The Offies (The Off West End Theatre Awards) are here to recognise and celebrate the excellence, innovation and ingenuity of independent theatres across London.
The Offies cover a calendar year and the winners are announced in the spring of the following year.
The point of these awards - as with everything we do at OffWestEnd.com - is to help raise the profile and status of independent theatres in London by giving them greater power to promote their work individually and collectively and to reward the new talent that they nurture and that is essential to the future of our theatre industry.
To take part the production needs to have a minimum of 10 performances over a minimum of a 3 week period, the theatre needs to be a participating member of OffWestEnd.com (see criteria explained in the download on right-hand side of this page), and the theatre or the company needs to invite our assessors by emailing theoffies@offwestend.com with the date you wish us to attend. Nominations will be published immediately on this page as they come in. The short list will be decided by The Panel of Theatre Critics every January and the winners will be announced at The Off West End Theatre awards ceremony in February - this year's awards ceremony will be held on Sunday 5th February 2012.
The making of The Offies.
Tom Wicker chats with some of the Offies crew (video 3 min)
Over 80 theatres are participating with over 400 productions being considered over the year by 40 qualified assessors made up of members from the Theatre Royal Haymarket Masterclass and the OffWestEnd.com Super Club. There will be two lists of winners - those chosen by you the public in the Public Vote and, secondly and separately, those chosen by a Panel of Theatre Critics made up of:
The Panel Nominations for 2012 are below and are added to regularly:
Best Male
Toby Wharton for 'Fog' at The Finborough
Best Female
Best New Play
Most Promising New Playwright
Best Director
Phil Willmott for King John at Union Theatre
Charlotte Gwinner for Our New Girl at the Bush Theatre
Mark Leipacher for Mary Stuart at New Diorama Theatre
Best Lighting Designer
Best Set Designer
Best Sound Designer
Max Pappenheim for Kafka v Kafka at Jack Studio
Best Costume Designer
Best Choreographer
Best Ensemble
Faction Theatre for their rep season at the New Diorama Theatre
Best Production
King John at Union Theatre
Best Marketing Campaign
Best Artistic Director
Best Producer
Best Entertainment
Best New Musical
Best Production For Young People
this is your chance to choose your own winners!
The public vote will open on 31st December 2012 when the full list of nominations are listed for the year.
To cast your votes you need to be a Subscriber subscribe for free at the bottom of this page at any time and then (when voting opens) look for the link at the bottom of your OffWestEnd.com emails. The link at the bottom of your emails will be your personal code to take you through to your subscriber profile and voting form. As a Subscriber you will be receiving regular emails throughout the year on upcoming shows across London.
The winners in each category will be announced every year, separately from the Panel winners, at The Off West End Theatre Award Ceremony.
The categories up for the Public Vote are:
The People's Favourite Female Performance (can be lead or supporting role - the actors nominated are listed on your voting form) The People's Favourite Male Performance (can be lead or supporting role - the actors nominated are listed on your voting form) Award for Most Welcoming Theatre (Central, North, South East, East, North West and South West) Award for Best Theatre Bar (Central, North, South East, East, North West and South West) Award for Best Theatre Foodie Experience (Central, North, South East, East, North West and South West)
