Winners announced

The three winning scripts for the seventh Windsor Fringe Marriott Award for New Drama Writing have been chosen.
A total of 213 scripts were this year submitted from Japan, USA, Australia, Finland, Norway, Spain, Jersey, Wales, Eire, Northern Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man and England, and this year’s judges, Jenny Seagrove, co-star of the BBC courtroom series Judge John Deed, and John Adams, co-founder of Britain’s leading independent new writing company, Paines Plough, have chosen the following three plays as this year’s winners:

• The Man of Straw by N Cowell, who lives in Stockton-on-Tees and is a technical adviser to a brewery. His director will be Richard Elson.
• We That Are Left by retired BBC journalist and a finalist in the 2009 Drama Awards, Peter Harrison from Cheshire. His director will be Simon Law.
• Click by Jan Perry, who lives in Leeds and is an associate lecturer at Leeds College of Art and wardrobe supervisor at Leeds workshop Theatre. Her director will be Lorna Pearson-Hall, who began her theatrical career at the age of 14, playing Marie Therese in the professional previews of the musical Bernadette. She studied musical theatre at Laine Theatre Arts and then Speech and Drama at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
  Lorna has worked on a variety of professional/amateur musicals and plays as a performer, choreographer and director, enjoying exploring diverse material, from Euripedes to Sondheim.
  When she had her children she gave up the professional stage and worked as an English/drama teacher as well as a drama adjudicator and GCSE examiner. She directed Young Shakspeer in the 2008 Drama Awards and most recently played the role of Goneril in Windsor Theatre Guild’s production of King Lear.

Other scripts which were short listed were: Mari by Jackie Carreira from Suffolk; Rib Day by Chris P Cooper from Wales; New England by Richard Fitchett from South London; Islands by Gillian Ledwick from Middlesex; Starters for Everyone by Audrey Lee from Sussex; Leaving by Sarah Nash from North London, and Stephen’s Birthday Puzzle by David Rhys Shannon from Spain.

The three winning plays will be performed each evening during the last three nights of the Windsor Fringe on 7, 8 and 9 October at The Ex Services & Social Club, 107 St Leonards Road. Windsor SL43BZ. At a presentation on the last night, the judges will announce which one of the three writers will receive the £500 cash prize and become the overall winner (judged purely on the writing).
All submitted scripts were numbered and totally anonymous and were read by 32 volunteer readers. The 10 short-listed plays were then forwarded to the judges.

Finalist N Cowell

Finalist Peter Harrison

Finalist Jan Perry

Director Richard Elson

Director Simon Law

Director Lorna Pearson-Hall

Judges

Jenny Seagrove

Actress Jenny Seagrove trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.
Her theatre credits include: Bedroom Farce, A Daughter’s Daughter, Pack of Lies, Absurd Person Singular, The Letter, The Night of the Iguana, The Secret Rapture, The Constant Wife, The Female Odd Couple. Brief Encounter, Hamlet, Hurly Burly, Dead Guilty, Miracle Worker, Present Laughter, King Lear and Jane Eyre.
On television she has starred in: Identity, Lewis ‘The Point Of’, Vanishing, Judge John Deed, Peak Practice, Deadly Games, The Eye of the Beholder, Incident at Victoria Falls, Magic Moments, Some Other Spring, The Betrothed, Hold the Dream, Lucy Walker, A Woman of Substance, Diana, The Woman in White and The Brack Report.
Her film credits include: Zoë, Don’t Go Breaking My Heart, The Guardian, A Chorus of Disapproval, Appointment with Death, Sherlock Holmes, The Sign of Four, Local Hero, Miss Beatty’s Children, Nate and Hayes, Tattoo, To Hell and Back, In Time for Breakfast and A Shocking Accident.

Clare Brotherwood talks to Jenny Seagrove about her debut as a judge for the Windsor Fringe Marriott Award for New Drama Writing

Jenny Seagrove may not be able to attend this year’s Windsor Fringe, but she’s right behind the annual arts fest.

The actress most recently seen as Jo Mills in the long-running TV series Judge John Deed, opens in The Country Wife at the Apollo Theatre in London’s West End just the day before the Windsor Fringe Marriott Award for New Drama Writing’s three winning plays take to the stage at The Ex-Services & Social Club in St Leonard’s Road.
But since opening in the production at the Theatre Royal Windsor in July, before taking it on tour, Jenny, together with Paines Plough co-founder John Adams, chose this year’s winners of the awards.

“I believe in supporting new works,” she said. “Anything that gets new writers into the arena has got to be a good thing, and I was curious to see what the talent was. The standard was very high.

“We really agonised over three or four of the plays and in the end agreed on the same ones.”

