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Welcome to Cornwall Drama
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-the website for the CDA (Cornwall Drama Association) To
contact us, e-mail:
Theatre Day 2008 For many years CDA has been holding it’s Annual Theatre Day and Awards Dinner in early November at the Ponsmere Hotel, Perranporth. However, we were saddened to hear recently that the Ponsmere is to close this year and be redeveloped into holiday flats, and will therefore no longer be available to us. We have searched high and low for a suitable alternative venue, and are pleased to announce that Theatre Day this year will be held at The Hotel Bristol, Newquay, on Saturday 25th October. This is a very exciting prospect for us – the Hotel Bristol is renowned for its excellent cuisine and has a large ballroom and ornate dining room, both of which will be available for our use. The format of Theatre Day will remain basically the same, with a workshop running during the day (more details will be announced later), but there will be some changes made to the awards evening. Instead of the old-style letters which were sent to nominated groups (which often seemed to give the game away), we plan to publish a list of all the nominations in all categories, and this will be sent to all member groups. In this way, we hope there will be more suspense and excitement on the evening itself, as the awards should come as more of a surprise! Another important change is that we plan to hold the awards ceremony in the hotel dining room at the end of the meal. This will see an end to the scrabble for places in the ballroom, when people were often disappointed at not being able to sit with their group. However, this means that to attend the ceremony, you will now need to book the dinner, where you will be sat with your chosen group. Demand for places is expected to be high, so you will need to apply early, when tickets go on sale later in the year. Details will be announced both in Cue Sheet and on the website (www.cornwalldrama.co.uk) so watch this space!!!!!! This is a marvellous opportunity to move forward, so if you have any new ideas for Theatre Day and the Awards Evening, please let us know.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * VOICES WANTED Would it be possible to place a notice on your website? I am producing a 10 minute pilot episode of * * * ACTORS NEEDED I am a graduating student from Falmouth College of Arts and I am looking for actors to feature in my
* * * * *
An unusual and exciting day took place in the Ponsmere Hotel, Perranporth, for last Saturday’s CDA Theatre Day. The daytime workshop was led by MIME THE GAP’s Richard Knight, an internationally acclaimed mime artist and teacher. The morning was spent investigating and learning the techniques of mime work. In the afternoon the forty-two participants of the workshop learned to portray some of the ancient Commedia dell’Arte characters: Arlecchino, Isabella, Pantalone, il Dottore, il Capitano, and Giovanni. In small groups they created short performances combining the arts of miming and of Commedia in short performances. It proved to be a hugely enjoyable day both for those taking part - learning new secrets of performing comedy - and for those who were watching from the sidelines.
In the evening, after an excellent dinner supplied by the hotel, awards in the annual Cornwall Drama Association Theatre Festival were presented to winning companies and members of companies who had taken part. Ten trophies and 28 certificates were presented, and remarkably -
in the Musicals section of the Festival - all three top places were won
by youth theatre groups. These young people’s groups are judged
alongside adult groups and no special allowances are made in
adjudications. The Best Actor in the Musicals section was also a young
man, Gareth Harris, who is under eighteen and has won the Roy Crosley
award in a previous CDA Festival. These surprising results indicate that
the great enthusiasm of youngsters
for musical theatre is matched by wonderful direction and
production amongst their leaders, and that a lively future for musical
drama in the county is assured. A new award has been presented to the CDA this year by
Sally Robinson who over twelve years was Vice Chair and then Chairman of
the organisation. She
has been on the CDA adjudication team for some twenty years, and has
indicated that the award - in the shape of a treble clef, and created in
elm by sculptor Peter Boex - will go to a performer or a company who
gives an outstanding musical performance (see attached photograph) A full list of the winners of the Cornish “Oscars” is BELOW:
