John Byrne is to institute an award in memory of Billy McColl, the first ever Phil McCann in The Slab Boys, who died earlier this year, it was announced today, Friday 6 June 2014. Byrne will be a guest of the CATS Awards at the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow this Sunday and will present the first Billy Award to a young actor who has made a memorable impact on Scottish theatre in the last year.
McColl was recommended to Byrne for the role of Phil McCann by David Hayman who told the playwright that the young actor was “quite special”. Speaking of his first encounter with McColl Byrne said:
“I took the swagger with which he strolled into the backstage dressing room for a part of his actor’s auditioning gear. The flashing eyes I put down to a couple of drops of glycerine hastily applied prior to his arriving but as soon as he opened his mouth and spoke the first of Phil McCann’s lines from the script I knew that we had hit gold dust.
“As soon as he had gone I threw my arms around David Hayman and almost crushed the life out of him. From that second it was a case of building the rest of the cast around Billy.”
The short list for the first Billy Award is:
Jessica Hardwick for performances as Sonya in Crime And Punishment and as Christine in the Citizens' recent production of Miss Julie
Ncuti Gatwa for a series of roles as part of the Dundee Rep Ensemble
Scott Reid in Johnny McKnight's recent Play, Pie And Pint play A Perfect Stroke
The CATS Awards will take place this coming Sunday at 3.30pm at the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow and will be presented by acclaimed Glasgow-born stage and screen actor Bill Paterson.
Further information on the 2014 CATS Awards http://www.criticsawards.theatrescotland.com