Actresses from Playhouse Creatures compete at the Five Counties Youth Drama Festival, staged at The Olympus Theatre, Stoke Gifford, Bristol this Saturday 29 April.
“We are delighted that Playhouse Creatures won the 2017 Brenda Lilley Cup for Best Performance by a Youth Group at the Harold Jolliffe one act festival. The 5 Commonweal students - Rachel Winney, Charlotte Delfino, Emma Skane-Lawrence, Emma Booth and Eve Batten – performed superbly at the Memorial Hall in Royal Wotton Bassett recently and are looking forward to the Five Counties Youth Festival.
“Special mentions to Emma Skane-Lawrence who also picked up the award for Best Junior Actor, Georgie Oakwell - Bennett for her behind the scenes Stage Management and Nick Weaver for his Technical expertise.,” said Keith Defter, headteacher who directed the play.
“After such amazing commitment and hard work I wish the girls all the best in the competition. I know they will do Commonweal proud and all will go on to make successes of themselves in their chose field. Many thanks to Head Teacher Keith Defter for his direction and vision in this project,” said Ali Sutcliffe, Head of Performing Arts.
“ I was so nervous because we’d never properly gone through it on that particular stage and I’ve never done a competition like this before so it was really scary to think that we were being judged by a professional.
“I was very happy with our performance, the audience laughed in the right places, which is always a good thing! I was very relieved that everything ran smoothly. We were all very excited and it showed us that all the hard work and number of hours we put in was worth it!
“Characterization was definitely the most fun. Being able to experiment with my character but having a great time in rehearsals as well. It helps that our play is a comedy as we were able to laugh about it without it being too serious,” said Emma Skane – Lawrence.
“My advice to anyone thinking of entering the competition next year is - Go for it! You have the chance to explore so many different ways of acting and devising that you may not have given a second thought about. Many of my best memories at Commonweal have been when rehearsing for plays, one of my favourite subjects! Although you do have to spend a lot of time and effort doing Drama, but if you love it, you won’t even notice! “ Emma added.