The Lighthorne Festival of One Act Plays

Author: Rod Inness-Chaytor

  • Lighthorne Duo Take Top National Prizes

    Lighthorne Duo Take Top National Prizes

    July 2022
    This year’s Lighthorne winners and runners-up have taken the two top places in the National Drama Festival – but reversed the points scored, and positions.
    The Thursday Night Project won the Lighthorne Festival in June by just one mark with 91 points for “Every Brilliant Thing” by Duncan MacMillan with Jonny Donahoe, directed by Richard Brimblecombe.
    The Criterion Theatre, Coventry, came second with “The Gift”( Act II) by Janice Okoh, directed by Christine Ingall.
    The cast of the Criterion production of “The Gift” Act II – (left to fight) Max McLaren, Nyasha Daley, Ben Lord and Anne-marie Greene – on stage giving their prize-winning performance at the National Drama Festival at the Albany Theatre, Coventry.
    However, a month later, at the British Championships at the Albany Theatre, Coventry, it was the Criterion which took top spot with 91 points and Thursday Night Project who came second with 90.
    Adjudicator Jan Palmer Sayer, GoDA, who happened to oversee both competitions, said the difference was just a fractional improvement in on-stage reactions from the Criterion cast on the night.
    It is believed to be the first time in the near 60-year-history of the National Drama Festival (formerly  the British All-Winners) that one affiliated Festival has supplied both the Winners and Runners-up in the same year.
    Thursday Night Project qualified for the national contest by winning Lighthorne. The Criterion automatically qualified by a achieving a score of 90 or better.
    The two plays also picked up a raft of other trophies in Coventry. Criterion cast member Anne-Marie Greene, playing Harriet, took the award for Best Comedy Moment for her excruciating on-stage demonstration of “dancing like a black woman”. She was also nominated for best actor.
    The adjudicator said:”This was such a bold piece of theatre, challenging as it does our attitudes and understanding about the experience of being black and living in Britain. We have wriggled a lot, laughed a lot, enjoyed and admired this quartet of accomplished performers. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. Stupendous stuff.”
    Mary Taylor, of Thursday Night Project, from Esher, Surrey, picked up the Best Actor award for her moving portrayal of Louise, the young and later adult child of a suicidal depressive.
    The adjudicator said:”This was an extraordinary experience.  There are few pieces that are so completely reliant on the sustained performance of a single actor, but this is one of them. I rarely use this term, but this was, genuinely, a tour-de-force.”
    The eighth Lighthorne Festival of One-Act Plays is set to take place in Lighthorne Village Hall between Tuesday June 6 and Saturday June 10, 2023. Founding adjudicator Mike Kaiser will return to take charge in what will be the Lighthorne Festival’s tenth anniversary year.

    The National Drama Festival –  https://ndfa.co.uk   – is also due to return for its third year at the Albany Theatre, Coventry, in July 2023.

    A full list of this year’s Albany winners and nominations is on the National Drama Festival Association’s website.

  • Lighthorne Festival 2022

    Lighthorne Festival 2022

    Nicola Dixon (left) as The Manager and Almira Brion as Emma in the Banbury Cross Players’ production of Mike Bartlett’s “Contractions”, directed by Chrissie Garrett, which won the 2019 Lighthorne Festival of One-Act Plays and went on to take the Best Actor award jointly for the two performers, plus the Backstage Award, at the National Finals held at The Rhoda McGraw Theatre in Woking, Surrey. Picture Peter Weston.

    April 28, 2022

    Dear Lighthorne Festival Supporters:

    After an enforced absence of two years, the Lighthorne Festival of One-Act Plays returns this year with a top quality programme featuring groups from across the Midlands and beyond.

    Nine groups will perform ten plays – two or three plays per night – over four nights. The Running Order is below.

    We will run on Wednesday June 8, Thursday June 9, Friday June 10 and Saturday June 11, 2022 (there will be no Thursday night off, as has been done in recent years).

    The Festival Box Office opens on Monday May 2 to the general public for season ticket sales only, priced at £55 for four nights, to include performances and supper. Individual tickets go on general sale on Monday May 9, priced at £15.00 per night and including a meal.

    To contact the Festival box office, either
    email: lighthornefestival@gmail.com
    telephone: 07823 538637
    or use the contact form on the Festival website – lighthornefestival.org.uk

    Please note, in particular, that this year, performances will begin EITHER at 7pm or 7.30 pm, depending on whether it is a two-play or three-play night. To ensure a prompt start, all audience members should be in their places in Lighthorne Village Hall at least 10 minutes before curtain up.

