22-24 April 2010
Want to go straight to the list of winners in Swansea? The photogallery of the evening will be available shortly.
Once again then, back to our familiar home for the Glamorgan One-Act Play Festival: The Dylan Thomas Theatre, hosted by Swansea Little Theatre. We're on familiar turf here, and many of the usual faces were around to help and support all the entrants.
GDL Chair Teri McCarthy was once more at the helm, with her team of GDL helpers lending their support with box office, raffle, publicity etc. Thanks, as ever, to George Smith, Annette Littlechild, Jane Donoghue, Lon David and Ben Wheeler and the Swansea Box Office crew for all their help in these areas. It was unusual this year that Suzy Stacey, so long a key member of the support/preparation team for the Festival. who this year attended in her new capacity of Director of the Drama Association of Wales. Lovely to see Suzy back on form, but we did miss her help beforehand!
Suzy was accompanied each night by DAW PR/Membership supremo, Teresa Hennessy, who brought along her DAW 'roadshow' enabling participants and guests to the Festival to see the latest offerings that the DAW has to offer. DAW brought with them, as their special guest for the last night, Frank Vickery, whose plays are so regularly performed by GDL member companies: although not during this festival, as Ian Sarginson pointed out at the awards ceremony!
The GDL was were also delighted to welcome, as our special guest to the festival, Huw Dylan Ellis, grandson of Dylan Thomas. Huw officially joined us for the last night, but unofficially was with us all week. He clearly enjoyed the week's offerings and was regularly to be spotted in the foyer between and after the shows sharing his thoughts on the performances and encouraging the companies - especially the youth groups.
Thanks are due, as ever, to Swansea Little Theatre for their support of the festival, and to Suzanne Kibble who accompanied festival adjudicator Ian Sarginson GODA, who this year was making a return visit to the Glamorgan Festival following his success in the role last year. This year, Swansea was this year the 5th of 7 regional rounds Ian attended.
We enjoyed, yet again, the usual sterling support from all the technical, FOH and bar crew at Swansea Little Theatre, led by the ever-smiling Festival Stage Manager Ben Wheeler.
Altogether, then, another successful festival, with all 9 productions from GDL member companies - as is now the norm. Also becoming the norm is that the houses are smaller than we would like, but there was a good crowd on the last night - not least because of number of supporters came from Telstars Theatre Company, who had come along not only to support their fellow company members, but also to hear Telstars Chair, Kay Baber, pay tribute to Telstars veteran David Davies. Telstars have donated a new trophy - which will be used for the adult winners of the festival - which is dedicated to David Davies's memory.
After much discussion over the course of the year about the awards at the One- Act festival, it was decided that the Glamorgan County Cup for the overall winning production at the festival would not be awarded at all at the festival, as there were now separate awards for the youth and adult categories. Last year, the Glamorgan County Cup was used for the adult production, but it was felt that it came with too many connotations of being the overall winner of the festival: not fair on any youth award winner, which might well gain more points than the adult winning entry, but which might still be perceived as not having won the festival, simply because of the trophy being given. It is very much hoped that through the use of the new trophy, such preconceptions will be removed and the situation will be much more equitable for everyone.
On the last night, as has become something of a tradition, The Unknown Theatre Company, from Cardiff, provided some musical entertainment with songs from their recent musical production Masters of the Musical while Adjudicator Ian Sarginson totted up the marks for the evening.
Three adult companies and three youth companies (The Unknown Theatre Company, Bridgend Castle Players and Telstars performed 2 plays each) brought a varied programme, which contined to illustrate the diversity and confidence still so clearly to be found in amateur theatre in this part of Wales.
There was new writing once again from STARS Performing Arts, with Nerys Jones's Under the Stars providing a beautifully costumed children's play about animals of the forest and their battle to survive in the human world; we had painful and direct discussions of some of the bleaker aspects of human existence with Telstars' challenging Ritual for Dolls tackling the subject of racism, The Unknown Theatre Company's Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) exploring the after-effects of bullying amongst young people, and Gelligaer Young Farmers touched on issues such as child abuse and abortion with their challenging Lear's Daughters.
Human nature never changes, and the Dylan Thomas Youth Academy's production of Antigone explored the perennial human characteristics of pride, of stubborness and of the human capacity for loyalty to family.
But it wasn't all serious: there was also a good balance of comedy, with Telstars Interior Designs opening the Festival with a smile, which was followed through the week with Bridgend Castle Players' two entries: From Here to The Library and What Shall We Do With The Body? and The Unknown Theatre Company's short piece of recent American writing, Cotton Girls.
Full details of the winners are listed below.
This year though, will be remembered as much for the things that happened offstage as on: this was the year when GDL President, Geoff Lake, was unable to make in time the trip back to Wales from Florida with his wife Barbara, because the volcanic ash from Iceland closed British airspace for a week.
