Manchester Theatre Award winners named

Clare Foster played an American actress with a degenerative illness in Separation

Actress Clare Foster has beaten nominees including Maxine Peake and Suranne Jones to the best actress prize at the Manchester Theatre Awards.

Foster won for her role in Duet For One and Separation at the Bolton Octagon.

Peake had been nominated for playing Hamlet at Manchester's Royal Exchange, while Jones had been shortlisted for Orlando at the same venue.

Harry McEntire was named best actor for the Royal Exchange's Billy Liar, while Angel Meadow was named best production.

The visceral site-specific drama - staged in a derelict pub by the city's new venue Home - also won best ensemble.

The winners in full:

• Best actor - Harry McEntire, Billy Liar at the Royal Exchange

• Best actress - Clare Foster, Duet For One and Separation at the Octagon Theatre, Bolton

• Best supporting actor - David Birrell, Journey's End at the Octagon Theatre, Bolton

• Best supporting actress - Gillian Bevan, Hamlet at the Royal Exchange

• Best actor in a visiting production - Antony Sher, Henry IV Part I and II at The Lowry

• Best actress in a visiting production - Katherine Kingsley, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels at the Manchester Opera House

• Best production - Angel Meadow, ANU Productions and Home at the Edinburgh Castle, Ancoats

• Best visiting production - The Curious Incident of the Dog In The Night-Time, National Theatre at The Lowry

• The Brynteg Award for Best Musical - Jersey Boys at the Palace Theatre

• Robert Robson Award for Dance - Le Corsaire, English National Ballet at the Palace Theatre

• Best opera - Gotterdammerung, Opera North at The Lowry

• Best design - Romeo and Juliet, Home at the Victoria Baths, Manchester

• Best newcomer - Emily Barber, Billy Liar at the Royal Exchange

• Best new play - An August Bank Holiday Lark, Northern Broadsides and New Vic at the Oldham Coliseum

• Best studio production - He Had Hairy Hands, Kill The Beast Company at the Lowry Studio

• Best studio performance - Sinead Matthews, Pests at the Royal Exchange Studio

• Best fringe production - Thick as Thieves, Hard Graft Theatre Company at ReTale, Oldham Mumps

• Best fringe performance - Kaitlin Howard, The Alphabet Girl at the Kings Arms, Salford

• Best ensemble - Angel Meadow, Home at the Edinburgh Castle, Ancoats

• Best special entertainment - Barry Humphries, Eat, Pray, Laugh at the Manchester Opera House

• Stage Door Foundation Award for Excellence - Monkeywood Theatre

• Special Achievement - David Slack, 24:7 Theatre Festival

• Youth panel award - A Midsummer Night's Dream at The Lowry