Jenny’s credits may include the TV adaptation of Barbara Taylor Bradford’s A Woman of Substance, the 1983 film Local Hero, and numerous West End roles, but she was not only qualified to judge the drama awards as an actress who ‘reads scripts all the time’.

“John is a director so we were looking for different things. As an actor I was looking for dialogue and characters but, in a way I’m also qualified from the production side,” she said. “Having lived with Bill (Kenwright, the producer) for 16 years, I am getting to know now what people are looking for.”

Jenny first became aware of the Windsor Fringe drama awards when her friend, actress Tracey Childs, was initially involved. “Now it’s getting more publicity, and it deserves to.”
She continued: “The whole Windsor arts scene is exciting. In these times of cutbacks, to have stuff like this going on is terribly necessary, and important. Fringe festivals are necessary. It’s where major talent can be found.”

As a drama student Jenny appeared at the Edinburgh Fringe in a revue and a play about Strindberg. “It’s a very exciting scene. You can see some amazing stuff. It’s unique to the world.” she said. “Now it’s a real starting point for serious talent. It gives people a chance to put their work in public without risking a lot of money, people who don’t normally get the chance. And people come out of it and into serious careers.”

John Adams

Director John Adams has been working in theatre and radio since he graduated from Balliol college, Oxford. His two primary interests are British regional theatre and new writing.
As a director, he specialises in fresh visions of classic plays and new work - he was co-founder with writer David Pownall of Paines Plough, Britain’s leading independent new writing company.
He has directed first productions of plays by many writers including David Pownall, Anthony Minghella, Stephen Jeffreys, Terry Johnson, David Lodge and Derek Lister.
He directed the first European productions of Ed Graczyk’s Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean and Derek Walcott’s The Last Carnival. He is currently directing a massive community musical, Wallop Mrs Cox, at the Hippodrome, Birmingham.
He was artistic director of Paines Plough for the company’s first six years and has since been artistic director for three regional theatre companies - the Octagon Bolton, the Birmingham Rep and the Haymarket Basingstoke.
He has directed a massive new musical in Moscow, and the only production (on BBC Radio 4) of Joe Orson’s film script for the Beatles, Up Against It.
He also presents workshops on Shakespeare and acting technique in various countries; has directed Carmen for Clonter Opera, and recorded a slot on old roses for BBC’s Gardeners’ World.
As a freelance director he has worked at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, the Greenwich Theatre, the Lyric Theatre Hammersmith, the Half Moon Theatre, the Belgrade Coventry, York Theatre Royal, and the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre Guildford.
Award-winning productions include Hamlet, No Orchids for Miss Blandish, and David Pownall’s Beef.
Actors he has directed include Damon Albarn, James Bolam, Kenneth Branagh, Richard Briers, Joseph Fiennes, Jerome Flynn, Henry Goodman, David Harewood, Josie Lawrence, Rula Lenska, Roy Marsden, Joseph Marcell, Anthony Sher, Imogen Stubbs, Sylvia Syms, Richard Todd, Harriett Walter - and a brief cameo with Sir John Gielgud.

Eligibility

Only amateur playwrights are eligible; only one script per author will be accepted. Each play must be an original work by the entrant, and submitted scripts must not have been previously published or performed.

Criteria

Each play must be no more than 30 minutes long, have a cast of no more than six actors, and be suitable for staging in a studio theatre.

Submission guidelines

So that each script may be judged anonymously, the author’s name must appear on the cover page only, not in the script. Writers should submit two copies of their plays, printed on loose sheets of A4 paper with no binding or stapling. Pages must be numbered. No submissions will be accepted by email; no scripts will be returned. The cover page must show the name of the play and the author’s name, contact details and signature. A £5 reading fee will be charged per entry. Please make cheques payable to Windsor Fringe. Scripts should be sent together with the reading fee to:
The Windsor Fringe Marriott Drama Writing Award
Suite 640, 24-28 St Leonard’s Road
Windsor, Berks. SL4 3BB U.K.
Selection process
All submissions will be evaluated anonymously by our panel of readers, and the final short list by our judges.
The Windsor Fringe Marriott Drama Award will underwrite the staging of the three plays. with selected directors. For additional information: Ann Trewartha tel: 01753 863218 e-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .
Editor’s note: The Windsor Fringe was established in 1969, making it the oldest Fringe Festival in England and the second oldest, after Edinburgh, in the UK. Run by an all-volunteer committee, each year the Windsor Fringe stages an inspired and innovative programme of music, dance, comedy, drama and art. The Windsor Fringe web site is at www.windsorfringe.co.uk

This year’s volunteer readers enjoy a ‘thank you’ night at Waterstone’s in Peascod Street, Windsor