Evening Standard Theatre Awards - nominations longlist announced!

The nominee longlist for this year's Evening Standard Theatre Awards has been announced, and the Histories have received recognition in three categories.

BEST ACTOR
- Kenneth Branagh - Ivanov (Donmar West End at Wyndham's)
- David Calder - King Lear (Shakespeare's Globe)
- Adam Godley - Rain Man (Apollo)
- Chiwetel Ejiofor - Othello (Donmar Warehouse)
- Will Keen - Waste (Almeida)
- Simon Russell Beale - Much Ado About Nothing (National's Olivier)
- Jonathan Slinger - Richard II and Richard III (RSC at the Roundhouse)
- Kevin Spacey - Speed-the-Plow (Old Vic)

THE SYDNEY EDWARDS AWARD FOR BEST DIRECTOR
- Lucy Bailey - Timon of Athens (Shakespeare's Globe)
- Michael Boyd - The History Cycle (Royal Shakespeare Company at the Roundhouse)
- Rupert Goold - Six Characters In Search Of An Author (Gielgud)/No Man's Land (Duke of York's)/The Last Days Of Judas Iscariot (Almeida)
- Michael Grandage - Othello/The Chalk Garden/Ivanov (Donmar West End at Wyndham's and Donmar Warehouse)
- Katie Mitchell - The Women of Troy (National's Lyttelton)
- Emma Rice - Brief Encounter (Kneehigh at Cinema Haymarket Theatre)
- Alan Rickman - Creditors (Donmar Warehouse)
- John Tiffany - Black Watch (National Theatre of Scotland at Barbican)

THE MILTON SHULMAN AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING NEWCOMER
- Michelle Dockery - Pygmalion (Old Vic)
- Luke Evans - Small Change (Donmar Warehouse)
- Felicity Jones - The Chalk Garden (Donmar Warehouse)
- Joseph Mawle - The Last Days Of Judas Iscariot (Almeida)
- Lex Shrapnel - Henry IV Part I (Royal Shakespeare Company at The Roundhouse)
- Ella Smith - Fat Pig (Trafalgar Studios and Comedy Theatre)

The full shortlist should be available on Friday 7 November 2008, and the awards themselves will be announced on Monday 24 November 2008.

In the meantime, if you fancy doing some nominating of your own, the WhatsOnStage.com Theatregoers' Choice Awards are accepting nominations for who should be shortlisted for their annual awards. If you have some spare minutes in the day, there are surely worse ways to spend them than seeking recognition for everyone's favourite ambitious Shakespeare project. ;)

Is it just me or is this US election malarkey totally exciting?! :D