NOTE: Changes to this briefing plus additional year-specific information will be provided directly by email to the nominated contact and will be uploaded here if relevant.
General Briefing for Entrants
1) Ticket information
Individual evening tickets £16, including hot interval snack
Season ticket for 4 days, including different hot snacks each evening £55
All tickets can be booked from Colin Such via the Box Office, using the booking form or by emailing lighthornefestival@gmail.com. All tickets must be paid for in advance and returns are only possible if seats are sold out for that particular evening and the box office has a waiting list.
There is free entry on the night of performance to the cast, the director and a maximum of four crew as detailed in the printed programme (up to two technical crew – sound/lights – and up to two stage crew per participating group, provided two are required and they are different personnel to the sound/light crew). Chairs will be placed at the rear of the hall for their use. On non-performance nights cast and crew will need to buy tickets at the full price of £16.
The box office opens on Monday 28 April, 2025. Supporters of participating groups are encouraged to purchase tickets as early as possible as previous festivals have sold out. Please ask your supporters to let us know which group they are supporting as we will try to seat them together. Please tell us the names of those requiring the vegetarian option. We regret that no other dietary requirements can be catered for. Please be aware that we cannot guarantee that food we serve is free from allergens, as it is not prepared on the premises.
2) INTERVAL HOT SNACK
On the nights they are performing, provided it has been pre-ordered, a hot snack is available for designated cast and crew (see above) at £4 each. This will be available at the first interval. A vegetarian option is available only if pre-ordered. A different hot snack will be available each night and will consist of a pasty, samosa, sausage roll or wrap.
It would be appreciated if one member of the cast and crew takes responsibility for the hot snack requirements for all the group members. Please email lighthornefestival@gmail.com with your order.
3) PROGRAMME.
For our logistical needs and the free programme, we need (if not already given) the approximate run time and the names of the play, author, director, cast, and crew, plus a 50-word max synopsis of the play as you would wish to see it printed in the programme, no later than May 1, which is also the general copy deadline for advertising. The synopsis may be different to the one you submitted with your application. Advertising space in the programme is for sale to groups, and generally, via Committee Chairman Rod Chaytor.
3) TECHNICAL RULES AND BRIEFING.
There will be a mandatory briefing for all participating groups on Sunday May 18 in Lighthorne Village Hall where it will be the responsibility of all participating groups to familiarise themselves with the Festival’s/ Lighthorne Drama Group’s technical equipment. Please note that this has been significantly upgraded this year (see website technical document).
Technical requests and information regarding staging, lighting and sound, should be provided in advance. Our technical lead will contact you in April to request this information and such information must be provided in advance of the briefing. Failure to provide this information, or to attend the briefing will be treated as a wish to withdraw from the Festival.
Groups will be allocated a specific time slot on the briefing day to coordinate with the Stage Director and Technical Lead and are expected to attend.
Please see Rule Eight on the Festival website Rules for Entrants (here) which makes it clear that, unless agreed in advance, participating groups will be responsible for operating LDG/Festival equipment themselves to run their show. Also, please note that the May briefing is your allocated opportunity to tech your show. You will not be permitted to tech it on performance night – only to sound check for level. Our technical staff will be in Lighthorne Village Hall from 6:00pm on Festival nights for this purpose. All groups performing on the night must have sound-checked before the doors open to the public, which will be a prompt half-an-hour before curtain-up. Directors and casts will also have the opportunity at the Briefing to assess the performance area, which is not limited to the stage alone. You are encouraged to use all available space and entrances/exits for dramatic purposes, but please tell us in advance! During performance, some doorways are locked or curtained-off! Also, please note that the Lighthorne Festival encourages performers to take a curtain call at the end of their show, but Stage Director Alec Brown MUST be told in advance, whether the cast will be taking a bow, or not. If you feel you need more information, “familiarisation”, or further assistance of any kind, then we will do our very best to help but we must be told in advance and before the Briefing takes place.
4) PARKING.
Parking in Lighthorne is not plentiful and wherever possible drivers are requested to car share. Street parking is possible on the hill opposite the village hall, but please do not park with 2 wheels on the pavement. Please do not use the Antelope pub car park unless you are using the pub’s drinking/ dining facilities on the night you are parking there and, out of respect for our village neighbours, please do not park in Mountford Rise, the cul-de-sac adjacent to the Village Hall.
Participating groups delivering costumes, set and props will be allocated 3 parking permits per group for the evening on which they appear. If you intend using a trailer to deliver your set then please notify us in advance and if you need fewer than 3 parking spaces it would be kind of you to inform us. In addition some of the limited car parking at the village hall will be kept free for Blue Badge holders. The village hall has disabled access.
5) SETS AND PROPS.
Restrictions on storage space mean that sets and props may have to be stored, until needed, on the car park inside the transport in which they have been brought to Lighthorne Village Hall. Dry weather may make temporary outside readiness near the rear stage door a possibility.
6) DRESSING ROOMS.
Casts, crew and directors arriving on the night they are performing should report to the Stage Director at the stage door, reached by turning right at the top of the steps when approaching the Village Hall by the main entrance. They will be allocated and directed to one of two dressing rooms at the rear of Lighthorne Village Hall. With three groups per night sharing two dressing rooms, consideration is requested for other groups.
7) SEATING
Limited seating for actors, directors and crew competing that night ONLY will be set aside at the rear of the hall for their use while they are not performing. Please show consideration to other groups and do not permit your friends and supporters who have bought seats elsewhere in the hall to join you and occupy actors’ seats or allow actors to occupy someone else’s paid-for seat.
8) SETTING/STRIKING.
Festival Rules, stating that sets must be set and struck within 10 minutes of each group’s performance, will be monitored by the Stage Director who will liaise with each group. Start times must necessarily be flexible because running times cannot be predicted with complete accuracy. There will be a maximum half-hour interval between the first two plays and a maximum 20 minute interval between the second and third plays.
9) ADJUDICATION
The GoDA Adjudicator will each night give a critique after the third play and, on the Saturday night, award the prize to the Festival Winner following the adjudication. Most adjudicators are amenable to having an informal chat with groups after the conclusion of the evening’s performances, and these should be arranged on the night through the Adjudicator’s Steward. Some adjudicators, if notified in advance, offer written adjudications in return for a fee payable by individual groups.
10) PRIZE AND CHARITABLE DONATION.
The Lighthorne Festival offers the biggest prize in British amateur theatre of up to £500 to the winning group and an equal sum to a registered charity of their choice. The Festival Committee will do its best to match those figures but the prize fund total cannot be guaranteed.
The winning group will be required to nominate their chosen registered charity from the stage immediately after being declared the Winners. This means that each group must have decided in advance what their chosen charity would be. The Festival Treasurer will despatch payments to both the winning group and their chosen charity within seven days of the Festival’s conclusion, as well as writing to the winning group confirming that the donation has been sent on their behalf.
11) PUBLICITY.
Groups wishing to use the Festival to advertise forthcoming events are welcome to hand out fliers outside the hall to attendees as they leave. Posters for groups’ productions may be pinned to a noticeboard in the foyer of the Village Hall. Please contact the Committee. No publicity material will be allowed on dining tables.
12) PHOTOGRAPHY.
A Festival photographer may be positioned at the rear of the hall, shooting without a motordrive and on available light. We are confident that their activities should not distract performers but if any group wishes to unsubscribe from photography will they please let Festival organisers know before the May Briefing.
The Lighthorne Festival of One-Act Plays.