WEDNESDAY JUNE 8, 2016 AT 7.30 PM

Abbey Players, Nuneaton

“Just A Straight Man” by Rob Smith and John Mawson

Trevor Richard Shields
Barney Craig Spencer
Directors Richard Shields and Craig Spencer
Crew Steve Lewin, Darren Chadwick, Dave Sedgwick

Two stage performers returning from a successful tour in Las Vegas are preparing for their next show, but their success hides a bitter undercurrent of tension.

Caramba Theatre Company, Stratford-upon-Avon.

“Dear Cassandra” by Kate Guest

Cassandra Austen Kate Guest
Director Tim Guest

Cassandra Austen outlived her sister Jane by about 40 years. Near the end of her life, she decided, for unknown reasons, to destroy many of Jane’s letters. This short piece is an intimate portrayal of her decision, inspired by Jane’s remaining letters, other accounts of the famous novelist and a little artistic licence.

This play is not entered for the Festival competition.

Abbey Players, Nuneaton

“Boxing Day” by Bruce Olive

Woman Charlotte Keen
Man Craig Spencer
Director Craig Spencer
Crew Steve Lewin, Darren Chadwick, Dave Sedgwick

It’s the day after an Australian Christmas and a married couple review their relationship.

THURSDAY JUNE 9, 2016, AT 7.30 PM

White Cobra, Northampton

“Another Fine Mess” by Gillian Plowman

Steve Richard Jordan
Phil Paul Fowler
Meg Kate Billingham
Director Martin Borley-Cox

Laurel and Hardy’s slapstick comedy still makes people laugh nearly 100 years after they made their first film together. Stephen and Phil’s tribute act to the duo includes some of their classic sketches. But as they rehearse in the back room of a pub, a shocking revelation from Phil threatens everything.

Banbury Cross Players

“The Regina Monologues” by Rebecca Russell & Jenny Wafer

Cathy Rebecca Calverley
Annie Katherine Groves
Jane Joanne Firth
Anna Deborah Watson
Katie Melanie Austin
Katherine Jan Batchelor
Lighting Robin Williams
Director Helen Watson

Six modern women with one thing in common. Each tells their story and shares their experiences of miscarriage, love affairs and betrayal with humour, pathos and a great deal of wine, showing that the plight of their sixteenth century sisters – also married to a Henry – is still relevant five hundred years on.

White Cobra, Northampton

“Housebound” by Simon Mawdsley

Bone Richard Jordan
Fiona Kate Billingham
Director Paul Fowler
Stage Managers Bernie Wood, Denise Swann
Sound & Lighting Philip Welsh

A man in a mask and a woman in real trouble! Add some phobias, a wasp and a dash of reggae and you’re left with a big hearted comic drama full of menace, laughter and dirty carpets.

FRIDAY JUNE 10, 2016 AT 7.30 PM

Lighthorne Drama Group

“Arrows Of Desire” by Ginny Davis

Sally Brown Ginny Davis
Anna Gold Sharon Bayliss
Director Victoria Pritchard
Sound/lights Tom Willcock

President of West Nippleton WI, Sally Brown, holds tradition dear. A proposal for radical change is on the agenda at this month’s meeting. Will Sally hold her ground or will an unexpected visitor bearing bad tidings, challenging opinions and Cupid’s arrow change her mind?

Rugby Theatre

“A Frank Exchange” by Nick Marsh

Elsbet Ruth Long
Ten Haken Andy MacCallum
Dettmann Tom Browning
Heléna Cheryl Ryan
Henk Jonathan Pollard
Meinicke Nick Marsh
Director John Dulcamara
Lighting Luke McMaster
Sound Ash Hirons
Costume Sarah May

As a Dutch police employee absorbed into the wartime Nazi organisation, Helena Claassen is already under pressure for someone with nationalistic sympathies. To worsen matters, her German boss has a charm that can undermine the most resolute of subjects, and Helena finds herself having to make an impossible choice.

