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Drama Festival Week 2011 Award Ceremony

Introduction by Mr R Morris, Director of Drama

House plays begin in the Michaelmas term for many Houses and the most important thing is the selection of material. Get that right and you are half way there. How do you select? Well, ensure you go to great lengths to actually understand your script on all of its levels. Give yourself the space to grasp your character well before performance night. This is because of the nature of the competition and the necessity to reduce the play. Look at the resources you have in the House and play to their strengths. If your choice is not the x-factor popular vote and you instinctively feel that you are right, stick to your guns and you take your people with you on your journey. After that, it’s about commitment from all – organisation of time and a universal understanding from everyone, that to put on a quality play, is actually a really hard thing to do. By quality I mean that there is an attempt at real characterisation, rather than just a rendition of lines, that moments are authentic, rather than just there to please the crowd and that the depth of real life in the play, whether comic or tragic material, whether naturalistic or highly theatrical, whether economical with words or language rich, is absolutely the central objective of the endeavour.

If in the pursuit of these basic tenets, you have the time to dwell upon the virtues of your dramatic voyage and what it might mean in the greater scheme of things then that’s all well and good, but the step by step approach is best. The Houses who have shone in this year’s Festival have all of them based their creative exploits on firm and simple foundations and have by different degrees shown a willingness to embrace the ‘craft’ of play making.

We love the House Play Festival. It is our favourite week of the year and it’s a genuine privilege to see and adjudicate all of the plays – even if we do struggle with the lack of sleep that is part of the territory of judging; at this juncture, I should stop to thank my loyal and delightful judges Mr and Mrs Hallworth and Mr Corrie who collaborated so energetically, in the tiring but always fun after-show process that decides where, amongst the many categories we have in the festival, merit is due; disentangling genres, identifying good acting and weighing up qualities and flaws to separate productions. I should also like to extend our thanks and on behalf of all of you as well, to Mr Fells and Miss Lyons in the Redgrave who have worked so many extra hours to ensure that your technical requirements have been met and who have ensured the smooth running of the Festival during performances. Thank you to you and for all you have done.

We love the Festival because it’s all about you ... your dreams, your aspirations and your ability to lead each other beyond your comfort zones. It’s also the one time in the year when drama becomes the lifeblood of the School, a kind of private knowledge is shared College-wide and we have to say that over the years, you have all become very, very good at it. In fact, we would go so far as to say that this year we saw more exceptional ‘individual’ performances of note being given on the Redgrave stage than in many years.

However, we would like to point out some areas that we thought you might like to think about for next year. The purpose of our evaluating the Festival is to try to improve it for the next generation coming through and there’s always plenty to learn.

One of the biggest re-occurring comments we had was that Houses should consider the wisdom of choosing between directing and acting; as doing both, simultaneously, has its pitfalls. If you have no choice but to be in it, take a small role. This was majorly important and often helped to shape the plays we saw, we felt. Also, slick scene transitions do much to aid the overall impression of your piece, it’s often the difference between a piece that appears polished and a piece that is not and at the top end, polish is often a deciding factor, including the learning of lines – not to know these is a definite ‘no no’ and there’s really no excuse here.

If your play rely on props, use them, source them early and use them in your rehearsals. Directors, think about pace, don’t be afraid to allow your actors to pause, to give the audience a chance to breathe. We saw a few really good examples of this. Don’t under-estimate the power of the ensemble, even 3–4 actors on stage can exert some kind of power by doing very little. Project your voices to the back of the auditorium. Whilst this has got better over the years, there’s still room for more improvement. Don’t be narrow-minded about your material, don’t feel inclined to pigeon-hole yourself, your performance or your play just because you have read somewhere that tragedies are serious and comedies are not. Much of the time everything can be true at the same time. Like Schrodinger’s cat the quantum state of being alive and dead at the same time (if you will excuse the analogy) is present in the very fabric of drama and its emotional topography. Experiment, inhabit the characters you play and see where that takes you. Equally, directors, encourage your talented stars to take the initiative on stage and to set the pace for the rest to follow. At the end of the day, what you are doing is trying, valiantly and with a shortage of actual experience of it, to replicate life itself and that’s no easy task. Most importantly enjoy it – you will be surprised what you can get away with if you do. It’s been a very, very enjoyable Festival this year, both for us and for our very supportive audiences. We have all been very grateful to be a part of it; so thank you for your super-human efforts and hard work; well done to all of you.

