Theatre Day 2007
CORNWALL DRAMA ASSOCIATION - Theatre Day Workshop and presentation of Awards
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.
walking
against a mighty wind
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
-
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
CD KIDS
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