Preston FM’s Mark Howard took away two awards at the National Operatic and Dramatic Association awards.
AdvertisementMark was nominated for ‘Best Supporting Actor’ (Male) for his role as ‘Squire’ in “Mother Goose” and ‘Best Director’ for his Production of “Slice of Saturday Night” as part of the Preston Musical Comedy Society.
He said: “Getting the official letter through the door saying I had been nominated was very exciting; I was honoured to be nominated. I was one of 16 nominations; I never thought I would win.”
The awards evening was held on the on the 25th of January at the Herons Reach hotel in Blackpool.
The ceremony involved a luxurious meal accompanied by live music along with the awards being handed out.
“You hear your name being called out along with all the other nominations, every second felt like an hour as they didn’t read out the winner straight away.”
“MARK HOWARD- that sounds like my name!”
“I heard my name being called out and everyone who’s part of Preston Musical Comedy Society all jumped up and cheered me as I went to collect my award”.
Mark thought he’d had his claim to fame, but then heard his name come out again for Best Director, he could not believe what he was hearing.
“It is such an honour to be recognised for something you’ve put a lot of time and effort into, I had a great cast and a great team and we all deserved to win.”
Both award winning shows were held at the playhouse theatre In Preston, “Mother Goose” was shown for ten nights whilst “A slice of Saturday Night” was shown for five nights.
The pantomime was directed by Cheryl Nicholls and Julie Oldfield – they won the award for Best Director of a pantomime and Julie won for most entertaining performance as she played the Goose ‘Priscilla’
A slice of Saturday night is set in a 1960s Club involving a group of teens and their events during the evening, the show included 31 songs all from the 1960s.
“The PMCS are my second family, I love them all so much and are amazingly happy to of experienced all of this with them”.
Preston born, Mark is currently the Director, producer at‘Preston FM’ and has a Saturday morning show ‘Saturday Brunch’, and has been a member of the society for 3 years.
“Theatre is a massive part of my life, I remember when the PMCS came on the show and we joked about me coming down for an audition, one day they invited me down and the rest is history!”
The awards were extra special for the PMCS as they’re celebrated their 60 year anniversary last year.
If you would like any more information about upcoming shows at the Theatre or the club, please visit Preston PlayHouse