Every year it's the "same old same old....." eagerly turning up to the rubber chicken dinner, followed by the Daily Echo's answer to Hollywood's Oscar Ceremony.
Usually the ceremony is held in the same room as the dinner itself, but this time we were packed in a smaller room to eat, and then, table by table, we were escorted downstairs to the dance venue in the basement of the Carrington House Hotel (a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there).
The Award Show this year was different because they mixed up the straight theatre (ST) awards with the musical awards. BLTC types like me have been known to leave at half-time after the ST awards. This time I soldiered on through all the awards, and I watched all the cabaret pieces that the organisers inserted between the award announcements. I was particularly impressed by bits put on by a group I didn't know, called Theatre 2000. The two pieces they did from the musical CABARET showed why they won best musical, and best actor and best actress in a musical.
I was extremely pleased that our own Don Gent won the award for Best Actor in a Drama. He's been short-listed a couple of times before, and the honour was well deserved, especially as he won it for the lead in a one-act play, Sandcastles on the Beach.
Alas, Don was our only winner out of the eleven nominations.
However, we were honoured that two of our members, Pam Wright (whose cartoons appear regularly in BLT News) and Don Cherrett (the director of WHODUNNIT, our December production) were both given special awards for their many and varied contributions to amateur theatre over the years.

Article from the BLT News, courtesy of Tony Orman