Rural Touring Award Winners Announced 2019

Press Release

July 2019

 

2019 Rural Touring Awards Winners Announced!

A shining example of the talent being seen by countryside audiences every year

After a glitzy awards ceremony at the Hi-VIS: NRTF Conference 2019, held in Bangor, Wales 2 – 4 July 2019. National Rural Touring Forum is delighted to announce the winners of Rural Touring Awards 2019. Hosting the awards was Kate Fox, stand up poet, who was joined by the nominees and the majority of the rural touring sector, including schemes, programmers, directors and performers to celebrate the talent and passion of this vibrant creative sector. 

The Awards enable the NRTF to raise the profile of the professionalism prevalent in rural touring. It is an opportunity to draw attention to the quality of performance and performing companies as well as to collaborations and the network of individuals who go above and beyond on behalf of the health and cohesion of their local community. The awards reward not just the winners but everyone who has performed, organised and taken part in rural arts & touring.

The awards were judged by three industry professionals - Jude Henderson, Director - Federation of Scottish Theatres, Ian McMillan - poet, journalist, playwright, and broadcaster and Kate Green, Deputy Editor - Country Life Magazine.

Awards Categories

·         Breakthrough Performance of the Year

·         Touring Scheme Collaboration of the Year

·         Favourite Performance of the Year – best show you saw

·         Voluntary Promoter or Voluntary Promoting Group of the Year

·         Young Person of the Year

·         The NRTF Special Award

AWARD NOMINATIONS SHORTLIST 2019 - https://ruraltouring.blogspot.com/2019/06/rural-touring-awards-nominees-announced.html

Full information on Shortlist - https://ruraltouring.blogspot.com/2019/06/rural-touring-awards-nominees-announced.html

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8 reasons to attend this years conference if you're a promoter...

Tickets for this years NRTF conference are now on sale. We know, we know, we've mentioned it a thousand times already on social media, but no doubt one or two of you will have missed the news.

In the past, we've alternated every other year between a conference and a showcase, but this year we're combining the two to give you the chance to see work that you may wish to programme in the future as well as the space to catch up with peers, colleagues and sector news.

If you're a promoter and you've never been to one of our conferences or showcases before and are worried that the conference might not be for you, then we're here to assure you it is, so without further ado here are 8 reasons you should attend this year's conference as a promoter.

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Saying Goodbye To Rural Arts' Director Angela Hall

Angela Hall has stepped down as the Director of Rural Arts after more than 26 years. Home to ON Tour, the rural touring scheme for North Yorkshire, East Cleveland and the Tees Valley, Rural Arts delivers a range of participatory and professional arts programmes at its own venue, The Courthouse in Thirsk, and beyond.

Angela established Rural Arts in 1992 with support from Arts Council England and eight North Yorkshire local authorities. ON Tour was launched in 1997 as one of the first formalised rural touring schemes in the country. Over 300 village halls registered on the scheme, and the model of working with local volunteers and seasonal touring is still in place today. Today, the annual programme consists of over 65 live music, dance and theatre performances across 2,500 square miles.

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Artist Perspective: Up The Road Theatre

Rural Touring is a great opportunity for artists but we'd be lying if we said it always went smoothly. As with any tour, there can be bumps along the way. Today we hear from Up The Road Theatre about why they were so keen to get more involved with Rural Touring and how they handled it when things didn't go to plan.

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A Very Special Thank You to Barbara Slack

As 2018 finishes as does Barbara Slacks' time as co-director of the rural touring scheme Highlights when she retires at the end of the month. Barbara has been at the helm of Highlights, and a much treasured rural touring colleague, for over 20 years. Back in summer, we celebrated Barbara and all her wonderful work, with the much deserved, NRTF Special Award. Her colleague, friend and Highlights co-director, Rosie Cross, gave a speech which left many of us with tears in our eyes.

To say thank you once again to Barbara for all the wonderful work she has done for Rural Touring in the UK, we wanted to share Rosie's speech once more. Don't worry though, we're not letting Barbara go that easily - Barbara will continue to host rural touring events as a voluntary promoter in Appleby, Cumbria, for years to come! 

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Attending a Menu Launch Party

Attending a Promoters’ show menu launch event is a bit like opening a box of chocolates. 

You know your eyes will light up as you get to see everything, you know you’ll get a bit of guidance, but then you know you’ll be left to just sit back, feel spoilt, and get to pick the ones you really like.

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Opening up a New Direction for Theatre Maker Noah: Reflections on This Years Showcase

This year's New Directions Showcase was held at the fabulous Worcester University. As well as providing comfortable digs, two professional (but very warm) theatre studios and catering, they also provided a whole team of incredible students. Without whom the showcase just would not have gone so smoothly. One of those invaluable helpers was Noah, a recent Worcester University graduate, who teamed up with NRTF Stephie to cover the social media for the three days. At the end of the showcase, we asked Noah to pen us some thoughts on his experience and his understanding of Rural Touring... we think you'll like, and be impressed, by what he has to say...

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What is the National Rural Touring Forum?

The National Rural Touring Forum is an organisation that networks, develops, supports delivery of high-quality creative experiences across the UK. The aim of the Forum is to support the strengthening of communities to bring professional work to rural venues.

NRTF members are made up of a national network of Rural Touring Schemes who programme menus of events that tour in their region. We also have artist, venue, promoter, producer and festival members all promoting and developing professional work for rural settings.

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