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."