Student trio awarded for contribution to music and drama

Thursday 28 June 2007
Three University of St Andrews graduates received special awards for drama and music today (Friday 22 June 2007), just one day after their graduations.

Drama and music award-winners

The awards were presented by Frank Quinault, Director of Learning and Teaching Quality, SALTIRE (St Andrews Learning and Teaching: Innovation, Review and Enhancement) and Dr Philip Parry, Senior Lecturer in Drama in the School of English.

The McEuen Rose Bowl for Drama was awarded to 21-year old Annabel Gordon MA (Hons) Classical Studies, from Inverness.  The rose bowl was originally a wedding present from the people of St Andrews to a Miss Dolly Partington who was significantly involved in drama and music locally. She and her husband emigrated to Canada and later endowed a scholarship for a Canadian student to study in St Andrews.  On Mrs McEuen’s death, her daughter brought the bowl back to St Andrews to start its new ‘life’ as a student drama award.  Annabel, who also choreographs and directs, was commended for her exceptional performances in a host of leading roles in shows as varied as ‘Anything Goes’, ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ and ‘The Vagina Monologues’.

Meanwhile, the Malcolm Edwards Award for Drama was presented to 23-year old Stewart Andrew Munro Reid in honour of his work with student comedy troupe Blind Mirth. With a focus on fast, sketch-based improvised comedy, the group, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, has attracted a sizeable following, performing gigs in a range of venues from student back gardens to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Stewart, from Ontario, Canada, also graduated on Thursday 21 June with MA (Hons) in English and International Relations. The award honours Malcolm Edwards, an alumnus who became a distinguished London theatre director. After his death in 1990, some of his friends established the memorial prize to further encourage the all-round professional quality he brought to student productions, including Theatre Manoeuvres.  The award takes the form of a large pottery plate commissioned by David Lloyd Jones, a leading potter admired by Edwards, and a cash prize. Winners’ names are inscribed on an accompanying scroll.

Twenty-two year old Claire Turner MA (Hons) English, from Dunbar, received the Cedric Thorpe Davie Award for her contribution to musical theatre, both on-stage in many different musicals and off-stage through her leadership of student musical theatre group, the Just So Society. Cedric Thorpe Davie, who died in 1983, was a distinguished Scottish musician who devoted himself to the teaching and support of music at the University of St Andrews for over 30 years. The Chapel Choir often sing compositions and arrangements in his honour. The trophy, on which the award-winning student’s name is engraved, is a small Inuit statuette which was given to Cedric by distinguished theatre director Sir Tyrone Guthrie, after their highly successful collaboration at the Edinburgh Festival. The soapstone statuette was donated to the University by Cedric’s son, the late Tony Davie, who was a lecturer in the School of Computer Science.

ENDS

Issued by Press Office, University of St Andrews

Contacts:

Claire Grainger, Press Officer – 01334 462530, 07730 415 015 or email [email protected]

Gayle Cook, Press Officer – 01334 462529, 07900 050 103 or email [email protected]

Ref: dramaprizes

View the latest University press releases at http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk


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