CDA THEATRE
AWARDS
presented
by Paula Thornton
LIST OF AWARD
WINNERS 2007 PLAYS SECTION:
Second Place
:
St Mary’s Theatre Club’s “RELATIVE VALUES”
Third Place
: Polruan Theatre
Club’s “HOW THE OTHER HALF LOVES”
Highly Commended:
Best Set:
The Eileen Stratton Award to Newquay Dramatic Society’s
“STEEL MAGNOLIAS”
Best Actress: The
Eileen Stratton Award to GUEN DAWS as the Nurse in St Austell Players’
“Romeo and Juliet”
Best Actor: The Richard Poulter Award to JOHN
TREMBATH as Ernest Cusack in Newquay Dramatic Society’s “Rumours”
Best Director: The Fred Shepherd Award to EILEEN
POLLARD for Newquay Dramatic Society’s “Rumours”
Best Costumes: Newquay
Dramatic Society’s “STEEL MAGNOLIAS”
Special Award for Front of
House Presentation:
Carnon Downs Drama Group for “Secret Bridesmaid’s Business”
Special Award for Technical
Presentation:
Polruan Theatre Club for “How the other Half Loves”
MUSICALS
SECTION:
Second Place
:
Youngstagers’ “A ROYLE
VARIETY PERFORMANCE”
Highly Commended: Pelynt
Players’ “ALADDIN”
Best Set: Porthtowan Players’ Youth
Theatre for “AREA 51"
Best Actor:
GARETH
HARRIS as Oliver Warbucks in
CD Kids’ “ANNIE”
Best Actress:
ALISON CORNER as
Best Costumes: Youngstagers
for “A ROYLE VARIETY PERFORMANCE”
Special
Award for Front of House Presentation: Porthtowan
Players Youth Theatre for “AREA 51"
Special
Award for Best Comedy Duo: Miriam
Loosemore and
ROY
CROSLEY AWARD for a young actor of 18 years or under for an outstanding
performance in the Festival:
Shared by
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CHLOE
THOMAS for her performance as Annie in Stage-Struck’s “ANNIE”
-
TEGAN
SAUNDERS for her performance as S.I.S.T.E.R. in Porthtowan Players Youth
Theatre’s “AREA 51" JADE BIRKS for her performance as Passepartout in Young Generation’s “AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS”
T
Youngstagers for “A ROYAL
VARIETY PERFORMANCE”
The
JOHN WALTON AWARD for best youth performance:
The
CHRISTINE WOOLF AWARD for Fine Ensemble Playing: WELL DONE TO ALL
CDA THEATRE DAY WORKSHOPS AT PONSMERE HOTEL PERRANPORTH Saturday 3rd November -a review
by Dorothy
Nelson Mime
and physical comedy have long fascinated me so I was especially keen to
attend these workshops. It
was my first CDA Theatre Day so I was not exactly sure what to expect. Richard
Knight looked deceptively ordinary.
I arrived (late) just as the group were learning how to pick and
enjoy an imaginary apple. Easy
enough, except that when Richard did it, you could see, hear and taste
his apple. Then we got on to
the strenuous stuff, pushing, pulling, climbing and running, all on the
spot. Richard explained how
weight has to be quite differently distributed when you are creating an
illusion. By break time CDA
members were flaking out all over the room.
It was exhausting and a lot of fun.
We created little mime sequences for each other’s amusement,
gaining in knowledge at least of how difficult it all is. We
moved on to physical comedy, tackling a few of the stock characters of
the Commedia dell’Arte. Each
one has her/his own way of walking and speaking and an individual set of
preoccupations. The Commedia
lies at the root of much of our present day comedy performance, in
theatre and television and we had fun matching up sitcom characters to
their Commedia origins. For
our final pieces we added speech, mime and character together, producing
scenes where Pantalone is robbed of his fortune, but Arlecchino and
Brighella mess it up and everyone is returned to the status quo. This
was a great day. We had
loads of fun and learned a lot. It
was wonderful to be taught by such an accomplished professional.
Richard Knight is a highly successful teacher, actor and director
and we were extremely lucky to get him to come all the way to Do you have any feedback about Theatre Day 2007? If so, please email Kathy (link at top of page) ....................................... Forthcoming Events Lots more information about Forthcoming Events COMING SOON
E-mail us news of your play or show, and we'll include it on this website ..........................................
THE
The Cornwall Drama Association was formed around 50 years ago. Its elected Committee members come from all over the county, representing affiliated amateur groups and individual members interested in drama. Benefits of membership include:
The policy of the association is to respond to the needs of its members and provide help, instruction and advice. PLEASE TELL US WHAT WE CAN DO FOR YOU! E mail your queries and
suggestions: or write to the Secretary:
Liz D’Alton, Trethosa, Brill,
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walking
against a mighty wind
CD KIDS
