The Lighthorne Festival of One Act Plays

Author: Rod Inness-Chaytor

  • Results 2015

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

    Abbey Players top-scored with the four-night event’s opening piece – “Recidivists” by Matthew Clift.
     
    The dark comedy, directed by Abbey’s Artistic Director Dave Sedgwick, is set in a grim prison cell inhabited by homophobic prisoner Frank, played by Richard Shields, whose prejudices are confronted when camp performer Honey, played by Nathan Harvey, is moved in.
     
    Abbey beat an impressive 10-strong field including the Loft from Leamington Spa, the Priory from Kenilworth and Rugby Theatre.
     
    They picked up an engraved glass trophy, a £500 first prize and the opportunity to nominate a charity of their choice for a further £500 donation. They chose Cancer Research. The win also gives them the right to apply for selection to the National Drama Festival Association’s British All-Winners Finals to be held next month in Woking, Surrey.
     
    Adjudicator Mike Kaiser, a Council member of the Guild of Drama Adjudicators, placed the Priory Theatre of Kenilworth in second place with the Alan Ayckbourn comedy “Between Mouthfuls”. Armistice Theatre, also of Kenilworth, came third with World War One drama “Hero” by Michael Lynch. Lighthorne Drama Group came fourth with “Lifecoach” written by Coventry playwright Nick Walker.
     
    All four groups scored over 80% on the Guild of Drama Adjudicators’ scoring system.
     
    Lighthorne Festival chairman Rod Chaytor said:”It is very pleasing that – in direct contradiction to the national picture regarding drama festivals – ours is growing and flourishing.
     
    “Having, for the first time, our top four all score over 80%, which is the GoDA benchmark of excellence, is very gratifying. Standards continue to rise year on year.”
     
    Two original works performed at the Lighthorne Festival have been nominated for the NDFA George Taylor award for original drama and will be considered by a panel which sits during the BAWF July Festival.
     
    They are Nick Walker’s “Lifecoach”, and “Impersonators”, written by Stratford playwright Noel Dollimore, which was performed at the Festival by the town’s Second Thoughts theatre company.
     
    In all, 10 theatre groups performed 12 one-act plays over the four night Festival at which the audience is seated at tables, cafe-style, in Lighthorne Village Hall and served a hot meal in the interval. The festival format is agreed to be unique nationwide.
     
    Abbey Players’ win keeps the Lighthorne Festival title in Nuneaton. It was won in 2014 by the Sudden Impulse theatre company, which is also based at the town’s Abbey Theatre.
     
    Applications for the 2016 Festival, running from Wednesday June 8 to Saturday June 11, 2016, are invited to rod.chaytor@icloud.com by October 31, 2015. 

  • Top Theatre Companies Compete in 2015 Lighthorne Festival

    DSCF9067Eleven 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.

  • NDFA British All Winners Festival of Plays 2014

    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.