See who received Commendations and Stars for their performances and contributions.

House Plays 2011 Award Winners

Productions

School House – ‘Allo, ‘Allo
Moberly’s House – Frost/Nixon
Oakeley’s House – Be My Baby
Wiseman’s House – And Then There Were None
Watson’s House – The Complete Works Of William Shakespeare (Abridged)
North Town – Fawlty Towers
South Town – The Front Page
East Town – According To Hoyle
Worcester House –The Vicar Of Dibley
West Town – Sister Act
Hallward’s House – Daisy Pulls It Off

Winners in each category are indicated in bold type.

Best Technical Contribution

This award is awarded by Mr Fells and Miss Lyons at the Redgrave to a House or an individual who has shown excellence in this category. And the nominees for Best Technical Contribution are:

School House – ‘Allo, ‘Allo
East Town – According To Hoyle
Watson’s – The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)
Moberly’s – Frost/Nixon

Best Rehearsal Process

This award is also awarded by Mr Fells and Miss Lyons at the Redgrave for conduct and organisational skill in the allotted rehearsal time in the Redgrave, to a House who have shown excellence in this category. And the nominees for Best Rehearsal Process are:

Oakeley’s – Be My Baby
East Town – According to Hoyle
School House – ‘Allo, ‘Allo
Moberly’s – Frost/Nixon

Best Innovation

It was decided that there had been no significant attempts to innovate this year in the plays we saw. The judges would welcome any appropriate innovation in plays in 1012. Therefore this award will not be awarded this year.

Best Design

The award for Best Design speaks for itself. And the nominees for Best Design are:

Wiseman’s – And Then There Were None
Moberly’s – Frost/Nixon

Best Musical Contribution

For this award, music can be live or recorded. It could be a song or a song and dance routine together, or it could simply be a well used musical atmospheric effect. And the nominees for Best Musical Contribution are:

East Town – Musical background in According to Hoyle
School House – for the accordion player in ‘Allo, ‘Allo
West Town – for the choir’s first number conducted by Christy in Sister Act
South Town – for the use of pre-recorded jazz in The Front Page

Best Adaptation or Original Writing

The award for Best Adaptation or Original Writing may be awarded to a play script, a script that has been adapted from another source such as a novel or screenplay, or for scripts which are written entirely from scratch, within the required time. And the nominees for Best Adaptation or Original Writing are:

Wiseman’s – And Then There Were None
Hallward’s – Daisy Pulls It Off
West Town – Sister Act
South Town – The Front Page

Best Newcomer

The award for Best Newcomer is awarded to a male or female Third Form actor who has impressed the judges in some way, in terms of their overall acting performance in a House production. And the nominees for Best Newcomer are:

Florence Petrie (WoH) – David Horton in The Vicar of Dibley
Florence Woolley (HH) – Winnie Irving in Daisy Pulls It Off
Dominic Dixey (ST) – Earl Williams in The Front Page
Georgia Young (OH) – Dolores in Be My Baby

Best Supporting Actor in a Male Role

And the nominees for Best Supporting Actor in a Male Role are:

Siobhan Hartnell (WoH) – Huge Horton in The Vicar of Dibley
Jonny Gill (ET) – Kevin in According To Hoyle
Josh Pafford (SH) – Lieutenant Hubert Gruber in ‘Allo, ‘Allo
Pascal Orzabal (NT) – Manuel in Fawlty Towers
Tilly Wickens (WT) – Eddie in Sister Act
Phillipa Davis (WT) – Vince in Sister Act
Magnus Gordon (ST) – Water Burns in The Front Page

