THE ANNUAL Worcestershire Theatre Festival returns to the Norbury in Droitwich next weekend.
The three-day extravaganza runs from next Friday to Sunday with 12 one-act plays, each between 25 and 55 minutes in length, being performed across five sessions.
After the last one, adjudicator Mike Kaiser, a highly respected writer and stage producer, will announce the winning play along with 11 other awards, including best actor, best actress and best director.
The top two plays will go through to the All England Theatre Festival.
There will be three plays in the opening session next Friday evening – ‘Bert’ by Dave Pitt, performed by Hollybush Arts Group and ‘British History XXX’ performed by Dedrama Theatre, both original pieces. The other one is Take 2’s ‘Vita & Virginia’ by Eileen Atkins.
The Saturday afternoon session will feature Kingswindford School Drama Club’s ‘Us and Them’ by David Campion, Theatre 282 doing David Tristram’s ‘What’s For Pudding?’ and Wordesley Amateur Dramatic Society’s ‘From Five to 30’ by Philip Johnson.
Saturday evening will see two original plays performed – If Only will put on ‘Try’ by Rick Wood and Like the Picture Prodictions will do their ‘Always On My Mind’.
On Sunday afternoon Stourbridge Theatre Company will stage ‘Bookends’ by Scott Perry and Alderbrook Actors’ will showcase ‘Scratching the Surface’, a new play by Mark Wheeller about self harm. Mark Wheeller is in the top four most-performed playwrights in schools, along with Alan Ayckbourn and William Shakespeare.
The final session on Sunday will see Theatre 282 perform ‘Missing Dan Nolan’ by Mark Wheeller and Tewkesbury Arts and Drama Society will put on the original play ‘Rocks Off’.
Afternoon sessions start at 2pm and evening sessions at 7pm.
Mark Moran, one of the members of the festival committee, said there was something for everyone in the line-up and it was also great that five of the productions were new plays.
Tickets, which are £6 per session, are available at www.norburytheatre.co.uk or by calling 01905 770154.