Phoenix Players, Stratford

“Dance Before Dying” by Kaylee Holt and Baz Stilinski

Callum Baz Stilinski
Mrs. Traherne Andi Hardy
Belle Katie Cherry
Loz Laura Codd
Marcus Adam Clarke
Kate Kirsty Asad-Caudell
Miss Wilkins Linda Burridge
Karen Fiona Robson
Dave Graham ‘Junior’ Ball
Nick Jon-Luke Goodman
Barman Graham Robson
Director Kaylee Holt
Sound/Lighting Andy Jepson
Stage Crew Graham Robson and Gala McBride
Costume Jacqui Lindsay and Caroline Adams

Callum has tragically died but his spirit is in a state of unrest and determined to find out about his own death. With the help of his spirit guide he turns up at his own wake to find the answer he seeks.

SATURDAY JUNE 11, 2016 AT 7.30 PM

Priory Theatre, Kenilworth

“A Little Box of Oblivion” by Stephen Bean

Mr Cool Dan Cowan
Mrs Neuro Lydia Ward
Mr Doom Paul Saunders
Dick Daniel Kirk
Woman Karen Shayler
Director Chris Sharp
Stage Manager Nigel Sharp
Sound/Lights Rob Henderson

Mr Cool is spending a quiet hour in the park reading his newspaper when he is asked by a stranger to keep his eye on a box. The stranger rushes away leaving Mr Cool at the mercy of helpful strangers. Life begins to take on a surreal quality when one of them calls the police, another predicts doom before a young “Private Eye” turns up with all the answers.

Armistice Theatre, Kenilworth

“Thicker than Water” by Rebecca Gardner Tildesley

Yvonne Rebecca Gardner Tildesley
Dr Carlisle Mike Tildesley
Charlie Dan Blizzard
Maggie Ruth Jones
Rev. Fraser Alec Brown
Sandra Lisa Webster
Christine Selina Toor
Director Mike Tildesley
Props/costumes Lesley Brown
Lights Jen Parker
Sound Marcus Webster
Backstage Gareth Jones

Five siblings from a dysfunctional family meet in a hospital waiting room to visit their mother during her final hours. As the evening progresses, old family disputes come to the surface, secrets are revealed and after a chance encounter, they finally realise that blood really is thicker than water.

Great Witley Operatic Society

“Cox and Box” by F. C. Burnand and Arthur Sullivan.

Bouncer, the landlord Paul Thompson
Box, a printer Michael Faulkner
Cox, a journeyman hatter Ian Walton
Directors Judi Walton and Cast

A landlord lets a room to two lodgers, one who works at night and one who works during the day. When one of them has the day off, they meet each other in the room and tempers flare.

Winners Abbey Players perform “Recidivists” by Matthew Clift. L to r, Richard Shields as Frank and Nathan Harvey as Honey.

A Nuneaton drama group has won the third Lighthorne Festival of One-Act plays.

Eleven top Amateur Theatre companies will perform 12 plays over four nights as they compete in this year’s third Lighthorne Festival of One Act Plays.

It will be staged between June 3 through June 6, 2015, in Lighthorne Village Hall in what has now become an annual event.

The Lighthorne Festival, now nationally-recognised and a member of the National Drama Festivals Association, has once again attracted a top-quality line-up from Warwickshire and wider, including as last year, award-winning Loose Cannons from Anglesey. Also as in previous years, groups will be competing for a £500 cash prize plus the right to send an identical sum as a donation to a charity of their choice.

Lighthorne Festival is reckoned to be unique because of its village setting, its charity-focussed prize structure and cafe-theatre format in which the audience sits informally at tables, a glass of wine in front of them, and a hot supper is served during the interval.

This year’s entrants include, for the first time, Abbey Players from Nuneaton, the Loft from Leamington Spa and Rugby Theatre – all acclaimed for the high standards of their theatre work. Abbey Players have submitted two plays.

They will all be competing not just for the title, cash prize and handsome theirs-to-keep engraved glass trophy, but also for the right to enter the NDFA British All-Winners Finals to be held between July 19 and July 26 this year at the Rhoda McGaw theatre in Woking.

Last year’s BAWF Finals in the Isle of Man featured contributions from two Lighthorne Festival entrants – Caramba from Stratford-upon-Avon, who won the inaugural in 2013, and Lighthorne Drama Group who came second in 2014 but were allowed to go through because last year’s winners, Sudden Impulse from Nuneaton, were unable to take part in the Finals due to a previous commitment to another Festival.

