News
Nadia O'Neill Wins Young Actors
Studio Prize
Nadia O’Neill, 17, from Swansea, has been awarded the
inaugural James Westaway Award for Young Actors Studio Most
Promising Young Actor 2008/9, sponsored by Parthian
Books.
Awarded to the Young Actors Studio
Acting Course Student who has shown the most progress and
improvement in their creative growth and development, the recipient
is nominated and chosen by the Young Actors Studio tutors and wins
a set of new Parthian Welsh drama titles and a cash
prize.
The award will be presented to Nadia at the
Royal Welsh College Graduation ceremony on July 3 2009.
Parthian, Wales’ foremost publisher of
contemporary fiction, poetry and drama have sponsored this new
annual prize in honour of James Westaway, a promising young actor,
who died tragically young in 2000 and who trained as a
Post-Graduate Acting Student at the Royal Welsh College.
‘To be a good actor requires talent, a lot
of hard work and real commitment, James had it in bucket-loads
and I'm sure he would have been delighted to know that Nadia
is doing so well on that road with the Young Actors Studio
especially as he trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music &
Drama himself,.’ said Lewis Davies, Writer &
Publisher, Parthian Books
Erica Eirian, Course Leader, Young Actors
Studio adds, ‘In choosing the recipient of this
award, I asked our tutors to select the student who they
consider to have made the longest journey since joining us
and, for those of us who had the pleasure and honour of knowing and
working with James, the person we believe he might himself
have chosen. Whilst we are proud of all our students and
every one of them deserves recognition for their talent
and work throughout our pilot year, Nadia is a most
deserving recipient - totally dedicated,
hard-working, a team player and a generous young
performer."
Launched last September, Young Actors Studio
is dedicated to providing top-quality training to young people aged
15 to 19. Young Actors Studio Evening Theatre Workshop is for any
young person with a keen interest in drama and theatre. Young
Actors Studio Sunday Acting Courses provide classes in essential
acting skills for aspiring young actors considering training for a
career in the theatre.
Applications are now being welcomed for both
Young Actors Studio Theatre Workshops and Acting Courses starting
in September 2009.
The Royal Welsh College drama department also
awards the annual James Westaway Memorial Prize for
Radio.