NODA Southwest’s evening returns to Plymouth!

It was back to Plymouth for the Annual Night of Glitz and Glamour!

Saturday 19th May 2024, saw a return to Plymouth’s Crown Plaza Hotel for NODA Southwest’s Annual Awards Evening, celebrating all the very best in Amateur Theatre in the region for shows performed in 2023.

Hosted by Southwest Regional Councillor, Graham Liverton, and with NODA President, Christine Hunter-Hughes, as guest of honour, nearly 400 people from all corners of our huge region took the chance to put on their glad-rags and have a great evening together. The event had been a total sell-out far faster than ever before which had caught the organisers and a few winners unaware and the hotel were extremely helpful in providing some additional room for them.

55 awards across 25 categories were announced and presented by the NODA President - the full details of which are posted on the NODA Southwest website. Everyone present was a winner of course, as being nominated in the first place in the real achievement – with the overall winner being Amateur Theatre in the region of course! As ever, standards on stage in performance and presentation just seem to get better and better year on year.

There were just too many successes to single out, other than perhaps the Regional Councillor’s Choice award to The Whilden Family, for their dedication to the Blackmore Theatre.

The awards were only part of the evening of course – there was the chance to make new like-minded friends, meet old ones, eat and drink and then to dance the night away at the disco afterwards. All this on a lovely spring evening, just a few yards from Plymouth’s famous lighthouse and Hoe!

It was a wonderful celebration of the hobby that we all love and was testament to the great atmosphere and general togetherness that amateur theatre has in the Southwest! See you at the next one!

Matthew Heaton