UK Theatre has announced that Vanessa Redgrave is to receive this year’s Gielgud Award For Excellence In The Dramatic Arts at the UK Theatre Awards 2016.
Vanessa Redgrave has starred in more than 35 productions in London’s West End and on Broadway. Her first prominent role was in 1961 playing Rosalind in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of As You Like It. In 1984 Vanessa won the Olivier Award for Best Actress In A Revival and has since gone on to receive nominations for her performances in 1988’s A Touch Of The Poet and 1997’s John Gabriel Borkman. She recently made her debut at the Almeida Theatre playing Queen Margaret in the acclaimed production of Richard III alongside Ralph Fiennes.
The Gielgud Award for Excellence in the Dramatic Arts was established in 1994 by The Shakespeare Guild. Past recipients include F. Murray Abraham, Sir Kenneth Branagh, Dame Judi Dench, Sir Derek Jacobi, Kevin Kline, Christopher Plummer, Lynn Redgrave OBE, Sir Patrick Stewart and Dame Eileen Atkins.
The inaugural Gielgud Award was presented to Sir Ian McKellen who is set to receive this year’s award for Outstanding Contribution To British Theatre.
The ceremony, which takes place on Sunday 9 October, will be presented by Olivier Award-winning actor Lesley Manville. The nominations, announced earlier this month, included nods for Show Boat which ran at the New London Theatre and Half A Sixpence which opens at the Noël Coward Theatre in November following its triumphant run at Chichester Festival Theatre.
The 12 regional and national winners of the UK’s Most Welcoming Theatre in association with Smooth Radio will be announced on Thursday 29 September, with the overall winner crowned at the ceremony.