The JMK Award 2022

Photo credit: Megan Taylor

We are delighted to announce that the winner of the JMK Award 2022 is Indiana Lown-Collins with her production of The Solid Life of Sugar Water by Jack Thorne, presented in partnership with the Orange Tree Theatre. Indiana will work with designer Ica Niemz on the production.

The production forms part of Artistic Director Paul Miller’s final season at the venue and opens on 19 October, with previews from 15 October, and runs until 12 November. Tickets are available here.

As well as the JMK Award, the Trust gives one runner-up in the process a Development Award. This £2,000 finances the ongoing professional development of a deserving director and designer pairing. This year, director Emerald Crankson and her designer Zoe Hurwitz, who worked together on their ideas for Swallowby Stef Smith, will benefit from this support.

As a director Indiana Lown-Collins’s credits include;

The Purple Princess (Guildford Shakespeare Company) a devised TIE tour raising awareness of hidden disabilities based on her own life experiences. The Last Supper (Fresh Direction ‘Replay Project’ The Young Vic)

Other credits include: Assistant Director on Julius Caesar (Shakespeare’s Globe), Movement Director on The Tales of Hans Christian Andersen (GSC); Associate Director on Merrily We Roll Along (Yvonne Arnaud Theatre); Assistant Director on All’s Well That Ends Well (Jermyn Street Theatre), Cinderella (Yvonne Arnaud Theatre); A Woman Alone (Etcetera Theatre); All Aboard (Electric Theatre); Language coach on Strictly Ballroom the Musical (Leeds Playhouse).

Indiana was the Assistant Director and Producer at the Guildford Shakespeare Company (2019-2021) where she was assistant director on As You Like It, She Stoops to Conquer, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Twelfth Night, Robin Hood, Alice and Wonderland, Romeo and Juliet, The Legend of King Arthur and Associate Director on Macbeth.

“I am overjoyed to be selected as the director for this year’s JMK Award and am honoured that I have the opportunity to stage Jack Thorne’s arresting play, ‘The Solid Life of Sugar Water’. I am fortunate to share, alongside my creative team, this beautiful, witty, and impassioned personal story that amplifies disabled voices as an integral part of creative expression. I want to thank the JMK trust, Orange Tree Theatre and to all who have made this opportunity possible. Thank you for your inspiring commitment to transforming lives through this unique and exceptional award.” – Indiana Lown-Collins

You can read more about our finalists for this year’s award, here.

The JMK Award has been made possible by the Martin Bowley Charitable Trust, the Katie Bradford Arts Trust, the Leche Trust, the Garrick Charitable Trust, the Orange Tree Theatre and all our individual donors.