Then, on the Friday, we had to deal with the closing of the M4 motorway between Llantrisant and Pencoed for most of the day. This meant that anyone east of Bridgend was going to have a nightmare to travel anywhere, as all surrounding roads were seized up with traffic. Cotton Girls from The Unknown Theatre Company were on the case, and managed to get through early, but Jane Donoghue and Annette Littlechild, intended FOH support for the night, only managed to make it after 9pm, having queued for several hours. GDL Chair and Festival Organiser, Teri McCarthy, travelling with GDL Secretary Suzanne Kibble, failed to make it at all, having sat in their car in Cardif for hours.
Then, on Saturday night, an unexpected Mayor arrived: thinking on our toes managed to get us through the formalities required. We were very disappointed to find out that also, that night, the theatre was burgled, and our week's takings for programmes and raffle tickets was stolen. A bitter taste on which to end the week, which had been so exciting and had given so much to enjoy.
But it all ended with a smile when we got the results from the whole of the Wales round...
Last year, two productions originating from the GDL round made it through to the Welsh Final, and this year, we did it again. This year, it was Telstars Theatre Company with Ritual for Dolls and The Unknown Theatre Company's Cotton Girls that made it through (unusual for a youth company to make it through to the final - and now Unknown make it two years in a row).
As is turned out, Glamorgan did really well: Telstars Theatre Company's Ritual for Dolls won The Bernleigh Award – for Best Presentation - and The Unknown Theatre Company's Cotton Girls won the overall festival, with The Maynard Cup - for the overall Best Production. This means that Unknown will be heading up to the British Final at the end of June in Scotland to represent Wales: the first time a youth theatre group from Wales has done so, as far as anyone can remember. There have been no Welsh winners of the British Final since 1992, so we were keeping everything crossed for Unknown...
But in the end it was Ireland who won, with an outstanding comedy production Melody by Lurig Drama Group. It was an excellent, lively festival, full to the brim with young performers which brought a vibrancy and an energy to the festival that is rarely seen - especially the dancing at the Friday night party! The Unknown Theatre Company represented Wales extremely well - and despite their best ever performance, ultimately they were an extremely valuable warm-up act to the Irish who were the last to perform at the festival, bringing down the house with a detailed and completely professional-standard production.
So now we have to wait another year to hope that Wales will once more be bringing home the trophy...
The Wales One-Act finalists this year are :
Friday 4th June
| 1. Blackwood Little Theatre | Edge of the Woods | |
| 2. The Unknown Theatre Company | Cotton Girls | |
| 3. Telstars Theatre Company | Ritual for Dolls |
Saturday 5th June
| 1. Loose Cannons | Mam | |
| 2. Haverfordwest Little Theatre | Henna Night | |
| 3. Blackwood Little Theatre | Gentlemen and Players |
The finalists for the British Final were
| Wales |
Cotton Girls by Scott Tobin |
The Unknown Theatre Company |
England |
Stop the Traffik by Mark Wheeler |
Oasis Youth Theatre In association with Oasis Academy Lord's Hill |
Scotland |
The Hitch-Hiker by Lucille Fletcher |
Thistle Theatre Company |
| Northern Ireland |
Melody by Deirdre
Kinahan |
Lurig Drama Group |
Winners at the 2010 GDL Festival were:
name of award |
winner |
production |
group |
The David Davies Memorial Trophy for the adult production attaining the highest marks in the competition |
The Company | Ritual for Dolls | Telstars Theatre Company |
| Bob McTurk Memorial Trophy for Best Director | Teri McCarthy | Ritual for Dolls | Telstars Theatre Company |
Best Individual Performance Award |
Emily-Rose Matthews | Interior Designs | Telstars Theatre Company |
The Bea Wells Memorial Trophy for the Best Comedy Performance |
Kate Barrett | What Shall We Do With the Body? | Bridgend Castle Players |
Youth Trophy the Youth production attaining the highest marks in the competition - donated by Mari Major |
The Company | Cotton Girls by Scott Tobin | The Unknown Theatre Company |
The Jean Howell Trophy Adjudicator's Award |
The Dylan Thomas Youth Academy | for the staging of their entry Antigone | The Players Theatre |
Entries for the 2010 Festival came from:
| Company | Play | Playwright |
| Thursday 22nd April 2010 | ||
| Telstars Theatre Company, Cardiff | Interior Designs | Jimmy Chinn |
| Dylan Thomas Youth Academy, Swansea | Antigone | Sophocles adapted by Paul Claywood |
| Gelligaer Young Farmers | Lear's Daughters | Women's Theatre Group |
| Friday 23rd April | ||
| Bridgend Castle Players | From Here to The Library | Jimmy Chinn |
| Bridgend Castle Players | What Shall We Do With The Body? | Rae Shirley |
| The Unknown Theatre Company, Cardiff | Cotton Girls | Scott Tobin |
| Saturday 24th April | ||
| Telstars Theatre Company, Cardiff | Ritual for Dolls | George MacEwan Green |
| STARS Performing Arts, Cardiff | Under the Stars | Nerys Jones & Company |
| The Unknown Theatre Company, Cardiff | Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) | Dennis Kelly |
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