The recently rebranded St Albans Musical Theatre Company (SAMTC) has won a string of regional awards from the National Operatic and Dramatic Association..

Formerly St Albans Operatic Society, SAMTC was renamed last year to reflect a more moder approach to performing musical theatre, and subsequently scored highly in the NODA East awards.

For Fiddler on the Roof, Steve Wilks and Debby Connor won Best Duo and Philip Joslin was Best Musical Director, Matthew Gregory won Best Male for Hairspray, with Daniel Quirke as runner-up. Claire Stanley won Best Choreographer for Hairspray and Clive Ogden was runner-up in the Best Musical Director category for the same production.

SAMTC chairman Jane Foufas said: “In the last few years especially, our audiences have commented on how professional our shows feel. Some go as far as to say they believe them to be of West End standard. We changed our company name to reflect the change in the type of show we are performing and this feedback, and we’re delighted that our efforts in the last year have been recognised with these awards being handed out in connection to our superb productions of Hairspray and Fiddler on the Roof.”

SAMTC’s next productions will be Sister Act in November and Spamalot next April, both at the Alban Arena.