Darlington Operatic Society has scooped several awards at the annual National Operatic and Dramatic Association regional Adult and Youth Performance Awards.
The awards ceremony was held recently at Gosforth Park Hotel in Newcastle, an annual event to celebrate community theatre across the North East.
DarlingtonOS was nominated in the Best Production category for their two most recent productions – Strictly Musicals 3 and Priscilla Queen of the Desert. Individual performance nominations were offered to Ben Connor in the Adult category for his role as Tick in Priscilla and in the Youth category to young Noah Abbas for his role as Benji (Tick’s son) in the same production.
The society swept the boards on the night with Priscilla winning Best Production, Strictly Musicals winning for Best Concert and both Ben and Noah winning in their respective performance categories. Noah also picked up an additional ‘Rising Star’ award on the night – he is definitely a performer to look out for in the future.
Julian Cound, Chairman of DarlingtonOS, said “It is a great honour to be nominated for any award, especially with so much theatrical talent in the North East, so to come away with these production and performance awards is absolutely amazing.”
“Ben was outstanding in the role of Tick – a truly difficult role to play, a character that travels on such an emotional journey throughout the show. Noah was an absolute star in the role of Benji, he had the audience in the palm of his hand from the moment he first walked on stage, bringing out all the necessary emotion in the scene where he meets his on-stage father for the first time.”
“Every individual involved in any small way in either Strictly or Priscilla can be rightfully proud of bringing award-winning theatre to life in such uncertain post-covid circumstances. I would also like to thank our audiences for their continued support of live community theatre here in Darlington.”
These awards give the society a great boost as they are only a matter of weeks away from opening with their next production, Shrek The Musical, which runs at Darlington Hippodrome from Wednesday 26 October to Saturday 5 November.
Tickets are in short supply so early booking is recommended. You can call the ticket hotline on 01325 244659 or book online at www.darlingtonos.org.uk