The Bite Magazine - Autmn/Winter 2020 - Issue 28

bitetheatre F rom introducing the initiative at Century Club in London’s Piccadilly in March 2019 to the first award ceremony at The Old Finsbury Town Hall in Octo- ber 2019, the BBTAs catapulted onto TV, in part- nership with Sky Arts, for this year’s celebration of black British people in the theatre. Radio presenter and comedic actor Eddie Nestor showed us how it’s done by getting his temperature taken as he entered the Young Vic Theatre and sanitising his hands, before taking the mic to the stage to host the event. The televised event was facilitated by Simone Pennant of the TV Collective and BBTAs’ Head of Partnerships & Strategy Karina Maynard with Sky Arts. It saw house band ShezAr and The Soul Sirens provide a live, soulful soundtrack of songs such as ‘Back to Life’ and ‘Outstanding’ to a social- ly-distanced audience wearing face masks. Eddie, dressed in a purple suit with a yellow tie, provided comedy from the offset. He started with a joke about people getting confused between inside and outside clothes from the lockdown. The first award for Best Choreographer went to Kenrick ‘H2O’ Sandy MBE for REDD at the Barbican Theatre. He and Michael ‘Mikey J’ Asante, co-founders of Boy Blue, a choreography outfit, danced their way onto the stage while the band sang ‘Outstanding’ and entertained us with a few shuffle moves. After saying his speech, Kenrick got the room jamming with some soca music while he and Michael danced across the stage with the band singing. It was a fan- tastic start to the evening with much more to come. Actress Nicola Blackman presented the award for Best Male Actor in a Musical to Noah Thomas for Everybody’s Talking About Jamie. The actor took over the lead from Layton Wil- liams, who won the same award for the production at the BBTAs last year. As Noah approached the stage, he looked stunned at having achieved this award but managed to do a little dance before thanking various people including BBTAs co-founder Omar F. Okai. Before he left the stage, we got a taste of Noah’s fantastic voice. T heatre R eview Black British Theatre Awards Ceremony 2020 Solange Urdang - Director BBTAs The second year of the BBTAs televised on Sky Arts captured a true celebration of black British actors and performers that was both an award ceremony and party. Jada Brookes enjoyed watching the achievements being unveiled. Photography: David Mensah Omar F. Okai - Director BBTAs