Group competing to win
Best Play award at event

QUIRKY Bird Theatre is back this year with with ambitions to sweep up again in the town’s One Act Play Festival, which starts tomorrow (Thursday) and runs until Saturday at the Arts Centre.

Last year they came away with an armful of silver from the annual drama festival.

Now the actors from the newly named theatre company are set to challenge for overall winner of Best Play, which was won last year by the Athelstan Players from Malmesbury.

Anna Friend again takes the director’s chair in this year’s offering which is an extract from Tusk Tusk by Polly Stenham.

The harrowing play is about three children living alone together in a flat.

Their father is dead and their mother has vanished.

The mum has mental health problems and may even have committed suicide.

The young stars are Yazmin Priestner-Burton, Rosie Walker and Josh Rogers.

Anna’s daptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream won The Beryl Dene Cup for Best Youth Performance, the Charles Grace Cup as Runners Up and Best Technical Theatre award in their second round performance last year with Rosie Walker winning the award for Best Youth Actor for her portrayal of Hermia.

Royal Wootton Bassett Productions also graced their mantles with silver last year with their play Moonwillow, following a script which was adapted by Paula Clifford, co-founder of RWB Productions. The play was nominated for Original Producation and Dramatic Endeavour and won the Matthew Herring Award for best technical achievement.

Paula, who is also part of the Swindon and District Theatre Guild, said: “We are entering another original script, penned by my husband Derek Clifford, this year called So What Would You Do? which holds a moral dilemma.

"It tells the story of a wife and mother who, after being caught in a rainstorm, is left with an impossible decision to make.

“The challenge for the cast, as is often found with an original script, is that it continues to be a work in progress through the early stages of rehearsal.’’ The festival will end with BAFTA-style awards night at the Swindon Arts Centre in Devizes Road, Old Town, on Saturday.

For tickets at £11 and concessions at £9, people can telephone 01793 524481.