The Studio SpotlightS
We extended the number of Studio Spotlights for the 2025 festival with each one again focusing on a specific subject, giving you the chance to listen, air your views, ask your questions and leave the session feeling informed and inspired!
Studio Spotlights are included
Simply purchase a ticket for at least one of the Play Sessions (£15 per session or £60 for all 6) and come along to all of the other activities taking place, including any Studio Spotlights and Feedback Forum sessions.
Read the descriptions below and then click to jump down the page to read more.
Explore puppetry, shadow play and live projection techniques for your productions
with Strange Futures Theatre Company
This Studio Spotlightwas for anyone involved in amateur theatre who wanted to explore new techniques and have their imagination ignited!
Bring your play to life during the rehearsal process
with writer Mark Wheeller and GoA Adjudicator Sue Doherty
This Studio Spotlight was for existing and budding Directors of theatre productions (one-act or full length) wishing to explore proven rehearsal techniques by using an excerpt from ‘Game Over’ by Mark Wheeller, published by Salamander Street.
Build a successful play writing and performing community
with Sharon Colpman (Co-founder Make It Write Productions)
This Studio Spotlight was for existing and budding playwrights, theatre groups and anyone interested in understanding how to collaborate and get new one-act plays out there for all to see.
From page to stage to publishing
with writer Bev Clark
This Studio Spotlight was for anyone interested in exploring how an original script can become a production and from there, possibly become a published play.
‘Shelter’ by Jenny Derbyshire – the winner of the 2024/25 Derek Jacobi Playwriting Award (Isle of Man Festival)
with Bev Clark and Sue Doherty
Immediately following ‘From page to stage to publishing’ we’ were treated to a studio performance of ‘Shelter’, and explored with Bev Clark, Sue Doherty and Jenny Derbyshire why it was the deserved winner of the Derek Jacobi award.
Explore puppetry, shadow play and live projection techniques for your productions
with Strange Futures Theatre Company
Join award-nominated, Malvern-based theatre company Strange Futures and learn about the puppetry, shadow play, and live projection techniques they’ve used in their recent productions.
You’ll discover why and how puppetry enhances storytelling on stage, and see custom-made puppets brought vividly to life. You will also experience creative shadow puppetry exercises using everyday objects, bodies, and imaginative lighting, along with interactive experiments in live video projection, offering texture, backdrop, and playful interactions.
Come ready to be inspired, ask questions, and even get involved in live demonstrations to unlock new possibilities for your theatrical creations both for festivals and in your own theatre.
About Strange Futures
Strange Futures is a neurodivergent-led theatre company founded in 2019 and operating as a social enterprise (CIC) since 2023.
Their work blends visual theatre with clowning, puppetry, physicality, absurdism, and new writing, crafting poignant, humorous, and visually striking stories that resonate with diverse audiences.
Led by Co-Artistic Directors Matthew Simmonds, William Moore, and Jane George, Strange Futures has developed a strong reputation for critically acclaimed, award-nominated work. Alongside their nationally reaching productions, Strange Futures champion local voices and artists through community touring and creative workshops.
Read more about Strange Futures here
Bring your play to life during the rehearsal process
with writer Mark Wheeller and GoDA Adjudicator Sue Doherty
With Too Much Punch For Judy having been performed over 6,000 times and Chicken nearly 6,000, Mark Wheeller’s work challenges young people and adults alike to think about the real world and challenging issues. It comes as no surprise that his plays are very popular choices for festivals.
In this session Mark and GoDA Adjudicator Sue Doherty will take a key scene from his hard hitting verbatim play “Game Over” which tells the harrowing true story of teenager Breck Bednar who was groomed over the internet and brutally murdered by a supposed “friend” he met online.
Using the excerpt they will look at ways to explore the text in rehearsal and provoke discussion about staging. They’ll also investigate why – all too often – an interpretation of a text can lack imagination and impact and therefore fail to achieve the intended impression, resulting in fewer marks in the Direction and Dramatic Achievement sections of the GoDA marking scheme.
