This information was updated on 8 January 2013.
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As our regular Drama Festival patrons will know the future of the Felixstowe Festival is very uncertain. The Spa Pavilion Theatre itself is now 'dark' until its future is decided by Suffolk Coastal District Council who are the owners of the building. Once this has been determined then the Drama Festival committee will hold an Extraordinary General Meeting to decide the future of the Felixstowe Festival itself.
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 Festival 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 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 on the final night 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.
As many of you will know, Mona Vince was closely connected with the Festival for many years. As part of our 40th anniversary celebrations Mona wrote 'A History of Felixstowe Drama Festivals 1949-1989'. The current Festival Director, Alan Dix, used Mona's document as the basis for his History of the Felixstowe Festival which was published in our Diamond Anniversary programme. This and other recollections of Festivals past can be found under the History of the Festival link above.
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.
