The Original Playwriting panel are very pleased to announce the top two plays from a short-list of four of the seven entered in last year’s Original Playwriting Competition. Their PDFs are still available to read, by downloading them on the OPW page of the SFD website: somersetdrama.co.uk
The overall winner was Not Quite As Planned by Tony Bray. OPW Coordinator, Philip de Glanville, said: “This was great fun – a full-on 55 minute contemporary farce for seven well-constructed larger-than-life characters, which the reading panel hugely enjoyed, and all agreed was a clear winner. Sadly, no director picked it up for performance at this year’s County Drama Festival, so the author will receive his cheque for £100 by post, with our hearty congratulations and our expectation that his play will be snapped up for publication, and that it will be successfully performed by amateur groups all over the country”.
There was considerable discussion about this year’s runner-up, but the panel decided in the end that Neil Walden’s beautifully crafted Discharging Duties should receive our Highly Commended award and a cheque for £25.
The other two short-listed plays – Proof of Provenance by Lorna Evans, and Love Mountain by Nicola Dawson were Commended by the panel, and we were delighted to hear that Lorna’s play is currently in rehearsal, directed by herself for @2K. It will be performed in the County Drama Festival at the Warehouse Theatre in Ilminster on Saturday 23rd March, evening session.
Sadly, the numbers of entries for this long-established playwriting competition, which has been running for over 70 years, have dwindled steadily in the last decade to the point where the SFD Committee feels that it is no longer viable. It will therefore be mothballed this coming year, pending a hoped-for resurgence of interest amongst new and established playwrights in the Southwest!
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