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Our 58th Felixstowe Drama Festival has come and gone. The full results of a very successful eight days can be found by clicking on Previous Festival Winners in the list above. Planning for 2009, our 59th Festival, begins almost immediately.
If you have any questions about the festival which are not answered on these pages please contact the Festival Director Alan Dix either by telephone on 01394 274203 or by e-mail.
Perhaps your drama group is thinking of participating in next year's 59th Festival. If so, why not follow the link above to look at the 2008 Syllabus to see what is involved. The 2009 version will be available to download shortly.
Following a suggestion by Mona Vince, the first Annual Felixstowe Drama Festival of Full Length Plays, to use its full name, was held in 1951 and it has taken place annually since. The festival, which is run by a committee, is a full member of the National Drama Festivals Association (NDFA).
Towards the end of the year previous to each festival amateur drama groups throughout the UK are invited to submit their plays for consideration. From those submitted the committee choose a short list who are then invited to perform at Felixstowe. Although comedy is always popular, the aim in choosing the plays is to have a broad balance of high quality entertainment spread throughout the festival week.
Before the actual performance commences on the opening Saturday night there is a short Opening Ceremony then, following each night's performance, the adjudicator gives the audience a brief idea of his or her thoughts on the play itself, the way the producer and technical team handled the production and how the performers themselves played their particular character.
All of this culminates eight days later on the final Saturday when, after the performance, the adjudicator will briefly talk to the audience and then make up his or her mind about who has won which of the various trophies. There is then a short Closing Ceremony, during which the awards are presented to the winners. Winning the Felixstowe Festival qualifies the team for invitation to perform in the National All-Winners Festival. Details of this event, along with other information about the organisation, can be found on the NDFA web site.
The 2009 Festival will be held as usual over the May Bank Holiday week at the Spa Pavilion Theatre on Felixstowe's picturesque seafront. Performances begin each evening at 7.30pm.
Once booking opens tickets can be booked in any of the following ways:
Seat prices for next year will be announced as soon as they are agreed.
When booking directly with the Felixstowe box office there is a charge of £1.50 per transaction if you use a credit card. There is no charge if you use a debit card. For any transaction there will be an additional charge of £1.00 if you wish your tickets to be posted to you.
When booking through Ticketmaster, using either the 24hr. phone number or on-line, there will be a per ticket service and booking charge.
By becoming a Friend of the Felixstowe Drama Festival you will be able to:
If you are interested in becoming a Friend of the Festival and would like to know more please contact any member of the committee.
* subject to availability
Our Adjudicator for next year will be announced as soon as their name is confirmed.
The Plays and Players for next year's festival will be announced as soon as they are confirmed, probably in late March 2009.
Each performance is broken down into four areas - acting, production, stage presentation (set, costume, sound and lighting) and endeavour, originality or attainment. The performance of each team in each area is then awarded marks by the adjudicator according to the System of Marking shown below. The winner is decided by the aggregate marks given by the adjudicator. The first nine trophies are awarded in this way. The SCDC Trophy is awarded at the discretion of the adjudicator to anyone for any aspect of the festival which he or she feels should be rewarded, but, it is not necessarily awarded at every festival. The winners of the last two trophies are decided by the Friends of the Festival who are present in the Last Night audience. Their voting slips are collected up and counted by the Festival stewards whilst the adjudicator is making the final decisions about who has won what.
