Young actor awarded new Memorial Prize in Wales

A 17 year old from Swansea has been awarded the inaugural James Westaway Award for Young Actors Studio Most Promising Young Actor 2008/9, sponsored by Parthian Books.

Awarded to the Young Actors Studio Acting Course student who has shown the most progress and improvement in their creative growth and development, the recipient is nominated and chosen by the Young Actors Studio tutors and wins a set of new Parthian Welsh drama titles and a cash prize.

The award will be presented to Nadia O'Neill at the Royal Welsh College Graduation ceremony on July 3 2009.

Parthian, Wales' foremost publisher of contemporary fiction, poetry and drama have sponsored this new annual prize in honour of James Westaway, a promising young actor, who died tragically young in 2000 and who trained as a Post-Graduate Acting Student at the Royal Welsh College.

I’m sure he would have been delighted to know that Nadia is doing so well

‘To be a good actor requires talent, a lot of hard work and real commitment, James had it in bucket-loads and I’m sure he would have been delighted to know that Nadia is doing so well on that road with the Young Actors Studio especially as he trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama himself,' said Lewis Davies, Writer & Publisher, Parthian Books.

We are proud of all our students and every one of them deserves recognition

Erica Eirian, Course Leader, Young Actors Studio adds, ‘In choosing the recipient of this award, I asked our tutors to select the student who they consider to have made the longest journey since joining us and, for those of us who had the pleasure and honour of knowing and working with James, the person we believe he might himself have chosen.  Whilst we are proud of all our students and every one of them deserves recognition for their talent and work throughout our pilot year, Nadia is a most deserving recipient – totally dedicated, hard-working, a team player and a generous young performer.”

Launched last September, Young Actors Studio is dedicated to providing top-quality training to young people aged 15 to 19. Young Actors Studio Evening Theatre Workshop is for any young person with a keen interest in drama and theatre. Young Actors Studio Sunday Acting Courses provide classes in essential acting skills for aspiring young actors considering training for a career in the theatre.