NEWSLETTER Monthly News & Info
FEBRUARY 2008
Harold Jolliffe - One act play festival
This years annual "Harold Joliffe" One Act Play Festival took place at Swindon
Arts Centre from 14th - 16th February 2008, and once again PVADS were successful.
The youth entry, directed by Nettie Powell, was "Fall of the House of Usher"
by Edgar Allan Poe. It won the Brenda Lilley Loving Cup for Best youth performance
and the June Thompson Memorial Cup for Best Dramatic Endeavour. The production
also had nominations for best technical, best director and nominations for
best youth actor for Ben Bateman, Poppy Bunce, Kate Powell and most unusually
for the Stones en masse!!!
The adjudicator was very complimentary saying it was a challenging play, and
that it was faithful to Edgar Allen Poes original script. It was tackled imaginatively
and had left him with memorable images that would stay with him for a long
time!!! The youth group now go on to represent Wiltshire in the Five Counties
Youth at the Bouverie Hall on the 26th April.
As always the production was superbly supported by Jonathon Barley who managed
the difficult sound track and effects to perfection, and Rob Bottoms who created
a fantastic atmosphere with the lights.
The Adult production was a fast paced comedy called "Verve" by Marc Lucas
and saw the Society come away with the "BBC Radio Swindon Audience Award"
for best play, and saw nominations for Emma Harris and Alex Cuff for best
Actress. Director Darren Little was responsible for putting together the production
in only 3 weeks and wanted to thank all those involved for their time and
dedication.
Please make a note of this
year's AGM to be held at the Royal Oak, Pewsey on April 8th - 7.30 for 8pm.
This year's spring play will
be "Comic Potential" by Alan Ayckbourn. Set in the future, soap operas are
acted by robots who write their own scripts. Everything rolls along smoothly
until one powerful but naive man, a nephew of a television station owner who
hopes to restore some real human drama to television, falls in love with one
of the soap-opera robots. This is a critically acclaimed play, with lots of
laughs and is a fairly modern play.