By Irene Glynn
It’s August and it’s time to start planning the one act play that you’re going to enter for The County Drama Festival!
This year we had a fantastic two-day festival with 5 groups entering 10 wonderful plays. Many of these were original plays written by very talented writers. There were 11 trophies, and all the winning teams deserved their successes. The Warehouse Theatre was buzzing with excitement, and it was a real celebration of local drama. I hope we can achieve the same next year
Next year's festival will be held over the weekend of the 22nd and 23rd March 2025 at The Warehouse Theatre in Ilminster and we are delighted that the multi award-winning theatre director Bob Tomson from GoDA will be our adjudicator. Bob has a wealth of knowledge and experience in theatre and TV production and his career has spanned over 40 years.
His many productions, including Blood Brothers, have toured the UK or run in the West End. I am sure we will benefit from his wealth of knowledge and experience as a director and in his capacity as an experienced GoDA adjudicator.
The County Drama Festival is the Preliminary Round of the All-England Theatre Festival and the winner will be invited to perform again at the Semi Final which will be held at The Merlin Theatre in 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.
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. In fact, there is a trophy for the best production of an original script.
There’s room for 12 one act plays with two sessions on Saturday 22nd March and a possible further two sessions on Sunday 23rd March. Each session can have a maximum of three plays in it and it would be fantastic to have a two-day festival again this year!
So please make sure you don’t miss out on a place and get your drama group on board now!!
To register your interest as soon as possible, contact Irene Glynn (Festival Co-ordinator) by email: ireneglynn61@gmail.com or telephone 07934 610155.
Let’s make 2025 the biggest and best County Drama Festival ever!
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