Drama critic Lyn Gardner will receive the outstanding contribution to British theater prize at the upcoming UK Theatre Awards. According to The Stage, Gardner, who serves as The Guardian’s theater journalist as well as The Stage’s associate editor, will be the first journalist to win the award.
The UK Theatre Awards celebrate on and offstage accomplishments in British regional theater.
Gardner said that she was “so touched and very humbled” to receive the honor, which counts actress Prunella Scales among its previous recipients. “It feels particularly important at a time when criticism in broadsheet newspapers is under siege and facing cuts, and when the theater industry itself faces significant challenges in terms of local authority funding and future income streams, that [the award] is recognizing the importance of expert, high-quality criticism and arts journalism.”
She added, “I hope that in my own small way I have made a contribution to keeping the conversation around theater — particularly in the regions, where too often great work both off stage and on goes unsung — alive and kicking.”
Gardner will be presented with the accolade at the awards ceremony in London on October 15. Actress Sharon D. Clarke, whose recent role in “Caroline, Or Change” earned her a UK Theatre Award nod, will be giving out the prizes. “It is also the first year in the awards’ history that all shortlisted writers for best new play are women,” The Stage notes. The nominees are Tash Marshall’s “Half Breed,” Lizzie Nunnery’s “Narvik,” and Katherine Soper’s “Wish List.”
