What did I love about the July 2024 National Drama Festival?
Pretty much everything I saw and heard.
Let’s start – where better ? – with the drama.
Fifteen plays delivered over six sessions in a condensed “long weekend” format, as introduced last year, and there was something to engage with and admire everywhere you looked.
In this year’s new departure, Adjudicator Keith Phillips was tasked with choosing an overall winner, as usual, but also asked to nominate six awards for outstanding theatre-making in categories of his choosing.
Keith’s illuminating and thought-provoking choices are listed elsewhere on this website but – for what they’re worth – here’s a few of my own.
“Bouncers” by John Godber, performed by Limitless Academy of Performing Arts from Royston, Herts., rightly won an Exemplary Teamwork award from Keith, but I also absolutely loved the completely unexpected and beautifully delivered rendition of Unchained Melody from Kyle Goold as Lucky Eric, adding sensitive layers to an already nuanced performance.
The introduction of child actors – in this case his own grandchildren – as a touching, closing flashback as an example of positive script development by Ste Mc in Liverpool-based Curious Imposter Production’s performance of his own play, “This Woman’s Work”.
A prize for most carefully-worded programme synopsis to Lucan Drama from the Republic of Ireland for not even hinting at the plot twist in their production of “MIM” by Mark Yeates, believably and convincingly handled by actress Marianne Bradley, in which (spoiler alert) an enchanting, ditsy female is revealed to be an animal rights murderer. I never saw it coming !
An astonishingly lifelike performance as a baby by Toby Smith in “Babysitting Calvin” by John H Newmeir, performed by The Service Players from the Isle of Man, including my favourite comedy moment, the piggyback scene, although – as an audience member pointed out – it is slightly disturbing to discover that someone, somewhere, is making and selling adult-size romper suits.
Terrific comedy teamwork from the three cast in “Friends Help You Move” by John Ward, brought by the Geneva English Drama Society, in which the dark Irish humour made me think I was watching a surrealist play by Martin McDonagh.
An unforgettable and sustained comic walk by actress Jenny Johnson, as live-in maid Millie, throughout “Gilly’s Gem” by Sandy Taylor, performed by the Woolstore Theatre Company of Wiltshire.
And, finally, the seamless interplay of verse and prose in the script of “Once This Was A Poet” by scriptwriter, poet and director Brenda Read-Brown, performed by Tewkesbury Arts and Drama Society.
My apologies to teams who performed on the Saturday night and Sunday. I couldn’t attend those sessions, but I am told there were memorable moments everywhere.
What else did I love about our long weekend in the Albany theatre in Coventry?
Well, the refurbished Albany itself. You either like or don’t like the austere functionality of the decor, but the expanded foyer and bar space made for easy mingling.
The now acoustically-isolated studio also helped deliver the morning Studio Spotlight sessions, and the “Coffee and Chat with Keith” informal wash-ups with adjudicator Keith Phillips.
In the Studio Spotlights, GoDA adjudicators Sue Doherty and Jan Palmer Sayer gave practical examples of how to improve amateur theatre.
In the Coffee and Chat with Keith sessions, participating groups, and others, were able to delve further into exemplary aspects of their productions, as identified by Keith, and – even more importantly for me – interact with each other.
The coming together of groups from different geographical and social backgrounds, to share with and to learn from each other’s theatrical knowledge and experience, has always seemed to me to be a much-valued experience for which drama festivals are the ideal vehicle.
I attended two Chat With Keith sessions and one of the Spotlights and, from the point of view of insights and information, found them to be absolutely fascinating. I wish I could have done them all.
Also, speaking as an admittedly-biased Coventrian, the city’s geographical position at the very centre of England, and as a transport hub, assists another big plus for me the Festival’s increasingly international as well as national reputation.
Going from strength-to-strength
From a position quite a short time ago when the National Drama Festival seemed to be attracting participants mostly from south-east England, it has, in the past two years, welcomed teams also from Alderney, Geneva, Germany, Gibraltar, Guernsey, the Isle of Man, Northern Ireland, and Wales as well as the length and breadth of England.
All those of us with an interest in the performing arts know that festivals in general, dramatic or musical, are coming under increasing pressure and many are falling by the wayside. One would like to think that the signs for the future of the National Drama Festival are highly positive.