By Irene Glynn, CDF Co-ordinator
Entries for The Somerset County Drama Festival 2025 are underway and there are still some places available. If your drama group is considering entering a play, please make sure you enter NOW!! You don’t want to miss out on your play being adjudicated by the award-winning director Bob Tompson. Most of you will have heard of Bob Tomson or watched the plays, musicals, TV programmes and films that he has directed. Here is his biography for you to read and I hope this entices you to be part of next year’s one act play festival.
Bob Tomson lives in West Sussex, has been an actor, stage and screen writer, a college and university lecture in drama, and now divides his time as a professional director in both theatre and TV. His early years as an amateur actor with Liverpool Masque players and the Liverpool Youth Theatre gave him his first love of the stage. He went on to act with the National Youth Theatre and became their Associate Director for several years. As resident director at various reps, he has founded no fewer than 18 youth theatre groups, has become a sought-after guest tutor at leading London Drama Schools and on amateur theatre training courses.
Many of his productions have toured the UK or run in the West End and you might have seen one of them. His production of Willy Russell’s Blood Brothers has won every major British theatre award, recently completed a record 25-year run in London, and was nominated for three Olivier Awards. His other long-running musical success, Leslie’s Bricusse’s Scrooge, has enjoyed over 20 years of regular seasons, including three London runs at the Palladium and Dominion theatres. His current production of Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice’s Evita has been running in the UK for 11 years, including seasons in London’s Dominion and Phoenix theatres.
His international productions include: Evita (Europe), and Blood Brothers in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and, most significantly, in the US, where the show ran for three years and was nominated on Broadway for no fewer than six Tony Awards, including Best Director.
Notable actors associated with this production and its subsequent US tour include David Cassidy, Petula Clark, Carole King, David Soul and Helen Reddy. Bob directed
Richard Chamberlain in the title role of Scrooge for the US tour, while its Australian and Japanese premiere productions won Bob Best Director awards. His Tokyo production of Patrick Stewart’s one-man version of A Christmas Carol won the prize for Best Production. His current production of Ghost - the Musical has recently finished runs in Moscow, Paris, Dubai and Istanbul.
His other London West End productions include: the 60s musical Dreamboats and Petticoats (Savoy Theatre), nominated for Best New Musical at the Olivier Awards; John Godber’s smash-hit skiing comedy On the Piste (Garrick), Olivier Award nominated for Best Comedy; Dennis Lumborg’s controversial drama One Fine Day (Albery), nominated for Best Regional Play; and Karoline Leach’s The Mysterious Mr Love (Comedy Theatre), Jeff Wain’s The War Of The Worlds (London Dominion), Evita (London Dominion/Phoenix Theatre) and The Glenn Miller Story (London Coliseum), starring Tommy Steele, all for Bill Kenwright Ltd.
Recent national touring productions include: Jesus Christ Superstar, Oliver!, new musical treatments of Half a Sixpence and Doctor Dolittle, the jukebox musical Carnaby Street, and the world-premiere musical adaptation of the film Picnic at Hanging Rock (Chichester Festival Theatre). Current UK productions are Evita; Blood Brothers; Ghost - the Musical and Cilla - the Musical (prior to the West End).
Television direction includes: BBC drama series Hero to Zero, for which he was nominated for a BAFTA Award and whose subsequent full-length film version was sold to 53 countries; Sky TV’s Is Harry on the Boat? and several series of the soccer drama serial Dream Team; ITV’s Night and Day, The Bill and Heartbeat; Channel 5’s Family Affairs, and Channel 4’s Brookside. Bob was line producer for series three of Dream Team, helping the drama series win every Indie award that year for Best Drama Series. He continues to be a guest director on ITV’s Emmerdale, BBC’s Doctors, Father Brown and RTÉ’s Fair City continuing drama series.
So don’t miss out!
For more information, contact Irene Glynn, CDF Co-ordinator (ireneglynn61@gmail.com) or check out our web page, where you will also find further details about the competition as well as the entry form, and enter NOW!
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