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Well its 2010 already, we hope your New Year will be a good one. Detailed planning for our Diamond Festival in May now steps up a gear with the committee spending much time reading and discussing all the entries received before selecting the plays and players who are to be invited to take part. As soon as details are available they will be added to our pages so check back regularly to keep up to date.
At last, after much diligent research by our Festival Director Alan Dix, we have been able to update the Previous Festival Winners page. It now covers the Winners and Runners-up since the beginning in 1951, with a few exceptions in the early years. If you could help fill in the blanks or you have any questions about the festival which are not answered on these pages please do contact Alan either by telephone on 01394 274203 or by e-mail.
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 information about other member Festivals, can be found on the National Drama Festivals Association web site.
The 2010 Festival will be held as usual over the May Bank Holiday week at the Spa Pavilion Theatre on Felixstowe's picturesque seafront. Performances will begin each evening at 7.30pm. but there will be NO PERFORMANCE on the Wednesday.
Tickets can be booked in any of the following ways:
Tickets should be on general sale from 30th March 2010. For current ticket prices please contact the Box Office.
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
In 2010 our Diamond Festival will see Tony Rushforth making a welcome return to Felixstowe.
Tony studied at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London and acted with the Harrogate Repertory Company and also directed productions at the Bradford Playhouse, the Ashcroft Theatre in Croydon and at the Edinburgh Festival.
For twenty years he was Head of the Drama Department at St. Mary's University College in Strawberry Hill. He spent six months as Visiting Fellow in Performing Arts at Melbourne University and adjudicated the Sydney Theatre Festival before returning to act in the film The Opium Wars. For six years Tony was the Artistic Director of The Questors International Theatre Festival in Ealing which enabled him to to travel and see the work of many European companies.
More recently he has been busy directing and also teaching Theatre Workshops in the UK and in Europe and for the Drama League of Ireland where his travels have taken him to Dublin, Cork, Galway and two Summer Schools at Maynooth University. Tony writes for the theatre and his plays include The Kerry Dance, Close-Up, Charade and Seascape. For six years he was a judge for the NDFA New Play Award.
Tony Rushforth is a Licentiate of the Royal Academy of Music, a member of The Writers Guild, The Society for Theatre Research and The Guild of Drama Adjudicators. He also has an MA in Modern Drama. He has adjudicated the Irish, Scottish, English and Welsh One Act Finals. In 2004 and 2007 he adjudicated the All Ireland Finals in Athlone and Wexford and last year was at the One Act International Festival in Brussels.
Tony is delighted to be paying a return visit to the prestigious Felixstowe Festival.
The Plays and Players for 2010 will be shown as soon as they are announced.
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.
