Members Area
Members Area
The County Drama Festival has been dormant over the past three years but thankfully we can revive it again in 2023. There are groups all over Somerset keen to get involved and now is the chance to start planning.
The County Drama Festival will be held over the weekend of the 25th/26th March at The Warehouse Theatre, Ilminster and adjudicated by Nancy Heath who is a GODA Associate. The Overall winner will be invited to perform again at the Semi Final which will be held at The Merlin Theatre Frome on Saturday 6th May 2023. The adjudicator will be Alan Hayes.
The English Final will be held at The Roses Theatre, Tewkesbury on Saturday 3rd June 2023. The adjudicator will be Jan Palmer-Sayer.
The successful group will have the opportunity to perform their winning play at the British final which will be held in Belfast, Northern Ireland and the date and venue for this has yet to be arranged.
The eagle-eyed amongst you will note that the Quarter Final is no longer part of the competition. This is due to the fact that the number of entries over the past few years has fallen. Let’s hope that we can bring the full competition back to life in 2023 with a strong and healthy level of entries.
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 at the end of April.
Original Scripts: Original scripts are also welcome and often do exceptionally well. If you would like to look at them, please contact Pam Hillier. Her contact details are on the Original Play page of the SFD website. 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.
It would be great to bring the festival back to life next year, so if you would like to take part, please let Irene Glynn know about it as soon as possible so that she can register your interest. Her contact details are [email protected] or telephone 07934610155.
There is room for 12 entries with two sessions on the Saturday 25th March and a possible further two sessions on the Sunday 26th March. Each session will have three plays in it. Entries will be accepted on a first-come first-served basis and all must be in by Friday 27th January 2023.
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.
About Your Play
Your play has to 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 has to 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!
Irene Glynn is the coordinator of the County Drama Festival