Northern Stage had a lot to celebrate in 2023.
At our city centre venue we hosted 457 performances, 5608 young people watched a show with their school and we welcomed 8351 new audiences making their first visit to Northern Stage.
With our co-producing partners we created four new shows Cinderella: A Fairytale, Macbeth, I, Daniel Blake and Protest. Across the year our work toured to 29 UK venues and 2 international venues.
We couldn’t be more pleased that our work both on–stage and off-stage has been nominated 15 times by judges at eight different awards ceremonies – national, regional, industry specific and more broadly with Northern Stage taking home a total of seven awards!
In 2023 we were very proud to win the following awards:
- Trustee Board of the Year at the North East Charity Awards
- Excellence in Touring for I, Daniel Blake at the UK Theatre Awards
- Best Family Arts Activity for Best Summer Ever at the Fantastic For Families Awards
- Most Inspiring Employer (small business) at the North East Chamber of Commerce’s Inspiring Female Awards
- Best Performing Arts Theatre 2023 at the Northern Enterprise Awards
- Performing Artist of the Year, David Nellist in I, Daniel Blake at the North East Culture Awards
- Writer of the Year, Dave Johns, for I, Daniel Blake at the North East Culture Awards
Northern Stage received a further seven nominations. We didn’t take home these trophies but are thrilled that our work made it onto the following shortlists:
- Best Supporting Performer, Bryony Corrigan in I, Daniel Blake at the UK Theatre Awards
- Best Director, Matthew Dunster & Jimmy Fairhurst for A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the UK Theatre Awards
- Marketer of the Year, Lauren Watson at the North East Marketing Awards
- Not for Profit Campaign of the Year, I, Daniel Blake, at the North East Marketing Awards
- Performance of the Year, I, Daniel Blake, at the North East Culture Awards
- Arts Council Award, I, Daniel Blake, at the North East Culture Awards
- Best Supporting Performer in a Play, Bryony Corrigan for I, Daniel Blake at the What’s On Stage Awards (winner announced in February)
Kate Denby, Northern Stage’s chief executive said:
Our team have worked tirelessly this year and celebrating the wins and nominations for our work both on and off stage is the perfect way to end the year. Northern Stage continues to make an big impact on stage, for our local communities and in the regional the business sector too – I couldn’t be more proud that our work has been recognised by such a wide variety of award panels. Bring on 2024!