County Drama Festival 2024
By Irene Glynn
It’s August and it’s time to start planning what one-act play you’re going to enter for The County Drama Festival!
This year saw the revival of the festival after lockdown. Four groups entered 5 wonderful plays and competed for 11 Trophies. It was a fantastic day with the Warehouse Theatre buzzing with excitement and hopefully, next year will build on this success.
It will be held over the weekend of the 23rd /25th March 2024 at The Warehouse Theatre, Ilminster and we are delighted that Chris Jaeger MBE who is the Chair of The Guild of Drama Adjudicators (GODA) is bringing his wealth of knowledge and experience to adjudicate.
The Overall winner will be invited to perform again at the Semi Final which will be held at The Merlin Theatre Frome. The dates and times of the semi-final and final are yet to be arranged but will be published in Spotlight as soon as they have been set.
ABOUT YOUR PLAY
Your play must comply with the All-England Theatre Festival rules, so it must not be more than 55 minutes in length. If your chosen play is longer than this, you may have to make cuts and you will have to contact the publishers to see if your proposed cuts are acceptable. The minimum length is 20 minutes. You can perform an extract from a full-length play, but you will need to obtain permission to perform an extract and it must be capable of standing alone.
There must be two or more speaking parts and please note that, although two-handers have won in the past, the adjudicators tend to favour larger-cast plays.
The full AETF rules can be found on the AEFT website (allenglandtheatrefestival.co.uk) and thankfully there aren’t that many!
Whatever the size of your cast or length of your play, if you want to win (which of course you do) please check that the licence is available and that you start your rehearsals in good time!
COSTS
There is no entry fee for SFD member groups, but you will need a licence to perform any published play in a Festival, which usually costs around £30.00 plus VAT. You can find the exact cost by contacting the publisher. Each entry also will be asked to buy discounted tickets. See our Fees website page.
YOUTH ENTRIES
Youth entries are particularly welcome and there is no reason why they shouldn’t be our CDF winners. Note that the winning youth entry will be invited to represent us at the Five Counties Youth Festival.
ORIGINAL SCRIPTS
Original scripts are also welcome and often do exceptionally well. If you would like to look at them, please contact Phillip de Glanville. He can be contacted through somersetdramafellowship@gmail.com. If you choose to perform one of the original scripts there will, of course, be no licence fee and please note that the SFD offers directors £100 to help with production costs.
There will be room for 12 entries with two sessions on Saturday 23rd March and a possible further two sessions on Sunday 25th March and each session can have three plays in it.
It would be fantastic to have a two-day festival this year so please make sure you don’t miss the deadline and get in touch with Irene Glynn (Festival Co-ordinator) as soon as possible to register your interest. Her contact details are ireneglynn61@gmail.com or telephone 07934 610155.
So, please enter and let’s make 2024 the biggest and best County Drama Festival ever!
Ilminster Entertainments Society accepting the County Trophy for ‘Nostalgia’ by Lynn Brittney from Nancy Heath GODA (front row left) with Sam Allen, SFD Chair (Back row centre).
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