Academic Awards

The Diana Boddington Award

Diana Boddington enjoyed a hugely successful career as a stage manager, working with Tyrone Gutherie, Orson Wells and Laurence Olivier at the New Theatre, Chichester Festival Theatre and the National Theatre, where she remained until her retirement in 1987.  

She was highly respected by the many leading names she worked with and was honoured to be the first stage manager to receive an MBE for services to the theatre. Diana enjoyed close links with Mountview, where her daughter, Claudia trained, so it is a fitting tribute to present an annual award in Diana’s name, to an outstanding Technical Theatre student graduating from Mountview.

WINNERS

2003  SHARON LEWIS
2004  KINGSLEY COOK
2005  WILLIAM ROBERTS
2006  ALEX WALTERS
2007  AMBER TOMLIN
2008  SIMON BOYER-WILLSSON
2009  KATE RIEDLER
2010  NIAMH COOPER
2011  ABBIE PROCTER
2012  LAURA ELPHICK
2013  EDWARD LOCKE
2014  ANTHONY HANNAH
2015  MICHAEL HUMPHRIES
2016  SAM HAWKES
2017  ELLA WHEWAY
2018  ESTENIAH WILLIAMS
2019  CHANTELLE DOBBS

Gyearbuor Asante Award for acting

Gyearbuor Asante came to England from Ghana in 1967 and trained at Mountview where he distinguished himself as a prize-winning student. 

He had numerous theatre, film and television appearances to his credit and was perhaps best known as the African student Matthew in the hugely successful Channel 4 sitcom, Desmond’s, produced by Humphrey Barclay. He died from natural causes at the early age of 58 in 2000.

The Gyearbuor Asante Memorial Fund from which is awarded The Gyearbuor Asante Award for Acting was founded by Humphrey Barclay and friends including Dame Judi Dench, Sir Ian McKellen, Richard O’Brien, Hugh Quarshie, Emma Thompson, John Alderton, Pauline Collins, Kenneth Branagh, Maureen Lipman, Neil Pearson and Matthew Kelly. They could think of no better way to commemorate Gyearbuor’s inspiration, contribution and example than to offer a yearly salute to the talent of somebody new – somebody who in the view of the judges is equally likely to make an unforgettable mark on the acting scene.

The Gyearbuor Asante Award is presented to the top-scoring undergraduate performance student each year.

WINNERS

2004  KELLY PRICE
2005  CONNIE FISHER
2006  DAVID FLYNN
2007  TESSA MABBITT
2008  LAUREN HOOD
2009  IDDON JONES
2010  MATTHEW SEADON-YOUNG
2011  RICHARD VORSTER
2012  SHAUN CHAMBERS
2013  BRONTE BARBE
2014  GIANNI TOZZI (JON TOZZI) and IMELDA WARREN-GREEN
2015  MICHAEL BELL (MICHAEL JAMES) and JUDITH NEILL
2016  ADAM SMALL
2017  OSCAR CONLON-MORREY
2018  SARAH DICKSON (ROSE DICKSON)
2019  ISABEL CANNING