    Finally, as in all previous years, the Lighthorne winner will qualify for consideration for the NDFA National Drama Festival (formerly the British All-Winners) which returns to the Albany Theatre in Coventry this year, from Sunday July 17 to Saturday July 23 with a Conference on Inclusion and Diversity in British Amateur Theatre during the Saturday daytime in the on-site Albany Studio.

    Since the Lighthorne Festival launched in 2013, its winners and nominees have won places in every NDFA Final and picked up every national award open to them, including best production, best new script, best actor and the backstage award.

    We are thrilled to be back in business again and all of us are immensely looking forward to welcoming you to Lighthorne in June for what promises to be a great Festival – exciting, challenging, thought-provoking and funny – just as it should be. The Running Order is below.

    See you in June

    Rod.

    Rod Chaytor
    Chair
    The Lighthorne Festival of One-Act Plays.

     

    LIGHTFEST RUNNING ORDER, 2022
    (as of May 25, 2022)

    WEDNESDAY JUNE 8 AT 7 PM

    1) Criterion Theatre, Coventry. “Closer to God” by Anna Jordan

    2) Phoenix Players, Stratford. “Brummagem Pals” by Roger Gowland

    3) Shipwreck Productions, Droitwich Spa. “Dead End” by Cellan Wyn

     

    THURSDAY JUNE 9 AT 7.30 PM

    4) Second Thoughts, Stratford. “Happy Talk” by Angela Dandy

    5) Beezer Productions, Stratford. “The Sad Contessa” by Bernard Hall

    6) Phoenix Players, Stratford. “Pinteresque” by Roger Gowland

     

    FRIDAY JUNE 10 AT 7PM

    7) d’Overbroeck’s School, Oxford. “Faustus” by Christopher Marlowe.

    8) Armistice Theatre, Kenilworth. “The Great Bird” by Clara Bush.

    9) Criterion Theatre, Coventry. “The Gift” (Act Two) by Janice Okoh.

     

    SATURDAY JUNE 11 AT 7.30 PM

    10) Thursday Night Project, Esher. “Every Brilliant Thing” by Duncan Macmillan.

    11) Abbey Players, Nuneaton. “Housebound” by Simon Mawdsley.

     

  • Winners of Lighthorne Festival 2022

    Mary Taylor, from the Thursday Night Project, of Esher, Surrey, on stage in Lighthorne in “Every Brilliant Thing” . Adjudicator Jan Palmer Sayer said:”I rarely use this term, but this was, genuinely, a tour de force

    June 2022.

    Two plays achieved the highest-ever scores at the 2022 Lighthorne Drama Festival, and are among three from the village festival which have qualified for the National Finals in Coventry next month.
     
    “Every Brilliant Thing” by Duncan Macmillan, and performed by Thursday Night Project from Esher, Surrey, scored an astonishing 91 marks out of 100 from international adjudicator, Jan Palmer Sayer, GoDA.
     
    Runner-up “The Gift” (Act II) by Janice Okoh, from the Criterion Theatre, Coventry, was awarded 90 points – equalling the previous record from 2018.
     
    In total, five of the 11 entries scored 80 points or over, again equalling the previous record. A score of 80 on the standard Guild of Adjudicators mark sheet is considered to have met the Guild’s benchmark of excellence.
     
    A third play from the Lighthorne line-up – “Pinteresque” by Stratford playwright Roger Gowland – was placed third and has since also been selected to compete at the seven-night National Drama Festival.
     
    It will run from Sunday July 17 to Saturday July 23 at the Albany Theatre, Coventry, with a one-day Conference on Inclusion and Diversity in British amateur theatre in the Albany Studio on Saturday July 23.
     
    Rod Chaytor, chair of the Lighthorne Festival of One-Act Plays, said: “The overall standard has been truly amazing, in particular when considering what a difficult year this has been for drama festivals nationwide, with many deferring their re-start to next year or closing for good.
     
    “In large measure, our audiences returned and everyone seemed to have a wonderful time. We look forward to what will hopefully be a complete return to normal next year.
     
    “Those who managed to see these top-quality plays will now have the opportunity to view them again in Coventry together with a great line-up of performances from top-quality theatre companies nationwide. Those who missed them, or some of them, will now have a second chance.
     
    Under Lighthorne Festival rules, the £1,000 first prize – the biggest in UK amateur theatre – is split 50:50 between the winning group and a registered charity of the winning group’s choice. Thursday Night  Project nominated Place2be, a children’s mental health charity with over 25 years’ experience working with pupils, families and staff in UK schools.
     
    To book tickets for Coventry, go to the NDFA website  https://ndfa.co.uk  and click on “see the full Running Order and buy tickets.”
    Rod

    Rod Chaytor
    Chair
    The Lighthorne Festival of One-Act Plays.