17-19 April 2008
Want to go straight to the list of winners in Swansea? Photos available here.
The GDL's One-Act Play Festival has now very much established itself as a roving event. Following our departure from our long-standing home in Nantymoel, after a year in Cardiff in 2005, we moved to the Dylan Thomas Theatre, where in 2008 we were once more greeted with Swansea Little Theatre's usual skills, excellent facilities and the warmest of welcomes.
We had planned to be in Aberdare this year, but sadly Aberdare Little Theatre's demise meant that we had to set about looking for an alternative venue: Swansea stepped up to the mark, and gave us the excellent support that we have now become so used to!
GDL Chair Teri McCarthy, having had the baptism of fire organising last year's festival, set about pulling everything together like an old hand. Once again she worked wonders pulling the whole thing together, once more ably assisted at the venue by GDL Treasurer Suzy Stacey in Box Office, and GDL Delegate rep George Smith and GDL Secretary John Minkes running the raffle and various other things besides.
Last year, we missed Peggy Mason-Gray, our President, who had passed away earlier during the year. This time, we remembered Mike Barlow; our Past Chairman, stalwart of Cardiff Players, fellow GDL and DAW member, and friend. He would have been our MC for the festival, and would have undoubtedly fulfilled the role with his usual panache and charm. We remember him with warmth and a smile, and he is still very sadly missed.
The festival ran for 3 nights again this year, with all 8 productions from GDL member companies. The houses were slightly better than in previous years, especially the opening night (undoubtedly helped by the supporters of such a large cast as Stars Performing Arts) and all the shows were given a warm reception. On the last night, The Unknown Theatre Company, from Cardiff, also provided some musical entertainment with songs from their recent musical production while GODA Adjudicator David Hedley Williams totted up the marks for the evening.
On the whole there was quite a serious emphasis to this year's festival, with several of the plays dealing in very dark subject matter, so the light relief offered by Swansea Little Theatre's Funeral Games and Telstars Parasites was very welcome, along with the glee and enthusiasm offered by Swansea Youth Academy's The Fairyland Detective Agency and Cardiff youth group Stars Performing Arts's Romeo and Juliet.
The adjudicator commented in his final summing up that while it was encouraging to see so many entries from youth groups (4 of the 8), he thought it surprising - and something of a shame - that with an area with the population of Glamorgan, the competition could only call on entries from two adult companies. He noted that other, much more sparsely populated areas of Wales such as Montgomeryshire had many more companies involved than the GDL. But he enjoyed the festival, and congratulated everyone for such high standards and for providing such excellent entertainment.
Full details of the winners are listed below:
Adjudicator David Hedley Williams has now finished his round of the Welsh regional competitions, allotting marks to each production. The productions with the top six marks within Wales were then invited to perform at the Welsh One-Act Play final which was held in Blackwood Miners' Institute on 6th and 7th June.
The announcement of the Wales finalists was made on May 14th. Last year, 3 productions originating from the GDL round made it through to the Welsh final, with one ultimately representing Wales at the British final. This year, it fell to Telstars Theatre Company - the only GDL entry to reach the final this year - to aim for the heights and they delivered an absolutely first-class performance. However, on the night, Blackwood Little Theatre were on blistering form with their Last Tango in Blackwood, and that was the production that GODA Adjudicator Paul Fowler chose as the winner, and which will now go on to represent Wales at the British Final in Swansea on 4th and 5th July.
The Wales One-Act finalists this year were:
FRIDAY
1. One Season's King New Tabernacle Players
2. Watching the Magpies Telstars
3. Last Tango in Blackwood Blackwood Little Theatre
SATURDAY
1. Auto Da Fe Castle Players ADS, Beaumaris
2. Lucy in the Sky Phoenix Theatre Company, Clwyd
3. A Dog's Life Guilsfield ADS
The finalists for the British Final were
| Blackwood Little Theatre (Wales) | Last Tango in Blackwood | David Tristram |
| The Holywood Players (Northern Ireland) | The Bay at Nice | David Hare |
| Stewarton Drama Group (Scotland) | One Good Beating | Linda McLean |
| St Paul's Drama Group (England) | Happy Jack | John Godber |
Despite a greatly enjoyable performance from Blackwood, the standards of production wer very high, the eventual winner of the British final was Scotland's entry from Stewarton Drama Group, One Good Beating by Linda McLean. Adjudicator was GODA chairman, Chris Jaeger.
Winners at the 2008 GDL Festival were:
name of award |
winner |
production |
group |
Glamorgan County Cup for the Glamorgan Drama League production to attain the highest marks in the competition |
The Company | Watching the Magpies by Les Clarke | Telstars Theatre Company |
| Bob McTurk Memorial Trophy for Best Director | Nerys Jones | Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare adapted by Nerys Jones | Stars Performing Arts |
Best Individual Performance Award |
Suzanne Mainwaring as Dottie | Watching the Magpies by Les Clarke | Telstars Theatre Company |
The Bea Wells Memorial Trophy for the Best Comedy Performance
|
Jo West as Polly | Parasites by Margaret Kynaston | Telstars Theatre Company |
Youth Trophy - donated by Mari Major |
The Company | Crave by Sarah Kane | The Unknown Theatre Company |
The Jean Howell Trophy Adjudicator's Award |
Dafydd Lansley | Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare adapted by Nerys Jones | Stars Performing Arts |
Entries for the 2008 Festival came from:
| Thursday | ||
| Swansea Little Theatre | The Room | Graham Jones |
| Stars Performing Arts | Romeo & Juliet (STARS Cross'd Lovers) | William Shakespeare adapted by Nerys Jones |
| Dylan Thomas Youth Academy | The Fairyland Detective Agency | Vin Morreale, Jr |
| Friday | ||
| Telstars Theatre Company | Watching the Magpies | Les Clarke |
| The Unknown Theatre Company | Crave | Sarah Kane |
| Telstars Theatre Company | Parasites | Margaret Kynaston |
| Saturday | ||
| The Unknown Theatre Company | This Property is Condemned | Tennessee Williams |
| Swansea Little Theatre | Funeral Games | Joe Orton |
| Guest performance on Saturday night from The Unknown Theatre Company with musical extracts from their recent production of Return to the Forbidden Planet. | ||
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