The annual National Drama Festival returned to the Albany Theatre, Coventry (18th – 21st July), with an increasingly impressive international flavour and with GoDA adjudicators even more to the fore. Participating groups, supporters and audience members travelled from Gibraltar, Geneva, the Channel Islands, Northern Ireland (including Newtownabbey’s All-Ireland winner), the Isle of Man and across England.
Keith Phillips, GoDA, who adjudicated this year’s 49th NDFA event, hosted three innovative 10.00 am “morning after” sessions, informally entitled Coffee And Chat With Keith, in which groups who had performed on the previous day were invited into the studio to discuss their productions with an emphasis on their exemplary aspects, as identified by Keith.
All interested parties including members of the public were invited to them and GoDA adjudicators Jan Palmer Sayer and Sue Doherty took part. Jan and Sue also led a separate Studio Spotlight session on the topic of Getting Under The Skin of the Festival Marking System and were joined by Festival organisers and other interested parties for a second - Invigorating Adult and Youth Festivals.
Sue Doherty led a third Studio Spotlight, together with Brian Hutchinson, winner of this year’s prestigious Derek Jacobi playwriting award - sponsored by Stagescripts - a beautiful and moving play about dementia, in a session which featured extracts from the play read by the cast and members from Brian’s Liverpool-based writing hub, Make It Write.
The discussion focussed on why Brian’s play, The Keys To Life, won the Derek Jacobi award and how it translated to the stage.
GoDA Chair Paul Fowler attended the Saturday performances.
Taken together, the six morning off-stage events were collectively supported by every available performing group and reflected the NDFA’s emphasis on the National Drama Festival being vibrant, informative and collaborative as well as showcasing the cream of amateur theatre and helping to improve amateur drama through festival participation.
As a prime example of the positive power of groups coming together, one experienced director publicly said to one of the playwrights: “I want to work with you. I love your attitude and the way you describe the writing process. You're my kind of playwright.”
Topics covered included tips to playwrights on different writing styles; to actors, including “faffing about with your feet”, the “fragility of the Crystal Bridge between stage and audience”, rehearsal techniques and Stanislavsky’s “Circle of Attention”; notes to directors on “should blackouts be banned?”, “visual waterfalls “, and, for would-be simultaneous authors/actors/directors, the perils of the 'Dennis Waterman approach’ in which the late Minder TV star even sang the theme tune.
In all, 15 plays were performed in six afternoon and evening sessions as the National Drama Festival (formerly the peripatetic British All-Winners Festival) returned to the newly-refurbished Albany Theatre complex for the fourth year.
The event continued the condensed Thursday-to-Sunday format, as innovated last year. In a new departure, there was an award for the overall winner (The Same by Edna Walsh, performed by Prosperous Theatre from Ireland) but other previous award categories were replaced by six Exemplary Awards, going to groups for a specified and outstanding aspect of their performance, as chosen by Adjudicator Keith Phillips.
They were presented on stage at the close of the final Sunday session by Cllr Rachel Lancaster, Deputy Lord Mayor of Coventry, and a keen supporter of amateur theatre.
Rod Chaytor Past Chair National Drama Festivals Association
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