The shortlists for the Wales Theatre Awards 2018 have been announced at a celebratory event at Wales Millennium Centre attended by artists, venue managers, arts organisation arts journalists.

The Awards recognise excellence in opera, theatre and dance created and performed in Wales, as selected by arts reviewers working in English and in Welsh, in print, broadcast and online.

Awards Director Mike Smith revealed that there had been 563 individual nominations made for 141 shows and 239 individual artists.

Shows that feature prominently in this year’s shortlists include Uncle Vanya, Theatr Clwyd, Macbeth, Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru and Music Theatre Wales and Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru’s opera Y Tŵr.

This year the shortlisting judges have included operas and opera performers in categories such as Best Performance in the Welsh Language and Best Touring Production.

Mike Smith said, “The Best Touring Production is a new category, with an award to be presented for an English language and for a Welsh language touring show. This is to recognise the importance of touring to the cultural life of Wales and the particular challenges presented by taking work throughout the nation.

“There will also be a Special Recognition Award to an individual who the judges believe has made an outstanding contribution to the nation’s cultural life. This year there is also a new award Wales and the World that recognised a significant achievement in performing work created in Wales internationally.”

Nominations were made by more than 40 critics throughout Wales, reviewing for platforms as diverse as Arts Scene in Wales, Wales Arts Review, The Guardian, The Independent, The Stage, the Sprout, the South Wales Argus, the Daily Post, individual blogs and websites, in English and in Welsh – established reviewers and young New Voice critics supported by the unique Wales Critics Fund.

This year’s Wales Theatre Awards Ceremony will be held at the Riverside Center, Newport on Saturday, January 27th. This is the first time that Newport’s most prominent arts event has been held in Newport.

The Awards Show will include theatre, music and dance with plenty of surprises along the way. A limited number of tickets are available from:

http://tickets.newportlive.co.uk/

Many of the reviewers are supported by Wales’ unique mentoring and support fund, the Wales Critics Fund, which is administered by the not for profit company Arts Awards Ltd. The Fund enables reviewing throughout Wales by providing tickets, travel and expenses and runs new reviewers mentoring projects in Welsh and in English.