Out of the nine Isle of Man finalists in the One-Act section, Caramba were placed equal third with LDG one place lower in fifth and Caramba’s Tim Guest was nominated for his individual acting.

A One-Act Playwriting Competition, the George Taylor Memorial Award, also sponsored by NDFA, has attracted strong interest from Lighthorne Entrants this year with nearly half the entries being self-written original work. New work performed at NDFA-affiliated Festivals may be submitted on the joint recommendation of the member-Festival chairman and the adjudicator to be judged by a panel with the winner announced at the BAWF Finals.

This year’s Lighthorne adjudicator will be, as in the past two years, Guild of Drama Adjudicators Council member Mike Kaiser. Next year, 2016, Mike will hand over to fellow GoDA member Jan Palmer Sayer, who took charge at last year’s NDFA Finals at the beautifully-restored seafront Gaiety Theatre in Douglas.

For this year’s full line-up see the Running Order in the Entrants section.

Two drama groups have been praised by a judge after winning their way through the Lighthorne Festival to take part in a national competition.

Lighthorne Drama Group and Stratford-based Caramba were both singled out by Guild of Drama Adjudicators member Jan Palmer Sayer following the July 2014 contest in the Isle of Man.

Members of the Caramba and LDG teams, Festival Committee members, friends and supporters, pose for a group picture beneath cloudless skies outside the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company offices on the dockside in Douglas, Isle of Man, halfway through the National Drama Festivals Association’s British All-Winners Finals, held at the Gaiety Theatre in Douglas in July 2014.

In a written critique, she said: “Lighthorne Drama Group’s production of Tell Me Another Story, Sing Me a Song was a super example of how to not only design a simple, but versatile set but use it to perfection, framing significant moments perfectly against the white blocks.”

She also highlighted: “the cracking pace of the near-miss encounters in Caramba Theatre Company’s Chinamen” and shortlisted actor Tim Guest for his individual acting in which he played two parts, referring to his “hilarious duo, Stephen and Barney”.

Out of the nine finalists in the one-act section, Caramba were placed equal third with LDG one place lower in fifth.

Both theatre groups qualified via the Lighthorne Festival of One-Act Plays for the National Drama Festival Association’s British All-Winners Final, a week-long contest held this year at the beautifully-restored seafront Gaiety Theatre in Douglas.

Caramba’s Chinamen won the inaugural 2013 Lighthorne Festival event. LDG were second-placed this year but won a place in the finals because the 2014 Lighthorne winners, Nuneaton’s Sudden Impulse, were already committed to the Buxton Festival, whose dates clashed.

LDG also qualified because, like Caramba the year before, they achieved more than the minimum 80% score under the GoDA marking system.

The two-handed LDG play, which follows a 40-year-changing relationship between mother and daughter, was performed by Dawn Gazey-Lewis and Jess Daniel who travelled to the island together with co-director Phil Quinn, sound/lights technician Tom Willcock and prompt Rebecca Cairns amidst a dozen-strong LDG party.

Manx locals, Legion Players, won the National Festival’s one-act section with Playing With Daisy, successfully defending the title the same group and director won with a different play at the All-Winners in Teignmouth in 2013.

More than half the Lighthorne Festival committee travelled to the island to support LDG and Caramba. I am delighted to be able to tell you, first hand, that the NDFA BAWF finals are a brilliant experience from every viewpoint.

The chance to qualify via the Lighthorne Festival and compete at the highest level  –  quite apart from the Lighthorne £500 cash prize to the winning group plus £500 to their chosen charity – is a tremendous incentive.

As a reminder, for those contemplating a 2015 Lighthorne Festival entry, expressions of interest in writing are requested by October 31, 2014. The Festival Committee has again this year voted to restrict the Festival to four nights and the number of competing plays to 12.

Firm entries, including the name of the play and the director, must be with us by January 31, 2015. All subsequent entries will go on a waiting list.

There will be a mandatory pre-Festival briefing at 10.00 am on Sunday May 17, 2015, in Lighthorne Village Hall for all competing groups except those whose geographical location would make it unreasonable.

The Lighthorne Festival will take place between Wednesday June 3 and Saturday June 6, 2015.

The NDFA British All-Winners Final for 2015 will take place at the Rhoda McGaw theatre in Woking between July 19 and July 26, 2015.

Best Wishes to you all.

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