Directing/Theatre Making – Jamie Hale
- Visual Design – Caitlin Mawhinney
- Visual Design – Nikki Charlesworth
- Audio Design – Francesca Amewudah-Rivers
- Audio Design – Nicola Chang
- TikTok Breakout – Ewan Fellows
- Tiktok Breakout – Jesse Chuku
Emily Sheffield, editor of the Evening Standard, commented: “Congratulations to all the recipients — we are so proud to be supporting some of the emerging talent that will form the heart of theatre in London’s West End and beyond. This initiative is a crucial investment in our cultural capital that has taken such a beating in this last year in the pandemic, and we cannot wait for all our theatres to reopen.”
You can find out more about the Evening Standard Theatre Fund here.
