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The Carol Tambor Theatrical Foundation announces the winner of The Carol Tambor Best of Edinburgh Award, the highest honor at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe
New York, New York August 28, 2015—The Carol Tambor Theatrical Foundation is proud to announce the winner of this year’s The Carol Tambor Best of Edinburgh Award, the highest honor at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The winner of The Carol Tambor Best of Edinburgh Award was announced at the closing ceremonies of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe on Friday, August 28 at 12:15 PM GMT (7:15 AM EST).
The 2015 Best of Edinburgh Award goes to KEY CHANGE, written by Catrina McHugh and directed by Laura Lindow. KEY CHANGE will have a New York run courtesy of the Carol Tambor Theatrical Foundation from January 6 – January 31 at New York Theatre Workshop’s 4th Street Theatre (83 East 4th Street, just west of First Avenue).
Devised by women from HMPYOI Low Newton, a prison in the North of England, KEY CHANGE is a raw and illuminating portrayal of women in prison, using only a few chairs, a ghetto blaster and four rolls of masking tape.
Lyn Gardner writing for The Guardian, said KEY CHANGE was “often raw, always heartfelt and sometimes singing with an everyday poetry as if the devising process had unlocked a waterfall of creativity.” The Scotsman said it was “a tale told with kinetic honesty and tightly controlled tenderness.”
“In theatre we have the ability to often hear voices we don’t in our daily lives. Open Clasp went into a women’s prison to find out how these women got there, who they were before, and their dreams for the future outside,” explains Carol Tambor. “We are privileged to meet these women and get to know and understand them.”
To be eligible for The Carol Tambor Best of Edinburgh Award, the show must be an original work, never seen in New York City, and have received a 4-star or 5-star review from The Scotsman, Scotland’s foremost daily newspaper.
Carol Tambor and members of her Foundation, along with The Scotsman Newspaper’s Arts Writers Joyce McMillan, Jackie McGlone and Mark Fisher chose the winning production.
Now in its 12th year, The Carol Tambor Best of Edinburgh Award builds a bridge between New York City and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the largest arts festival in the world. Created by Carol Tambor in 2004, the inaugural award winners were Sister’s, Such Devoted Sisters and Rosebud: The Lives of Orson Welles. Subsequent winners include Andrew Dawson’s Absence and Presence, Michael Redhill’s Goodness, 1927’s Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea; Ella Hickson’s Eight, Elaine Murphy’s Little Gem, Pants on Fire’s retelling of Ovid’s Metamorphosis, Circle of Eleven’s LEO, David Greig’s Midsummer and The Events, and last year’s award-winner The Object Lesson by Geoff Sobelle.
Carol Tambor is a portrait artist by trade and a theatre aficionado. For over a decade prior to creating the award, she had traveled to Edinburgh to enjoy the Festival offerings. Dismayed that so many fine plays never transferred to NYC, she decided to create an opportunity for New York audiences to get a taste of the Edinburgh magic.
The Carol Tambor Theatrical Foundation was established to bring excellent dramatic work to the New York audience by funding the New York run. The mission to support artists in their desire to be seen and produced is carried out with no financial or commercial involvement in their future success. For more information, visit www.bestofedinburgh.org.
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the largest arts festival in the world, has been ongoing since 1947. There were 49,497 performances of 3,193 shows in 299 venues during the 2014 Festival, selling over 2 million tickets. The Edinburgh Festival Fringe has served as a launching pad for the careers of stars such as Craig Ferguson, Mike Myers, John Cleese, Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Jude Law and Eddie Izzard as well as renowned playwrights like Tom Stoppard. For more information, visit www.edfringe.com
Carol Tambor publishes a monthly newsletter, which announces worthy shows coming to New York, along with occasional information about London theatre and, of course, the Edinburgh Fringe.