The Lighthorne Festival of One Act Plays

Author: Rod Inness-Chaytor

  • TALENTED LINE-UP FOR LIGHTHORNE 2016

    Eleven top Amateur Theatre companies will again perform 12 plays over four nights in this year’s fourth Lighthorne Festival of One Act Plays.
     
    Four of this year’s participating groups, including last year’s Lighthorne winners, Abbey Players from Nuneaton, together with Lighthorne Drama Group and newcomers Great Witley Operatic Society from Worcestershire, are former national finalists. 
     
    Another Lighthorne newcomer, White Cobra from Northampton, won the 2014 national championships in the full-length play section.
     
    And a two-handed play brought forward by yet another new group, Take 2 from Stourbridge, features two award-winning actresses.
     
    The annual event will be staged this year in Lighthorne Village Hall from Wednesday June 8 to Saturday June 11, inclusive.
     
    Festival Chairman Rod Chaytor said:”The Lighthorne Festival continues to attract groups from an increasingly-wide geographical area and of ever-growing reputation. Standards can only rise.
     
    “But it is also very pleasing to see loyal stalwarts such as Banbury Cross Players and Phoenix Players, Stratford, returning again, having been with us from the start. 
     
    “Last year’s third-placed Armistice Theatre from Kenilworth are also back and their neighbours the Priory Theatre, Kenilworth, will no doubt be seeking to go one better than their last year’s second place.
     
    “Highly-reputable Rugby Theatre are also with us again, having made their Lighthorne debut last year, and we are delighted to welcome our first Coventry amateur theatre group, Wheatsheaf Players.”
     
    Abbey Players have submitted two plays.
     
    As in previous years, groups will be competing for a £500 cash prize plus the right to donate a matching sum to a registered charity of their choice.
     
    Lighthorne Festival is said 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.
     
    Entrants will 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 National Drama Festivals Association’s British All-Winners Finals to be held this year from July 25 to July 31 at the Hertford Theatre.
     
    NDFA’s one-act playwriting competition, the George Taylor Memorial Award, has again attracted strong interest from Lighthorne entrants with nearly half the entries being self-written original work.
     
    This year sees a change of adjudicator with Jan Palmer Sayer, of the Guild of Drama Adjudicators, taking over from Mike Kaiser, GoDA, who officiated at Lighthorne for its first three years.
     
    The Box Office opens on May 2 and can be reached by emailing lighthornefestival@gmail.com or via a website link on lighthornefestival.org.uk or on 01926 651239. Tickets are £12.50 each including a hot meal. This year for the first time there is a four-night Season Ticket at a reduced rate of £45.00.
     
    The running order in full of the 2016 Lighthorne Festival of One-Act Plays can be found in the Entrants section on the website.

  • 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.