A REDDITCH comedian has taken home the top prize at the renowned national Chortle Comedy awards.
Lorna Rose Treen, who won the ‘Best Newcomer’ title, has been performing since she was a child and her love of comedy comes from the stage productions she was in as part of the Palace Youth Theatre.
She credits her success to the theatre groups available to her while at school.
She said: “I was in loads of plays at the Palace Youth Theatre – I played Pinocchio and my dad made an electronic nose.
“The whole experience was amazing, and the teachers really inspired me to stake my comedy further.”
Lorna was also in All and Sundry, and eventually worked her way up to running the theatre group.
“I did so much comedy and theatre in school, it was great to have a place to play in my performative years.
“The reason I do comedy is escapism. It’s all about imagination, I think comedy is so necessary.
“I don’t know what I would’ve done without the Artrix and the Palace Theatre groups.
“Some of my best friends I met at those groups, and even though they haven’t followed me into the comedy world, they still use the confidence and skills they learnt on stage.”
In September of last year Lorna was the first ever double award winner at the Funny Women Awards winning both the Stage Award 2022 and the Comedy Short Award 2022.
She added: “After winning those two awards, my life changed overnight.
“I started getting booked for loads of gigs, everything was taking off.
“And then I saw I was nominated for best newcomer at the Chortle Comedy awards.
“I was ecstatic about the nomination as you can’t put yourself forward for the award so someone from the awards must have have seen my work.”
Lorna said winning best newcomer had propelled her career even further.
As a writer, she has written for radio, stage and online, including: BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 2, and BBC Radio 4 Extra.
Her sketches on TikTok frequently go viral, with millions of likes and views on her videos.
Her award-winning comedy short My Entertainment Badge is currently being screened at the London Short Film Festival 2023.
“Next I’ll be busy preparing my show that I’m taking to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
“I want to come back to the Midlands after and take my show back to the stages I was performing on as a child.”
