UK - The inaugural Profile Awards were held on Thursday 6 June at the Alexandra Palace Theatre. The event was attended by some 200 guests, of which half were reportedly lighting designers or members of their teams.
Created and coordinated by Durham and Jennie Marenghi in association with the ABTT, the ALPD and the STLD; The Profile Awards recognise lighting design excellence in theatre and television in the UK. Headline sponsor for the 2024 event was Ayrton.
The Theatre Awards were judged by UK theatre critics and were not open to nominations whereas the Television Awards were judged by broadcast professionals and could be nominated by anyone.
Winners of the Theatre Awards are as follows . . .
Outstanding Achievement in Theatre sponsored by Chauvet Professional: Simon Wilkinson for Ragnarok, Tortoise in a Nutshell, Traverse, Edinburgh and on tour
Outstanding Achievement in Theatre sponsored by TSL: Ali Hunter for Red Pitch, Soho Place
Outstanding Achievement in Musicals sponsored by GLP: Emma Chapman for The Third Man, Menier Chocolate Factory
Outstanding Achievement in Opera sponsored by ETC: Robbie Butler for Death in Venice, Welsh National Opera and on tour
Outstanding Achievement in Innovation sponsored by Fix8Group: Tupac Martir for Find Your Eyes, Manchester Academy, Manchester International Festival
Outstanding Year In Dance sponsored by Elation: Tom Visser for La Ruta, Assembly Hall and Carmen, all at Sadlers Wells; and From England With Love, Queen Elizabeth Hall.
Outstanding Year in Theatre sponsored by Vari-Lite: Jon Clark for Dear England, Olivier, National Theatre and West End; The Motive and the Cue, Lyttelton, National Theatre and West End; The Effect, Lyttelton, National Theatre; Stranger Things – The First Shadow, West End
Outstanding New Designer sponsored by SLX: Skylar Turnbull Hurd for These Demons, Theatre 503
Winners of the Television Awards are as follows . . .
Entertainment – Series Award sponsored by Version2 Lights: James Tinsley, Jamie Ings, Will Plenty and Paul Tibbles for The Traitors
Entertainment – One Off Award sponsored by Lights Control Rigging: Tom Sutherland, Nate Files, Richard Gorrod, Martin Higgins, Jay Koch and Jasmine Lesane for The BRIT Awards 2024
Drama Award sponsored by ChamSys: Gavin Finney, Ed Clark, Scott Napier, Gareth Spensley and Jon Towler for Good Omens Season 2
Small Studio Award sponsored by ELP Broadcast Lighting: Neil Kent, Ben Richards, Robin Johnson and Adam Carrol for The Repair Shop
Newcomer Award sponsored by Light Initiative: Jack Woodstock
Special Merit Award sponsored by RoxxLight: Martin Kempton
Additional awards . . .
A Student Virtual Lighting Design competition, sponsored by AC-Entertainment Technology, was won by Rose Bruford student, Tom Lee.
Meanwhile the Richard Pilbrow Lifetime Recognition Award - by kind agreement with Richard’s family and sponsored by Theatre Projects - was this year awarded to David Hersey for services to lighting design and the lighting profession in general.
Winners received special trophies in the form of Patt 23M fixtures on stands; miniature LED version of the iconic Rank Strand Pattern 23 profile fixture modelled and produced in limited amounts by Hugh Chinnick.
Theatre Awards Chair, David Benedict of Variety comments: “The Theatre Awards were judged by eight of the UK’s leading theatre, dance and opera critics. Every single new production we saw was automatically eligible for consideration. At our lengthy judging session we drew up a long list of 30 pieces of outstanding lighting design from the literally hundreds of productions we saw in person across the year. That list was then whittled down to a shortlist of 18. From there, we chose to salute the work of eight of the most exciting teams in the industry, Congratulations to all for such exemplary work!”
The TV Awards were judged by a panel comprising theatre and TV LDs and directors, including: Peter Small, Martin Kempton, Stephen Neil and chaired by STLD honorary secretary and LD, Stuart Gain.
On the night, honourable mentions also went to:
Paule Constable for Guys and Dolls, The Bridge
Lee Curran for Romeo and Juliet, The Almeida; King Lear, The Almeida
Jon Driscoll for Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, English National Opera
Oliver Fenwick for Dear Octopus, Lyttelton, National Theatre
Guy Hoare for Frankenstein, Frome Memorial Theatre and on tour
Aideen Malone for Dracula: Mina’s Reckoning, National Theatre of Scotland and UK tour
Jai Morjaria for Macbeth, UK and International tour; The Real & Imagined History of the Elephant Man, Nottingham Playhouse
Christopher Nairne for Blackout Songs, Hampstead Theatre
Lizzie Powell for The Grand Old Opera House Hotel, Traverse, and The Snow Queen, Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh
Adam Silverman for Wozzeck at the Royal Opera; Machinal, Ustinov Studio, Bath and The Old Vic
Nominations for the 2025 Profile Awards are now open, details of how to nominate can be found via www.profileawards.com
