Players taste festival success (From Thurrock Gazette)

Players taste festival success

7:00am Saturday 28th July 2012 in News

THURROCK Courts Players have returned from the NDFA British All Winner Drama Festival flushed with success.

The amateur dramatics group wowed at the festival in Blackburn, Lancashire, with their production Alan Ayckbourn’s How The Other Half Loves, picking up the Halifax Evening Courier Award for Audience Appreciation award, voted for by the audience.

The complicated dinner scene in the play, which features two simultaneous dinner parties, was also shortlisted for the adjudicator’s award at the festival.

The Grays-based Thurrock Courts Players was founded in 1965, and is a member of Thurrock Arts Society.

There are around 30 members of the group, who all help with tasks such as costumes, props, and scenery.

Thurrock Courts Players’ secretary John Scowen has also announced he will be taking on the role of vice-chairman of the National Drama Festivals Association.

John, who has run the Thurrock Drama Festival for 18 years and is chairman of Thurrock Arts Council, said: “It’s a real honour to be asked to take up this position.”

The Players will now begin work on their next production, A Tomb With a View. It will hit the Thameside Theatre stage in Grays from October 11 to 13.