Kattreya Sheurer-Smith as runaway bride Kitty and Matthew Squance as quirky zoologist Tom, who finds her stuck up a tree, in the two-hander “Uke Belong To Me”, written by Kattreya and directed by her father, Stephen, which won the 2018 Lighthorne Festival of One-Act Plays with a record score.
Big Squirrel, based in Ely, Cambs, scored an astonishing 90 out of 100 with their production of “Uke Belong To Me” written by and featuring Kattreya Sheurer-Smith and directed by her father, Stephen Sheurer-Smith.
Adjudicator Chris Jaeger MBE, a leading member of the Guild of Drama Adjudicators, said that Kattreya and her stage partner Matthew Squance had “done everything to perfection” in the rom-com two-hander. A score of 80 is considered the GoDA benchmark of excellence.
Judging at Lighthorne for the first time, he told the audience: “This is a truly unique festival – good quality plays, wonderful food, brilliant audiences and terrific atmosphere. It is a credit to the whole community of Lighthorne. In 20 years’ time, every Festival will look like this.”
It is the first time a piece of new work, rather than a published play by an established playwright, has won the Lighthorne Festival.
In second place were Lighthorne’s 2016 winners, White Cobra from Northampton presenting “Blind Date” by Peter Quilter with a score of 86, and Stratford’s Second Thoughts came third on 85 with “Whisking Eggs” by local playwright Jackie Lines.
Kattreya Sheurer-Smith and fellow actor Matthew Squance, of the Big Squirrel theatre group, based in Ely, Cambs, receive their engraved glass winner’s trophy from Lighthorne adjudicator Chris Jaeger, MBE, GoDA.
The top five groups, including Stratford’s Phoenix Players in fourth place and reigning British champions, Didcot Phoenix Drama Group from Oxfordshire, in fifth, all hit or surpassed the 80 mark.
The Lighthorne Festival, now in its sixth year, offers its winner £1,000 – the biggest prize in British amateur theatre – which, under the Festival’s founding principles, must be shared 50-50 between the winning group and a registered charity of the winning group’s choice. They nominated Macmillan Cancer Support.
Festival chairman Rod Chaytor said:”A score in the mid-to-high 80’s will easily win most Festivals and 90 or above will take the national championships. Whilst every Lighthorne winner in the past has hit the 80’s, none has before achieved 90. It is a ringing testament to the quality of the drama which groups bring to Lighthorne and demonstrates again that, year on year, standards continue to rise.”
He added: “I saw Kat and Matthew deliver “Uke” last year and went straight up to see them afterwards to invite them to close this year’s Lighthorne event. It is a lovely, heart-warming crowd-pleaser and they perform it brilliantly, including both of them playing the ukulele during the course of the show, on stage.”
Next year’s seventh annual Lighthorne Festival will take place between Tuesday June 4 and Saturday June 8, 2019. Expressions of interest from potential participants are invited before October 31, 2018, by emailing chairman Rod Chaytor on rod.chaytor@icloud.com.