An annual drama festival is set to take place for the 88th time in Welwyn Garden City.
When this year's Welwyn Drama Festival opens on Monday, May 22 at the Barn Theatre, there will be no shortage of contenders for the awards.
Old favourites, The Players’ Theatre from Wales, are performing Hamlet – the Catalyst, based on the original by William Shakespeare, at the week-long festival for one-act plays.
SMP Theatre from Southgate are presenting two plays: Dead Offensive by local playwright Paul Adam Levy, and These Are The Days by Shari Gledhill.
Other long-distance travellers to the event are Total Arts Community Theatre from Cheshire with A Sudden Violent Burst of Rain by Sami Ibrahim, on the final evening, Saturday, May 27.
Coming closer to home are BAWDS from Cambridge with Philip and Rowena by Gillian Plowman, Waterbeach Theatre Company with One Night in Toledo by Mark Easterfield, and CADS from Royston with Don’t Blame It on the Boots by Nick Warburton.
Then there's Birch Tree with the somewhat topical Potholes:The Modern Menace by Pete Jeary, and Back to Front Theatre from Woking with Lila on the Wall by Edward Allan Baker.
Local teams are Feelgood Factor – BEST Theatre Arts from St Albans with the wonderfully ludicrous farce The Real Inspector Hound by Tom Stoppard, and Les Comédiens de Calisso with Waiting for the Bat by Mark McDonald Ingram.
And, as a special treat to open the festival on the Monday, we have SHOWTIME!, a musical extravaganza of excerpts from a variety of West End musicals.
A Welwyn Drama Festival spokesperson said: "When two of our teams were forced to drop out of this year’s festival we were delighted when past award-winners Limitless Academy from Royston offered to perform this non-competitive compilation prepared to celebrate the Coronation.
"So, there is no lack of variety in this year’s festival. Eleven different plays, all professionally adjudicated by Tristan Marshall from the Guild of Drama Adjudicators, and audience members will be invited to predict Tristan’s top five teams to win the Waitrose Bubbly Competition."
Full details and tickets from www.barntheatre.co.uk.
See www.welwyndramafestival.com for more details.
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