Alderney Theatre Group win at National Drama Festival!
Report by Alex Flewitt – Monday 22 July 2024
We were on the edge of our seats…the drama, the emotion, the uncertainty…would we all get off the island without a hitch?
Of course we did! All 9 cast and crew of Lee Flewitt’s “A Wake” managed to make it to Coventry with 16 hours to spare before our very brief tech rehearsal with the team at the Albany Theatre on the morning of Friday 19th July.
The 49th National Drama Festival was quite a different experience from the semi-finals at the Guernsey One Act Play festival back in May. Sourcing the props was trickier than we anticipated (but ending up with 3 coffins to choose from!!) and things certainly weren’t as smooth as they could have been, but by 2pm it was our turn to perform to a very appreciative audience in the most wonderfully antique, atmospheric theatre.
Delightfully, a contingent of Alderney fans, friends and family appeared which gave us such a boost after 25 minutes of intense acting. We even managed to remember all our lines (which was a relief to our Prompt Lesley) and then eagerly awaited our feedback from GoDA adjudicator Keith Phillips.
We were praised highly for direction, atmosphere and particularly the relationships between characters. Lee was thrilled the next day when we attended a workshop with Keith and the NDF association to discuss the writing and rehearsal process in depth. Sadly, Director Charlotte wasn’t able to be with us on this trip and we were very keen to explain to the crowd at the feedback session how her razor-sharp blocking and intensive rehearsal process made the play what it was.
Over the remaining days we watched the other 14 plays through to Sunday’s prizegiving and we saw just how high the standard was with amateur companies coming from as far as Gibraltar and Geneva. Many of these incredible shows were masterclasses in acting, set, lighting and, importantly, finding the “magic moments” in each play that made them a winner in their respective festival semi-finals.
Having experienced all this for the very first time, our cast and crew were just thrilled that we’d had such a positive experience and managed to showcase our wonderful island of Alderney to so many new people…so…to come home with one of the 6 NDF Exemplary Awards was the icing on the cake, winning “Best Comedy Moment” for Cameron Watson and Ian Corder in the “beer pouring” scene.
A huge congratulations goes to Lee and his cast Lucie Woodnutt, Rosie Evans, Ian Corder, Cameron Watson, Andrée Gaydon-Smith and Alex Flewitt, the amazing crew including Ronnie and Lesley Cairnduff, Ilona Soane-Sands, Trevor and Lisa Sanders and of course our director, the wonderful Charlotte Newton.
Most importantly we have to thank the sponsorship from Guernsey Arts and support from Jenny Falla at GADOC as well as our amazing island community for helping us raise the funding to get us to the Nationals. We hope we did you proud. ENDS