About Mark Wheeller
Mark is one of the most-performed playwrights in Britain. He’s a great advocate of theatre festivals and a solid supporter of the benefits of the adjudication system. “One Million Stop The Traffic” has reached the British Final of One Act Plays, with performances of many other of his plays reaching the English Final.
“I Love You Mum – I Promise I Won’t Die”, premiered at the Brit School is toured professionally by both TieItUp and Wizard Theatre Company. It is now a set text along with “Missing Dan Nolan” and “Hard to Swallow” for the GSCE Drama 9-1 exams.
Mark is a retired Drama teacher, Youth Theatre Director and runs workshops across the world and in the last few years across the UK, Luxembourg, Hong Kong and Dubai.
Read more about Mark Wheeller here
About Sue Doherty
Sue’s experience and dedication to arts education and theatre spans four decades and she has delivered numerous successful Studio Spotlight sessions at the National Drama Festival in recent years exploring the adjudication process and what makes a winning production.
During her time as Head of a large Performing Arts Faculty at St Julies High School Liverpool, examination results were consistently amongst the highest in national league tables. Her priority was to provide enrichment challenges and opportunities which would prepare students for future training and employment in the performance industry.
Many of Sue’s pupils have since studied at prestigious establishments including RADA, Guildhall and LIPA and have achieved success in the world of stage and screen These include Katherine Rose Morley (Last Tango in Halifax and The Syndicate) Laura Frances Morgan (The Culprits and The Hollow Crown) and BAFTA winner Jodie Comer, who still calls Sue ‘Miss’!
Since joining the Guild of Drama Adjudicators (GoDA) in 2013 Sue has been in demand as an adjudicator and practitioner and passionately believes every young person should have access to the arts as part of their education, no matter what their background and individual ability.
Sue now works as a freelance teacher and drama coach and is also Vice Chair of governors at the prestigious Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts Sixth Form College. She coaches students for auditions and supports teaching staff.
Other projects include consultancy work and script writing. Her achievements in verbatim theatre include a production exploring dementia “She isn’t my Mother Anymore” which was performed at The Liverpool Everyman. She passionately believes that drama is an invaluable tool in raising awareness of social and historical issues.
Build a successful play writing and performing community
with Sharon Colpman (Co-founder Make It Write Productions)
The winner of the Derek Jacobi Award in 2024 (Brian Hutchinson with ‘Keys To ‘Life’) wrote the play with the support and encouragement of the Liverpool-based Make It Write community hub, who then helped bring the play to life on stage.
Co-founder Sharon Colpman believes that everyone has a story to share and a role to play and has helped to build a collaborative community of writers and amateur drama groups., with a mission of producing support group for developing artists.
Listen and understand how Sharon has developed the thriving Make it Write community, and learn how she and the team have encouraged and facilitated the partnering with other theatre groups, online creatives, and film producers to not just push boundaries, but to erase them altogether.
About Sharon Colpman and Make It Write
Sharon Colpman has been writing plays for 25 years, starting out in community theatre writing bespoke, ‘big cast’ plays for a theatre troupe. She was a founding member of two theatre groups; one in Andover and one in Salisbury, one for community theatre and one for the promotion of female creatives.
In 2012 she was accepted onto the emerging writers’ workshop for Out of Joint Theatre, the Royal Court and Salisbury Playhouse. Having had nine community productions her first professional piece was in 2013 at the Salisbury Playhouse, a short play as part of “How I got here”, for local writers.
After recovering from cancer, Sharon moved to Cheshire and wrote a community theatre piece with Stephanie Louise, devised by women recovering from breast cancer. It was performed at Manchester central as part of an awareness-raising event.
At this time, she also founded Make it Write, as she was experiencing difficulties in the leap from amateur to professional acceptance for her plays. She realised that other writers were going through the same struggle and felt a producing support group for developing artists was required.
