AN NDFA INSIGHT ...
The secret diary of a theatre festival addict (aged 41 3/4)
Let’s take a peek at Jamie’s Festival Diary entries from October 2024 to August 2025 …
Dear diary,
I admit it – I’m a festival addict. There, I’ve said it.
Looking back at my diary entries over the last year or so, I realise just how much inspiration, fulfillment, and sheer chaotic joy the festival season has given me.
So, Diary, let’s go back to where it all began…
Friday October 18th 2024
I’m at home, staring at my phone, willing it to ring. Like last year. And the year before.
Earlier this week, the very talented Brightlight Theatre performed my latest play, Songkeeper, at the final ever Woking Drama Festival.
Months of rehearsal, a rollercoaster of emotions (especially knowing this was our last Woking), and now the waiting game: would we get the call back for the gala night?
The performance went well – a few technical hiccups, but on the festival circuit you learn to adapt. You get one short tech slot to plot every light and sound cue. (My personal record? 82 lighting cues in 40 minutes. I didn’t speak to the director for a week afterwards.)
Our adjudication from the GoDA Adjudicator Chris Jaeger had been really positive. Waiting for an adjudication is nerve-wracking – someone is about to assess months of work – but it’s absolute gold dust. Having an experienced eye pinpoint why a moment soared (or why it fell flat) is invaluable, and over the years we’ve learned so much from those sessions.
We first entered the Woking Festival in 2016 with the first “serious” play I ever wrote, The Start of Something – a title that has proven to be true in many ways. Since then I’ve written a new festival one-act each year, won the Derek Jacobi Playwriting Award in 2017, and had plays published by Stagescripts.
None of it would have happened without the festival network championing new writing.
My phone rings. It’s Lyn from Woking. We’ve been recalled for the final night of the final festival.
Relief. Excitement. And the chance for a proper farewell onstage.
Saturday October 19th 2024
What. A. Night.
We won. Best Play … Best New Play … Best Actor … Best Lighting … Best Backstage Management.
A small avalanche of nominations.
We were over the moon.
But whilst winning was amazing – and at the risk of sounding like the middle-aged parent I am – it really is the taking part that matters. We caught lightning in a bottle this time, but other years we’ve fallen short of our hopes. Those years were formative. They helped us grow as a group.
Diary – here are my tips for competing in festivals:
Watch as much of the festival as you can
Seeing what other groups are doing – and hearing their adjudications – is the best education you’ll get. You will leave thinking, “I’m definitely stealing that for next year.”
Master the 10-minute set and 5-minute strike
Brutal but brilliant. It forces you to be pragmatic about design and staging. It teaches design discipline, teamwork, and how to solve impossible problems under pressure.
Talk to everyone
The post-show bar is where half the learning happens. Swap stories, share ideas, and reassure each other that yes, everyone else is also losing sleep over how to get a prop from one side of the stage to the other for that crucial moment.
1st January 2025
New year, new festivals.
With Woking now part of history, we’re trying out some new local festivals this year.
There’s a whole host across the country, and luckily there are three or four within an hour’s drive.
So we’ve revived The Start of Something for the Maidenhead Festival – a great chance to experience other festivals. Whilst the rules and processes are similar, the more familiar you are with the organising committees (always friendly!) and the technical specs of each venue, the better.
Touring between festivals is its own adventure. We’ve taken shows from 20-metre stages to ones barely six metres wide. Flexible blocking and staging becomes your best friend.
But here’s the big news, Diary: as winners of Woking, we’ve been invited to perform Songkeeper at the National Drama Festival (NDF) in Bromsgrove this August. We’re planning on performing Songkeeper again at Welwyn Drama Festival just before the NDF. which will be a great chance for us to get it back on its feet.
4th May 2025
We performed The Start of Something at Maidenhead and were thrilled to come third.
It’s a warm, friendly festival and definitely one we’ll return to. As well as being NDFA-affiliated, the Maidenhead Festival is also part of the All England Theatre Festival (AETF) knockout competition, so third place qualified us for the Eastern Area Semi-Final.
"Waiting for an adjudication is nerve-wracking - someone is about to assess months of work - but it’s absolute gold dust."
We didn’t win, but it was a real bonus to perform it again. It reminded me that it’s critical to pick the right play. Try to find something that will stretch your group.
I write our festival pieces, and I always try to make sure there’s a pure theatrical moment in there somewhere. A moment of magic that you can build towards.
In Songkeeper it was the appearance of a whale. But whether it’s a published classic or a piece of new writing, it has to showcase your cast’s strengths and, of course, fit within the time limits!
24th May 2025
We just performed Songkeeper at Welwyn Festival.
It was the first staging of the play since Woking, and adapting it to a smaller venue has been really helpful to prepare us for the flexibility we’ll need at the National Drama Festival.
I also heard, Diary, that Songkeeper was runner-up in the Derek Jacobi Playwriting Award this year.
The circuit’s support for new writers is incredible: national awards, new writing trophies, feedback forums… it’s played a huge role in my writing career and without it, I’d never have had my plays produced across the world.
If you’re an aspiring writer, partnering with a group and working through festivals is a great way to get your writing staged and seen.
But now the local festivals are complete, all our focus turns to the NDF.
4th August 2025
I’ve just arrived home from the National Drama Festival. What a weekend.
We decided not only to perform at our invited slot, but to throw ourselves into everything the NDF offers – workshops, feedback forums, talks, social events, the lot. Best decision we made.
We learned puppetry techniques in one workshop; new rehearsal processes in another.
We participated in lively feedback sessions debating script interpretation with directors from across the country.
We watched astonishing performances – from high-concept physical theatre to breathtaking naturalism – from groups across the UK and Europe.
Brightlight Theatre below, ‘throwing themselves into everything the NDF offers”.
A sea of pink and yellow!
The winning play, in particular, (Extracts from MODEST by Ellen Brammar, performed by TACT) stunned me into silence for the rest of the evening – which, as my wife would tell you, is no mean feat.
It was a reminder of how vast, diverse, and immensely inventive the amateur scene is.
We made new friends. We laughed late into the night. We came home with five award nominations and enough fresh ideas to last us into next year and beyond.
Not every journey ends at the NDF, of course. It’s a wonderful goal, but the learning happens all the way along the circuit – at every festival, in every adjudication, with every group you meet.
Today
I’m back at my laptop, finishing a draft of my next festival piece.
The first one that won’t be debuted at Woking – but that I’m still so very excited to bring to life in the festival circuit. I couldn’t have written it without the creativity, boldness, and inspiration I absorbed at the NDF.Final thoughts…
If you are a group debating whether to enter a festival this year: Do it. You will lose sleep, you will panic about runtimes and tech and whether you can build the set in 10 minutes, and you will age five years waiting for the adjudication. But you will also grow closer as a cast, improve as artists, and be part of a community that celebrates this wonderful, ridiculous, brilliant thing we call amateur theatre."The more familiar you are with the organising committees (always friendly!) and the technical specs of each venue, the better."
And if you’re not quite ready to enter yet, go and watch a few festivals. Come to the National Drama Festival in Bromsgrove in August.
See this world for yourself. You might just catch the festival bug too!
Jamie’s festival plays – including The Start of Something and Songkeeper – are published by
Stagescripts. Other scripts by Jamie are published at Lazy Bee Scripts.
A few other links:
NDFA-affiliated festivals
Festivals that are part of the All England Theatre Festival
Festivals that are part of the Scottish Community Drama Association
Derek Jacobi Playwriting Award
Geoffrey Whitworth Playwriting Award