A West Lothian student has become the first recipient of a new award from acclaimed actress Elaine C Smith.
Eva MacCallum has won the inaugural Elaine C Smith Award and £500 from New College Lanarkshire.
This £500 prize, created by the renowned actress and New College Lanarkshire Fellow, is given to a female student in the College’s Performing Arts department who excels in comedy.
Eva, who is from Livingston, expressed her heartfelt gratitude at the college’s Motherwell campus.
She said “I am so grateful for this award and to Elaine.
“It’s so important that women create these opportunities so other women can follow in their footsteps and prove we can take the spotlight.”
Since completing her degree in Performing Arts in earlier this year, Eva has appeared in Bathgate’s Reconnect Theatre’s production of Macbeth at the Edinburgh festival and is currently filming a TV series and said her experience at New College Lanarkshire had been fantastic.
She said: “The most important thing I took away from my time at the College was the connections with other people — my fellow students and the lecturers. There’s a fantastic sense of community here.”
Elaine C Smith, who presented Eva with a cheque and ceremonial quaich established the award to help young women from working-class backgrounds pursue careers in the arts.
She said: “I decided to start this, because I’m from the area, from Newarthill, and when I was growing up I didn’t believe anyone who spoke like me could become an actor – occasionally you would see a Scottish man playing a criminal!
“And when I did become an actor, I was often the only women in the room. So, I wanted to leave a trail of little sweeties for the young women coming up now – saying here’s the route, you can do this!”
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