Get set for Maidenhead Drama Festival 2008

A veritable feast of short drama is being cooked up in time for this year’s Maidenhead Drama Festival.

The annual showdown, kicking off on Tuesday, sees some of the area’s finest am-dram outfits compete in a five-day event at Norden Farm Centre for the Arts.

Each of the 12 groups taking part enters at least one one-act play, of varying lengths, styles and subject matters.

Now in its 61st year, the idea is to give a chance to talented dramatists and thesps from the area, regardless of experience. 

Among the groups is the ever-busy Maidenhead Drama Guild, which recently finished a run of their latest show Office Hours at the Altwood Road arts venue, and will be performing their festival play, a farce called Verve by Mark Lucas.

Matthew Filmore, who  plays a pizza boy who accidentally ends up being held a hostage in the story of a jilted husband’s siege, said: “The festival’s a great learning ground for people and a way of introducing new talent”
 
The competition includes the similarly very active Tarrystone Players from Cookham, performing on the Friday, who held Play Idol, their own pre-festival round which saw audiences pick their favourite play from a selection of three.
Winning entry Green Favours, by Welsh playwright Frank Vickery, will star Tarrystone favourites Jonathan Yates and Jean Hedger and was  scribed by the group’s front man Richard James as ‘a light comedy about a couple who discover love in a potting shed’.

The Windsor Theatre Guild, Claires Court School, Beaconsfield YouthTheatre and Wargrave Theatre Workshop will also be taking part. 
Winners from the festival get a chance to go through to a regionalr ound, while there are other prizes for individual categories.

Details on 01628 788997