Best Supporting Actor in a Female Role

And the nominees for Best Supporting Actor in a Female Role are:

Cyrus Devlin – Private Helga Geerhard in ‘Allo, ‘Allo
Amelia Allen (HH) – Miss Gibson in Daisy Pulls It Off
Elleri Hughes (WT) – Mary Patrick in Sister Act
Esther Bebb (WT) – Mary Roberts in Sister Act
Saskia Barnes (WT) – Sister Alma in Sister Act

The Spiritus Award

This award is for House spirit which often translates itself to the stage. And the nominees for the Spiritus Award are:

Wiseman’s – And Then There Were None
Watson’s – The Complete Works Of William Shakespeare (Abridged)
East Town – According To Hoyle
School House – ‘Allo, ‘Allo
West Town – Sister Act

Best Actor in a Female Role

And the nominees for Best Actor in a Female Role are:

Marienella Phillips – Christy/Mary Clarence in Sister Act
Natalie Heritage – Mary in Be My Baby

Best Actor in a Male Role

And the nominees for Best Actor in a Male Role are:

Johnny Ashe (WaH) – in The Complete Works Of William Shakespeare (Abridged)
Jonah Trenouth (ET) – Clive in According To Hoyle
Charlie Markham (NT) – Basil Fawlty in Fawlty Towers
Alex Mullan (MH) – David Frost in Frost/Nixon
James Hanson (MH) – Richard Nixon in Frost/Nixon
Rhys Edwards (ST) – Hildy Johnson in The Front Page

It should be said that in giving this award, the judges were keen to recognise that James Hanson’s performance in the role of Richard Nixon was one of the best performances they have ever seen at a House Play Festival. Indeed, it was the unanimous feeling of all the judges that had there been a School lifetime achievement award or its equivalent for the performance given to us on Wednesday night that James would have been awarded it. For service to House plays over the years this marks the pinnacle of a tremendous career and we would like to applaud James for this accomplishment.

Best Comedy

And the nominees for Best Comedy are:

North Town – Fawlty Towers
School House – ‘Allo, ‘Allo
Watson’s – The Complete Works Of William Shakespeare (Abridged)
West Town – Sister Act

Best Drama

And the nominees for Best Drama are:

East Town – According To Hoyle
Moberly’s – Frost/Nixon
South Town – The Front Page

Best Director

As a director you have to manage, lead and inspire your team to great heights of achievement, sometimes beyond their powers. It is an exercise which requires great maturity, skill, organisation and creative flair. As such, the judges believe this to be an award that can only go to the student or students of the highest calibre, who have proved themselves both on an individual and group level to be capable of managing and delivering a production of a very high standard. This year, in recognition of the difficulty of this task and in addition to the award for Best Director, we are also awarding three Runners-Up trophies for direction and leadership. And the nominees for Best Director and for the directing and leadership awards are:

And the nominees for Best Director are:
Charlie Moore – According To Hoyle
Davis and Barnes – Sister Act
Edwards and Bertagne – The Front Page
Foxhall Smith and Blanks – The Complete Works Of William Shakespeare (Abridged)

Best Production

This award is given to the House whose aspects of production, technical, artistic and collaborative, combine in terms of the level of excellence and commitment achieved, to leave us with a better overall and all-round impression than any other production. The areas we are looking for are: good acting from a range of actors in principal and supporting roles, which includes a comprehensive range of acting techniques; strong direction; good control of pace; slick scene transitions; excellent security of lines; appropriate design; technical competence; and success at creating dramatic effect appropriate to genre and choice of play. And the nominees for Best Production are:

East Town – According To Hoyle
Watson’s – The Complete Works Of William Shakespeare (Abridged)
West Town – Sister Act
Moberly’s – Frost/Nixon
South Town – The Front Page

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