On Monday evening, the prestigious National School Theatre Awards Ceremony took place in the West End. Hundreds of schools and thousands of pupils across the UK were represented, including many of the top Performing Arts schools across the country.
We’re delighted to announce that Ben W (U6) has been awarded Best Supporting Actor in a Musical for his performance as Riff in West Side Story! This is a truly remarkable achievement.
An MTS Drama Scholar, Ben has taken part in every Senior Joint Production over his time in Middle and Upper School working his way up from one of the Witches in Macbeth to his compelling performance as Andy Fastow in Enron. In West Side Story, his final production at MTS, Ben was praised by the NSTA for his fine acting skill, strong singing voice and outstanding movement in choreographed dance and fight scenes. Ben goes on to study Computer Science at University, but we are glad to hear he has no plans to give up performing any time soon.
The full NSTA review of West Side Story below highlights the strength of the versatile ensemble from MTS & St Helen’s alongside the excellent performances of leads Jai E (Tony), Anoushka B (Maria), Maahi D (Anita), Ben W (Riff) and Ravin A (Bernardo). We thank the whole school community for supporting the pupils in endeavours such as these; in the words of one cast member, we made memories we’ll never forget.
The National School Theatre Awards are known as “the Oscars for schools”. Who knows, maybe one of our fabulous cast of West Side Story will follow in the footsteps of Riz Ahmed and be the next OMT to win an Oscar!
