The Manchester Evening News Theatre Awards (MENTA) were a theatre awards ceremony that recognised live theatre within

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...

. They were administered by the ''

Manchester Evening News The ''Manchester Evening News'' (''MEN'') is a regional daily newspaper covering Greater Manchester in North West England, founded in 1868. It is published Monday–Saturday; a Sunday edition, the ''MEN on Sunday'', was launched in February 201 ...

'', and presented at an annual ceremony in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, England. The awards were for regional and nationally touring productions and were created in 1981 by Alan Hulme, who wrote for the paper as theatre critic from 1970 to 2000. The first ceremony was held in the conference room of the MEN in their then Deansgate offices, and the awards were held annually until 2011, when the Manchester Evening News ended its association with the awards, however a group of former panel members announced in October 2011 that they were to continue the awards as an independent body under the name

Manchester Theatre Awards The Manchester Theatre Awards were established in 2011 to replace the Manchester Evening News Theatre Awards. The MEN awards, created in 1981 by Alan Hulme, the paper's theatre critic, had long been recognised as the most important theatrical priz ...

References

British theatre awards English awards Awards established in 1981 Awards by newspapers 1981 establishments in the United Kingdom {{theat-stub