Amateur theatre companies go head to head in the Harold Jolliffe One Act Play Festival this week.

The festival celebrates its 70th anniversary with a move to Royal Wootton Bassett. For many years based in Swindon's Arts Centre, the drama festival which is a preliminary round of the All England Theatre Festival, will be in the Memorial Hall from Thursday, March 30 to Saturday, April 1.

Treading the boards will be the Lechlade Players, Didcot Phoenix Drama Group, RWB Productions, Athenaeum Limelight Players, Pewsey Vale Amateur Dramatic Youth Society, C6 Productions and Quirky Bird Theatre.

Lechlade, RWB, Pewsey Vale and the Athenaem Limelight Players are all staunch supporters of the festival and last year's winners Quirky Bird will be making their second appearance, under the direction of Anna Friend.

New kids on the block are the C6 Productions and Didcot Phoenix. C6 tackle Playhouse Creatures by April De Angelis, which is directed by Keith Defter, head of Commonweal School in Swindon, and Didcot Phoenix directed by Karen Carey, perform The Lesson, written by Eugene Ionesco.

Lechlade Players are entering two plays this year, Ladies Man directed by Andy Pritchard and The Dreaming directed by John Williams. Both are comedies.

The actors will be competing for various awards including the Swindon Advertiser Award for an original production, The Audrey Suter Trophy for best actor and the The Betty Peck Rose Bowl for best play.

Saturday night will see the awards ceremony following the final performances.

Adjudicating for this year is Nick Wilkes who trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. He has appeared in productions over the last 20 years with such names as Charlton Heston, Simon Callow, Keith Harris and Orville the Duck.

Quirky Bird Theatre won best play award in 2016 with their production of Tusk Tusk, by Polly Sternham and this year they are entering another of Polly's plays entitled That Face. The Swindon Advertiser Award for an original production was won last year by the Athenaeum Limelight Players for their presentation of Loose Threads written by Marc Cox. This year it is Fortune Foretold, again written and directed by Marc, that is in the limelight.

The one act play festival was named after Harold Jolliffe who was the chief librarian and curator for Swindon Brough Council for 23 years. He was appointed to the role in 1946 and in the November he had instigated the opening of the country's first dedicated municipal Arts Centre in Swindon town centre.

A year later the first one act play festival was held in the centre and has been providing a showcase with feedback to aspiring theatre companies ever since.

On opening night there will be a reading from Money Makes a Difference, written by F Morton Howard, that was performed at the first festival in 1947!

Curtain up is at 7.15pm each evening and tickets are £9 and concessions £7

from http://www.swindonweb.com/hj1act/ - Flicky Harrison

Panel

Thursday March 31:

Lechlade Players perform Ladies Man, a comedy by Georges Feydeau where Angelique discovers that the man she is engaged to has also pledged to marry her young cousin. (www.facebook.com/groups/1078422655502618).

Didcot Phoenix Drama Group present The Lesson, a comedy drama written in 1951 by Eugene Ionesco. The play is based on a meeting between a student and a professor. (www.didcotphoenixdrama.co.uk).

Friday 31 March 2017

RWB Productions will be presenting their own original play, Time To Go, a drama written and directed by Derek and Paula Clifford. The play is set in a waiting room where four strangers find themselves laying bare the details of their lives. (www.facebook.com/RWBProductions-261110564049960).

Lechlade Players with The Dreaming, a comedy written by Richard James. The story revolve around two men trapped in a room where there are scraps of paper littering the floor - clues as to how they got there. (www.facebook.com/groups/1078422655502618).

Bishopstoke Players will be presenting Nothing You Can Say, both written and directed by Peter Yates. (http://www.bishopstokeplayers.org/).

Saturday 1 April 2017 - Matinee

Pewsey Vale Amateur Dramatics Youth Society tackle a comedy drama written by Nettie Brown called Pond Life. The story is about the creatures who live in the pond who suddenly find themselves overwhelmed by new residents who threaten their balanced ecosystem. (www.facebook.com/PVADS).

C6 goes back in time with Playhouse Creatures, a drama by April De Angelis, based on the lives of Restoration actresses following the years of Puritan rule. (www.commonwealsixth.co.uk).

Saturday 1 April 2017 - Evening

Lechlade Players take to the courts with Mixed Doubles, a comedy by Georges Feydeau based around Pompe-Nicole and Bordeleau who arrive at Chez Dominique to meet their dates but all is not quite as it seems...(www.facebook.com/groups/1078422655502618)

Quirky Bird Theatre get their teeth into a drama by Polly Stenham called That Face, based on the story of a controlling mother and her two children, one at boarding school and the other about to go to art school.(www.quirkybirdtheatre.com).