Her first full length, professional play, Start Square, about loneliness and domestic abuse in an elderly relationship, was performed in 2019 and 2020 at Hope Street Theatre, Liverpool and the Gladstone Theatre, Port Sunlight. She now concentrates her efforts on radio and short plays whilst she mentors others.
She has been nominated for the Female Business awards this year in 4 categories.
Read more about Make it Write here
How to have a successful festival journey
with Pete Heppelthwaite (CEO of Limitless Academy of Performing Arts)
The Limitless students have competed and performed at many theatre festivals over many years and clearly love it! Not only do they love it, they’re very good at it. Why is that? What do Limitless do that makes them stand out to GoDA adjudicators? What goes on behind the scenes? How do they approach their productions – both one-act and full-length?
Peter Heppelthwaite joins us to explain his enthusiasm for one-act festivals and to take us virtually behind-the-scenes to share some of the secrets behind his success with Limitless.
About Peter Heppelthwaite and Limitless
Peter trained at Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, graduating in 1991. Upon leaving drama school Peter secured his first TV role in Two Point Four Children but is probably best known for creating and playing the role of “Jed” in the BBC1 spin off of only Fools and Horses, The Green Green Grass.
As Founding Member of Limitless, Peter is delighted to be in a position to now be able to share the knowledge and joy of his career. Being a father of three, he is massively aware of the huge benefits and fun children gain from opportunities and experiences such as Limitless can offer.
Limitless Academy of Performing Arts in Hertfordshire is a multi-award-winning theatre school offering a part-time drama school experience.
The Limitless students regularly perform in high level productions every year and have over 80 awards for their productions across one act festival plays, short films, and full length musicals performed in theatres across the country. Their students have also won individual best actor awards on local, national and international platforms.
From page to stage to publishing
with writer Bev Clark
Being a published playwright, director, producer and adjudicator, Bev Clark has seen all the ups and downs of taking a new piece of work through the process. By exploring her experiences she will discuss the obstacles and pitfalls, as well as the ‘joys’ of being in control of your own work and getting paid for it.
She will look at what happens once you have written a play, how to put it on and whether you can publish it, touching on the subject of initial funding, copyright, earning royalties and the ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts of new writing. Also included in this session will be the winner of The Derek Jacobi Playwriting competition.
About Bev Clark
Bev Clark has sixteen published plays with Stagescripts but has written over 30 pieces for theatre. She spent most of her career as a director, producer and from 2011-2023 as a GoDA adjudicator.
She has worked at the Bristol Old Vic and The Palace Theatre Essex, as well as working in T.I.E in the Northwest. She led arts projects in various communities including a community musical for Capital of Culture 2008 with over 200 Wirral participants. In 2011 she was presented to Her Majesty the Queen for her work with young people in the Arts.
She has worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company on three occasions and part of her 2015 production of A Winter’s Tale was showcased at Stratford upon Avon, representing the North. She has written and directed at the Gaity Theatre Isle of Man 2015 (Theatrefest) and run workshops for devised theatre including Warwick University International Baccalaureate.
Also in 2015 her play “The Black Eyes” won an international competition for short plays for young people and was published the following year.
Her plays have won many awards at festivals and been performed all over the UK, as well as Ireland, Canada, South America and Pakistan.
LAMDA and Guildhall trained, Bev has a level 3 Creative Entrepreneur Diploma and accredited courses in scriptwriting and creative writing. She has also published poetry and short prose in various anthologies. She was artistic director of Hand in Hand Theatre 2008-2018 and more recently Bus Stop Productions 2019-2024.
Read more about Bev Clark here
A Studio performance of ‘Shelter’ by Jenny Derbyshire – the winner of the 2024/25 Derek Jacobi Playwriting Award (Isle of Man Festival)
with Bev Clark and Sue Doherty
Immediately following the ‘From page to stage to publishing’ Studio Spotlight, we’ll be treated to a studio performance of ‘Shelter’, and explore with Bev Clark, Sue Doherty and Jenny Derbyshire why it was the deserved winner of the Derek Jacobi award.
Read about Jenny and her Derek Jacobi Playwriting Award win here
