And Did Those Feet (starring Chris Finch)

[Joanna]

History is about winners.... (The Octagon Blog)

Theatre award nominees revealed (Manchester Evening News)

Congratulations to the Bolton Octagon, who have received quite a few nominations in this year's MEN Theatre Awards. And that congrats extends to all those involved with And Did Those Feet...it's bagged a hat trick of nominations!

The play's nominations are:

- Best New Play

- Best Production

- Best Performance in a Supporting Role (Martin Barrass)

xx Joanna xx

 

[Gorf]

Do productions like this ever come back once they've finished their run? I'm really sorry I missed this one, after reading its reviews.

 

[Joanna]

MEN Awards Nominees Announced (The British Theatre Guide)

The above points out how And Did Those Feet has actually received the most production nominations. And Bolton Octagon is only second to the Lowry in terms of overall nominations (Lowry has 15, Bolton Octagon has 8).

And from the University of Bolton site...New play in awards limelight

xx Joanna xx

 

[Booth]

Do productions like this ever come back once they've finished their run? I'm really sorry I missed this one, after reading its reviews.

I'm told from Finch almighty himself that it's not unheard of for successful plays to have another run at some point in the future, but the cast sometimes differs.

 

[Joanna]

For the And Did Those Feet completists amongst you......

M.E.N Theatre Award Nominations Announced (Whatsonstage.com Manchester)

xx Joanna xx

 

[Joanna]

See above!! Such great news. Really well deserved too. Congrats, Chris, and to everybody else involved with the play.

From the MEN article Take a bow, our worthy winners....

Best New Play: And Did Those Feet

 

This has been such a good year for new writing that no fewer than seven new plays made the short list. Great credit goes to 24:7 for unearthing new writers. Three of their plays, Eating Out (Ross Andrews), The Lullaby Witch (Mark Griffiths), and Mind The Gap (Luke Walker) were in the final list and there were four other near misses. Rani Moorthy' hard-hitting Too Close To Home, the Bruntwood New Writing runner-up Monster at the Royal Exchange Studio and Interiors, by Stewart Lee and Johnny Vegas, in the Manchester International Festival were also outstanding. But the award was finally taken by Les Smith and Martin Thomasson for their sensitive, humorous and stirring play And Did Those Feet, capturing the spirit of the times of Bolton Wanderers in the 1920s in a fine production at Bolton Octagon.

xx Joanna xx

 

[Chris Finch]

Wow what an honour to be part of the 'Best New Play' ! I am very proud

 

[Booth]

Well done Chris, and the rest of the And Did Those Feet team.

 

[Joanna]

From Whatsonstage.com...M.E.N Theatre award winners

xx Joanna xx

 

[Cop]

Well done Chris, I regret missing this play more and more I read about how well it's been recieved

Congrats buddy!

 

[wiggy]

whooo hooo! my hero, well done squire

 

[Joanna]

In that MEN link I posted last night, there's now up a different article on the awards (original one in the 'click here' link at the bottom). There's also a fuller gallery of pics from it, and a video where we hear from some of the winners. Nothing on And Did Those Feet in either of these, but there could well be in the programme about the awards that I've noticed is on tomorrow at 8pm on Channel M.

And in The Octagon Blog's reporting of the awards, it says that 'in due course' there will hopefully be posted up some pics and further info on the awards.

xx Joanna xx

 

[Strawbs]

Maybe there'll be a tour of this play now - hopefully with Chris in the same role.

Although, is it too much to ask that the score be changed so that West Ham wi...no, didn't think so.

 

[Fran]

Thanks for the news Joanna and congrats to Chris and everyone else involved! It's a well deserved tribute to a brilliant play and some fantastic acting!

 

[Joanna]

Bolton Octagon have just brought out a 40th anniversary mid-season brochure (covering January-June). And a certain And Did Those Feet isn't represented too shabbily on the front cover....

xx Joanna xx

 

[Joanna]

In the photo sales section of The Bolton News site, there are a couple of ADTF pics up (sadly, both very clearly marked as copyrighted pics). The first looks to be a bigger and better quality version of the pic from THIS article, and the second is a variation of the same pic.

xx Joanna xx

 

[Joanna]

Heading the Octagon Blog entry Blowing our own Trumpet (ADTF mentioned in the penultimate paragraph) is a slideshow of pics from the Octagon's 40th anniversary season. A few ADTF pics are in there - including one of Chris/Billy. The slideshow is on a sort of 'shuffle' setting, though, so Chris's pic doesn't appear at a set point on every viewing.

 

[Joanna]

 

[Joanna]

In THIS recent article from The Bolton News, Bolton Octagon's artistic director, Mark Babych (also ADTF's director), looks back on its 40th anniversary season and what some of his personal highlights are from it. On ADTF, he says....

I shall never forget the sheer wave of love in the audience for And Did Those Feet; Les Smith and Martin Thomasson's play set against the backdrop of the Wanderers' famous 1923 FA Cup Final victory.

 

I was blessed with a great cast, and we achieved something that will be talked about for a long time to come.

 

It's warmth and love radiated throughout the theatre and I have to admit to being very moved by the sight of David Jack on the big screen scoring the winning goal at Wembley during the singing of Jerusalem.

 

[Joanna]

Looky what I've just seen in The British Theatre Guide's 'Octagon Announces New Season'....

Thacker opens 2010 with a production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream set in Athens in 1968. Following this will be a revival of And Did Those Feet by Les Smith and Martin Thomasson, a play commissioned by the Octagon in 2007 about the supporters of Bolton Wanderers on their trip to Wembley for the 1923 FA Cup Final.

I wonder....

ETA: Just seen that ADTF's writers, Les Smith and Martin Thomasson, have already headed up the first three of a series of four workshops on theatre writing. The last one takes place on 9 June.