Southend Drama Society will be holding their Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Tuesday 28th February 2011 at the Wesley Church and will start promptly at 8pm, with drinks to follow in the Carlton.

 

Next year's Southend Drama Festival will take place at the Mike Fry Theatre in Belfairs School between Monday 26th and Saturday 31st March 2012.

Southend Drama Society will be performing at least one short play at the Festival, having won the prizes for Best Original Play, Best Comedy, Best Stage Presentation and Best Supporting Performer at this year's event.

Stay tuned for further details.

 

Southend Drama Society proudly present When We Are Married by J.B. Priestly.

Set in North Yorkshire in 1908, this period comedy revolves around the silver wedding celebrations of three couples, all married on the same day.

You will be entertained by the writing of a classic author, who tells an absorbing story that stands the test of time, employing beatufilly drawn characters and dialogue that sparkles with wit.

If you have seen it before, come and remind yourself what a truly entertaining play it is.

When We Are Married will be performed between Wednesday 7th and Saturday 10th December 2011 at the Dixon Studio, Westcliff on Sea. Curtain up at 7.30pm each evening, 3pm on the Saturday matinee. Tickets are £12.00 for evening performances. Saturday matinee and Wednesday evening tickets cost £11.00.

An amateur production in association with Samuel French Ltd.

 

Southend Drama Society are pleased to announce that our Summer production for 2011 will be Bouncers by John Godber and directed by Peter Nawrat.

Bursting with imagination and wit and presented by just four actors, Bouncers is an outrageous and hilarious parody of the disco scene.

The four brutish bouncers of the title portray over twenty different characters as we are invited for a night out on the town. We see them as giggly girls and lads on the make preparing for the big night out as we follow their progress to the disco floor. There, we also meet an entire cross-section of disco-goers, including Hooray Henrys, pogoing punks and drunken slobs! The evening's events arc set against the tatty glitzy glamour, flashing lights and pulsating beat of the night-club scene.

Auditions for Bouncers will take place on Tuesday 12th April 2011. A small plea from the Management Committee: Please give serious consideration to the demands of these roles before auditioning. Each of these parts are particularly demanding and will require a lot of dedication and commitment to make successful.

Southend Drama Society will be performing Bouncers at the Dixon Studio, Palace Theatre, Westcliff-on-Sea between 6th and 9th July 2011. Box Office: 01702 351 135

 

Last night saw the conclusion of this year's Southend Drama Festival, which, as always, also means the handing out of prizes by the adjudicator. This year, the adjudicator was Charles Evans GODA.

Southend Drama Society won a handful of trophies at this year's Southend Drama Festival, picking up the runners-up prize for Kids directed by Kay Banning.

In all, the society's two productions won five trophies, but was pipped to the post by a production of The Lover by Harold Pinter.

Our trophies included:

• Best Original Play for One, Two, Three, Four, Five by the Society's own Paula Pearce
• Best Stage Presentation for One, Two, Three, Four, Five designed by John Greenfield
• Best Comedy for Kids directed by Kay Banning
• Best Supporting Performance for Nina Basil in Kids
• Festival runners-up for Kids

In addition to these trophies, other notable nominations included:

• Gemma Fiore and Nina Basil for Best Female Performance in One, Two, Three, Four, Five and Kids respectively;
• Linda Finch for Best Supporting Female Performance in One, Two, Three, Four, Five;
• Kay Banning for Best Director for Kids;
• Kids for the Adjudicator's award for risk taking

During his adjudication, Charles Evans also made several glowing remarks about Southend Drama Society's performances.

On Linda Finch, who played Rachel, a student nurse in One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Mr Evans said: "She was a young, earnest student, who was eager to learn. She spoke with a nice natural voice and showed a great empathy with the patients."

On announcing the runners-up award for Kids, Mr Evans said: "I'm giving it to a piece which on the face of it is a comedy, but enshrines a whole lot more and it was only two marks from the winner."

On Paula's play , Mr Evans said: "This was a very interesting piece of writing full ideas with clear and credible characters that deal with small things in life. It faces one big challenge to convey tedium without being tedious and it did that."

On Samantha Lowe, who played Ellie in Kids, Mr Evans said: "A very nice portrait of a not altogether pleasant child. She succeeded in looking older than the others – a juvenile Clint Eastwood with a deadly stalk across the stage. In her closing speech, the closing speech of the play. the smugness of the way it was delivered was a delight to see with a lovely sense of superiority."

