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.
Local groups dominate the Running Order for this year’s Lighthorne Festival of One-Act Plays, which will take place between Tuesday June 4 and Saturday June 8, 2019, in Lighthorne Village Hall.
The competition, which boasts the biggest prize in British amateur theatre, has in the past attracted touring groups from as far afield as Anglesey and Cambridge. This year, however, all 12 entrants come from within an hour’s drive of the South Warwickshire village, which will be hosting its seventh annual event this year.
Of those, nine are from Warwickshire, including five from Stratford. Two more are from north Oxfordshire, close to the Warwickshire border, and the twelfth is from Cradley Heath in the BlackCountry. Five groups are new to the Lighthorne Festival. Eight groups will be performing new work.
Festival Committee chair Rod Chaytor said:”It’s great that in the past this still-new Festival has attracted some of the top amateur theatre groups from across the country, as it will again, but I am delighted that this year the prize must go to someone fairly local to our venue.”
The Lighthorne Festival has a £1,000 first prize which, under Festival rules, must be divided equally between the winning group and a registered charity of their choice. The winners also take home a handsome, theirs-to-keep engraved glass trophy.
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.
A Cambridgeshire theatre group has won the 2018 Lighthorne Festival of One-Act Plays with the highest score the Festival has ever seen.
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.
Reigning British one-act drama champions, Didcot Phoenix Drama Group, will return in June to the Lighthorne stage where their successes of last year began.
The award-winning Oxfordshire group will open the 2018 Lighthorne Festival with “The Bench at the Edge”, a dramatic comedy by Luigi Januzzi.
Last June they won Lighthorne with Eugene Ionesco’s “The Lesson”which qualified them for the National Drama Festivals Association’s British All-Winners Finals, held at the Lamproom Theatre, Barnsley in July.
David Cooke as the Professor, Daisy Norton as the Maid and Corin Lawfull as the Pupil in the Didcot Phoenix Drama Group presentation of Eugene Ionesco’s classic 1950’s Theatre of the Absurd play, The Lesson.
There, they not only took the top prize in the One-Act section but also took the Youth Section trophy, which was won by 20-year-old Didcot actress Corin Lawfull.
This year’s Lighthorne line-up contains another four groups who have previously won through to the national finals – Abbey Players, Nuneaton; White Cobra from Northampton; Lighthorne Drama Group and Big Squirrel from Ely.
It also includes established favourites such as Armistice Theatre from Kenilworth; Stratford Playwrights; Phoenix Players, Stratford; Second Thoughts, Stratford; Rugby Theatre and Banbury Cross Players.
Newcomers include the Rose Theatre from Kidderminster, who were one of the groups chosen to provide the Rude Mechanicals for the RSC’s 2016 pro-am production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”.
Lighthorne Festival chairman Rod Chaytor said:” We are delighted to welcome back loyal local groups as well as top-quality newcomers such as the Rose Theatre and Big Squirrel from further afield. There is also an interesting mix of off-the-shelf published plays and new work this year.
“We are looking forward to a really exciting Festival in June.”
In a change this year, performances will begin at 7pm and the cost of a four-night Season Ticket, including supper on each night, has been reduced to £40.
One enforced change from last year – a Thursday night Festival break – has been repeated this year by choice.
Chairman Rod Chaytor added:” In 2017 we had to move our scheduled Thursday night programme to the Tuesday because of the sudden calling of a General Election – our village hall, where the Festival takes place, is used as a polling station.
“However, the Festival Committee appreciated the break. We canvassed participating groups and our 2018 adjudicator, Chris Jaeger, and they supported repeating the exercise, so this year’s Festival will follow the same Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday night pattern.”
The Box Office will open to the general public on Monday May 7, for preference by emailing lighthornefestival@gmail.com or via a link on the website https://lighthornefestival.org.uk or alternatively by telephoning Colin and Ann Such on 01926 651411.
Tickets are £12.50 each including a meal. Vegetarian meals are available but, once ordered, cannot be altered. We regret that limited catering facilities mean that other dietary requirements cannot be met. There is no ticket price reduction for those who do not wish to eat.
The full running order for the 2018 Lighthorne Festival of One-Act Plays is:
TUESDAY JUNE 5, 2018 at 7pm
Didcot Phoenix Drama Group. “The Bench at the Edge” by Luigi Januzzi.
Armistice Theatre, Kenilworth. “The Party” by Dan Blizzard and Rebecca Gardner Tildesley.
Second Thoughts, Stratford. “Whisking Eggs” by Jackie Lines.
WEDNESDAY JUNE 6, 2018 at 7pm
Mayhem Theatre Group. “Imagine?” by Stephen Moran.
Rugby Theatre. “Consensual Sex?” by Steve Crump.
Abbey Players, Nuneaton. “Conclusions” by Chris Jaeger.
(This entry is part of the Festival but does not form part of the competition).
FRIDAY JUNE 8, 2018 at 7 pm
Banbury Cross Players. “Warm, Hot, Getting Hotter” by Lou Treleavan.
Phoenix Players, Stratford. “What Is Normal ?” by Katie Cherry.
Lighthorne Drama Group. “White Lies” by Richard James.
SATURDAY JUNE 9, 2018 at 7pm
White Cobra, Northampton. “Blind Date” by Peter Quilter.
Stratford Playwrights. “The Age of Asparagus” by Steve Farr.
Big Squirrel, Ely. “Uke Belong To Me” by Kattreya Sheurer-Smith.
