UK Theatre Awards 2022: Edinburgh designer and director on shortlist - full list of nominees

Here are the nominees for UK Theatre Awards 2022.

The nominees for this year’s UK Theatre awards have been announced, with an Edinburgh-born director and a designer from Royal Lyceum Edinburgh making the cut.

Natalie Ibu is one of the four directors vying for the ‘Best Director’ award for her role in The White Card, while Georgia McGuinness is one of the three designers shortlisted for ‘Best Design’ for her work in Life Is A Dream.

An artistic director of Northern Stage, Ibu directed The White Card at Birmingham Rep, Leeds Playhouse, Northern Stage and Soho Theatre co-production in association with HOME Manchester.

The White Card was written during an increasingly racially divided America and first performed in front of the audience on June 8.

Meanwhile, Life Is A Dream was first performed at Edinburgh Lyceum in November 2021 as soon as Covid restrictions were lifted, with The Telegraph describing it as “profound”, “neat plotting” and “blazing dramatic passion.”

The Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh will be staging the world premiere of Zinnie Harris's Macbeth (an undoing) in 2023. Picture: Mike Hume

UK Theatre Joint Presidents, Stephanie Sirr and Jon Gilchrist said: “Following an incredibly challenging few years due to the pandemic, theatres across the UK have had to work harder than ever to continue to provide for their local communities: to keep their doors open and to keep making the inspiring work they present.

“Theatres provide so much more than just entertainment. In towns across the UK they are often a central hub; a space for people to feel welcome and included.”

Nominations are split into new ‘On Stage’ and ‘Off Stage’ categories, as part of a refresh of the Awards in 2019 instated to reflect the contemporary priorities of the UK’s theatre industry.

The winners will be announced on Sunday, October 23 at London’s Guildhall.

Full list of this year’s nominees in the UK Theatre Awards 2022

Best Design

● Dracula: The Untold Story – Leeds Playhouse – Design by Laura Hopkins, Projection

and Video Design by Simon Wainwright

● Into The Woods – Theatre Royal Bath - Design by Jon Bausor, Video Design by Will

Duke, Costume Design by Antony McDonald

● Life is a Dream – Edinburgh Lyceum – Design by Georgia McGuinness

Best Director

● Jessica Daniels – The Mozart Question - A Barn Theatre production in association with

Bob & Marianne for Anthology Theatre and The Everyman Theatre Cheltenham

● Robert Hastie, Anthony Lau, Elin Schofield – Rock/Paper/Scissors - The Crucible, Studio

and Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield

● Natalie Ibu – The White Card - A Birmingham Rep, Leeds Playhouse, Northern Stage &

Soho Theatre co-production in association with HOME Manchester

● Róisín McBrinn - Typical Girls – The Crucible Theatre, Sheffield

Best Musical Production

● Billy Elliot – Leicester Curve

● Now is Good – Storyhouse, Chester

● Whistle Down the Wind – The Watermill Theatre

Best New Play

● Cherry Jezebel – Liverpool Everyman

● How to Bury a Dead Mule – Lyric Theatre, Belfast

● Mugabe, My Dad & Me - A co-production by ETT, Brixton House & York Theatre

Royal in association with Alison Holder

Best Performance in a Musical

● Charlie Stemp – Crazy for You – Chichester Festival Theatre

● Divina de Campo – Hedwig and the Angry Inch - A Leeds Playhouse and HOME

co-production

● Nicole & Kyla Fox, Emme & Eden Patrick, Sienna & Savannah Robinson – Identical – A

Nottingham Playhouse and Kenny Wax Ltd co-production

Best Performance in a Play

● Eithne Browne – Maggie May – Leeds Playhouse

● Henry Goodman – Murder on the Orient Express – Chichester Festival Theatre

● Leah St Luce – Black Love - A Paines Plough and Belgrade Theatre Coventry

production, in association with tiata fahodzi

● Giles Terera – The Meaning of Zong – A Bristol Old Vic Production

Best Play Revival

● Jitney - A Headlong, Leeds Playhouse and Old Vic co-production

● The Mountaintop – A Royal Exchange Theatre Production

● Translations - An Abbey Theatre and Lyric Theatre Belfast Co-Production

Best Show for Children and Young People

● Beauty and the Beast – A New Vic Production

● Fantastically Great Women Who Changed the World - Kenny Wax Family Entertainment

in association with MAST Mayflower Studios

● Petula – A National Theatre Wales, Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru and August012

co-production

Best Supporting Performance (in a musical or play)

● Nicola Hughes – Into The Woods – A Theatre Royal Bath Production

● Robert Jackson – Brief Encounter – A Stephen Joseph Theatre, Octagon Theatre and

Theatre By The Lake co-production

● Nishla Smith – Kes – An Octagon Theatre and Theatre By The Lake co-production

UK Theatre – Achievement in Opera

● Scottish Opera for Candide

● Glyndebourne for the Poulenc Double Bill

● Richard Mantle for the last year at Opera North, which epitomises the work Richard has

achieved over his tenure

● Music Theatre Wales and Britten Pears Arts production of Violet at Buxton International

Festival at Buxton Opera

UK Theatre – Achievement in Dance

● William Tuckett’s Then or Now for Ballet Black, exquisitely melding poetry, dance, light

and sound into an intimate work that gently touches big themes of our times

● The dancers of Rambert for their ability to inhabit any choreographer’s vision, as a

company of unique, versatile, incredibly skilled performers

● Dan Daw for The Dan Daw Show, a kinky, joyful, unapologetic and vulnerable

celebration of oneself and one’s body.

UK Theatre Awards – Offstage Categories

Digital Innovation

• Chichester Festival Theatre
• English Touring Theatre
• Sadlers Wells

Excellence in Arts Education

• Lyric Theatre Belfast
• Storyhouse
• Ambassador Theatre Group

• English Touring Theatre
• Graeae Theatre Company
• Scottish Opera

• Graeae Theatre Company
• Northern Ballet
• Scottish Opera

• Ambassador Theatre Group
• The Marlowe
• Mercury Theatre