On Anne Odeke, who played Wendy, Mr Evans said: "The key to Wendy is she smiles and this characterisation of Wendy managed to smile with her whole body. Lots of very good movement. In her speech about school and dinners, she delivered it very movingly."

On Peter Nawrat, who played three-year-old John, Mr Evans said: "This was one of the successes of this production. This Johnny knew that when you say something as a three-year-old you say it with you’re whole body. There were wonderful little squeals of crying and lovely big gestures."

And finally on Baby, played by Nina Basil, Mr Evans said: "I loved that performance, a real star in this cast. All movements were instantly recognisable as a baby. Very realistically played with lovely movements trying to eat everything and pointing aimlessly. Going into the meditation, baby was totally different and I think that worked very well. It was a joy to see someone so fully in the role and it was a delightful to see a group working so well together."

Full coverage of this year's Festival can be found here.

 

Southend Drama Society have been invited to join the Southend Mayor's sponsored walk from Uncle Tom's Cabin to the Sea Life Centre and back to raise funds for the Major's Charity - a distance of about four and a half miles.

This fun event will be held on Sunday 17th April 2011 - just a week before Easter - so take the opportunity to dress up as an Easter Bunny, or wear an Easter bonnet. There will be prizes for the best bonnet and the best fancy dress.

Participating Southend on Sea Arts Council groups (of which Southend Drama Society is one) are permitted to distribue promotional material for forthcoming events during the walk.

Registration from 10.00am on the day, judging of fancy dress competition from 10.45am and the walk will start at 11.00am.

Entrance fee will be £5.00 per person.

For more details and to collect your sponsorship form, please contact Stacy on 01702 215 141 or Janice on 01702 339 169.

This event is being organised by the Rotary Club of Southend on Sea.

 

We now have the complete running order for this year's Festival.

Southend Drama Society will be performing two one-act plays this year. First up, we have One, Two, Three, Four, Five written and directed by Southend Drama Society's own Paula Pearce. This is taking place on Wednesday 30th March and is the first of two plays being performed on that night.

The play is set on a night shift on a female medical ward with three rather jaded nurses based at the nurses’ station. The piece reflects yet another long night shift, staffed by three very different characters who would really rather not be there at all. Added to the mix is a rather ‘too keen’ student nurse and the voice of one of the elderly and somewhat confused patients on the ward.

Next up, Southend Drama Society will be performing Kids, directed by Kay Banning and written by John Morgan, on Friday 1st April. Again, this is the first of two one-act plays being performed on the night.

It's a play about childhood. The characters are all played by adults, playing children. It is funny, at times poignant and hopefully thought provoking.

Last year, the Society won:

• The Winning Team (Best Play)
• Best Comedy
• Best Stage Presentation
• Best Supporting Performer (Anne Odeke)

... so let's see if we can beat this achievement in 2011!

Break a leg!

 

It's been 5 years since Southend Drama Society last performed their award winning adaptation of Blackadder. How time flies!

You may recall that we were given formal permission from Richard Curtis and Ben Elton to produce the show - on the proviso that we made a contribution to Comic Relief, which we did on no less than 3 occassions!

Well, it looks like Blackadder continues to help raise money for worthy causes through Comic Relief. To mark this year's Red Nose Day, Comic Relief and Vivienne Westwood have produced a number of charity t-shirts, two of which feature characters from Blackadder II - Edmund himself and Queenie - both sporting a rather fetching red nose!

The T-Shirts can be ordered online here and they are available in store at Sainsbury's, TK Maxx and Oxfam.

Details of Southend Drama Society's exploits in the world of Blackadder and Baldrick can be found here, here and here.

 

Southend Drama Society are pleased to announce that they will be participating in this year's Southend Drama Festival.

It's that time of year again, and Southend Drama Society will be submitting no less than two short plays for consideration at this year's Southend Drama Festival, which also serves as the first local round of the national All England Drama Festival.

Southend Drama Society have enjoyed considerable recognition and success at the Festival over the years, including winning Overall Winner, Best Comedy, Best Stage Presentation and Best Supporting Performer at the 2010 Festival.

Keep checking back for details. In the meantime, check out our past Festival history after the jump.

 

Southend Drama Society will be holding their Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Tuesday 22nd February 2011 at the Wesley Church and will start promptly at 8pm, with drinks to follow in the Carlton.

If you're a member and haven't seen the paperwork yet, then please speak to Kay.

The AGM is an opportunity for all members to consider the Society's activities over the last year and what challenges lie ahead, so we would encourage all members to attend if at all possible.