The curtains are set to open on the 79th Welwyn Garden City Youth Drama Festival.
The annual event kicks off in WGC on Monday, March 6 and will close again for another year on Saturday, March 11.
Having survived Covid and lockdown in 2021, the festival returned to its familiar home on the stage of the Barn Theatre in 2022 and the organisers are looking forward to welcoming back many of last year’s teams, as well as some newcomers and old friends ready to compete again this year.
Also welcomed back is last year’s GoDA Adjudicator, Tristan Marshall.
Tristan proved so popular with the teams and audiences in 2022 that the youth drama festival committee felt it would be good to hear from him again.
In fact, he was so good that his services have also been secured by Hertford Theatre Week later in March and by the Welwyn Drama Festival, also at the Barn, in May!
This year there are 13 teams entered from schools and drama clubs, two on most evenings and three on one night, although the scheduled line-up is subject to last-minute change.
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The length of their entries vary between 20 and 50 minutes in line with festival rules and Tristan will adjudicate each one on their respective nights.
He will then sum up the week on the last night and award those all-important prizes.
He has a total of eight annual awards to make, based on the GoDA marking system, and, in addition, there are medals available for him to give to anyone for anything that he considers particularly noteworthy.
In keeping with a fun tradition started during the 75th WGC YDF each of the eight formal awards will be accompanied by a cute and cuddly toy to be retained by the team after the cups have to be returned before the next festival.
At the time of writing, the opening Monday and closing Saturday nights are sold out. But there are tickets available for all other nights, and, of course, you can join a waiting list for returns for the two sold-out evenings.
Performances start at 7.30pm during the week and at 7pm on the Saturday to allow for the prize ceremony afterwards.
WGC YDF tickets are available through the box office at www.barntheatre.co.uk or by telephone on 01707 324300. The ticket price is £10 each.
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