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Inventive director Lottie Wakeham mentioned: “Yeah we’re so delighted – so, so proud.
“It’s extremely surprising. It is fairly a broad class, towards so many different good companies, so we’re all actually delighted to win the trophy tonight.”
The Octagon was designed by then-director of Bolton structure, Geoffrey H. Brooks, and constructed utilizing £95,000 raised by public donation.
It was the primary skilled theatre to be inbuilt North West England after the top of the second world conflict, and options to principal areas – the bigger Principal Auditorium, and the smaller Invoice Naughton Studio Theatre.
The theatre was closed in 2018 for refurbishments, with performances persevering with off-site at varied Bolton venues.
A hub of Bolton historical past, a number of notable folks have have both labored in or visited the Octagon.
Peter Kay used to work within the ticket workplace earlier than dedicating himself to a profession in comedy, and Farnworth born playwright Jim Cartwright was the Octagon’s author in residence in the course of the late 80s.
In 1969, a then-unknown Farrokh Bulsara performed certainly one of his first reside gigs on the Octagon, earlier than later discovering fame along with his new band – Queen – beneath a brand new identify – Freddie Mercury.
The Octago is at the moment displaying a manufacturing of the ever-popular East is East, maybe higher recognized for the 1996 movie adaptation starring Om Puri.