This is my first report to you as your Chairman, a position I was honoured to take up in March 2007. I am very sorry I am not able to be with you in person tonight, and offer to you, my sincere apologies.
Youth Festival
The past year has been a mixed one with highs for some groups and lows for others. The first of our festivals this year was the Youth Festival held at the Dukeries Complex in Ollerton; an excellent day with some fme young talent on show. Thanks to Sarah Kerry for taking on the job of organizing the festival from Jean Lebeter; a hard act to follow.but very well done Sarah. Thanks also to Jean for her 12 years of j dedicated youth work.
Play of the Year
The Play of the Year Competition attracted 13 entries of high quality; ably adjudicated by Geoff Readman. In the end, the awards were well spread out over the groups with Bonington Players, Nottingham Arts Theatre and the Keyworth Dramatic Society fighting it out for top place. It would be really good to see some more of our member groups entering their productions as a lot can be learned from the adjudication and taking part in the Competition.
Annual Award Dinner
Our Awards Dinner saw a record attendance for an excellent meal and entertainment provided by Co-optima of the Nottingham Arts Theatre .Geoff Readman gave us food for thought in his address prior to announcing the awards. The Play of the Year was awarded to "A Midsummer Night's Dream" performed by Bonington Players. Our grateful thanks are also due to Madelaine Lord for organizing the dinner.
One Act Festival
The One-Act Play Festival attracted fewer entries this year, as we had a very short lead up to the event. The best overall play was awarded to the Robin Hood Theatre for "Drinking Companion." Thanks are due to Neil Macintosh for taking on the organization of this Festival at such short notice. Next year, Neil hopes the number of entries will be back up again.
Playwriting Festival
The Playwriting Competition takes a long time to organize as once the plays have been written, submitted and judged, they have to be cast and rehearsed in time for the production. Many thanks this time are offered to Maggie Andrew for making it happen and to Barry Heath for adjudicating the entries and leading the workshop. The winning play was "Early One Morning" by Gerald Lee from Nottingham and the winning sketch was, "A Routine Check" by David Whitney, a local man now living in Spain. Other entries for the competition came from as far as London, Bolton and Manchester.
One Act Festival
There has been no Theatre Luncheon recently but wait for news, as Douglas MacDonald keeps up the pressure on the agents to find us a suitable celebrity to dine with. Unfortunately, it is difficult to get them to commit to specific dates.
News Letter
Haley Masom continues to edit our Newsletter, a thankless task, as we all (well almost all) are late with articles. We could always do with some more from the "floor" of our organization, so if you have anything to tell us about yourselves as a group, special people in your group, or activities to share with others, we urge you to put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard and send in your contributions. Thank you Haley for all you do.
Website
Similarly our Website; Mike Stewart updates this, but surprise, surprise he can only do this if he is given updates. So please oblige and also ensure that Member Group websites have links to the NANDA site and vice versa. Please liaise with Mike as a matter of urgency. Communication is essential to all organizations, non-more so than NANDA which cannot survive as a body without the commitment from all its widespread members. I know you will join with me in offering Mike a sincere thank you for all his work on the website.
Publicity
This leads me on from communication to publicity. By now, you should all have received our new Information and Publicity Leaflet. Please pass them on to non member groups and help us build a stronger, more influential NANDA. Remember - that our organization is not only about members and Festivals but is also involved in playing a key role in shaping amateur theatre in our area. For example some of our members are involved with SHUG (the Stanford hall Users Group) in a bid to keep the Stanford Hall Theatre available for productions. A letter was sent to the Nottingham Evening Post from NANDA in the campaign to save the Nottingham Arts Theatre and in March 2007 groups were involved in forging friendships with a theatre organization in Poznan, Poland. We can and should be far more wide ranging and influential than we think.
Membership
Every year membership changes as groups come and go. Last year we were joined by the Dukeries Dramatic Society ,Nottingham Arts Theatre and the Spotlight Theatre School. Regrettably we have lost Dukeries this year, and sadly Edwinstowe Theatre Group have gone dark. We hope they can regroup in the future as they will be badly missed. Sadly also we have lost two of our leading stalwarts; Leslie Orton and Alan Berridge. It is difficult to envisage how they can be replaced: Leslie wrote, performed, gave talks and adjudicated. Alan directed, stage managed, designed and worked tirelessly for NANDA especially with his wife Roz., when she was the Play of the Year coordinator. We send our sympathies to both family and friends.
Despite going on at length I cannot leave without thanking Roy for not only presiding tonight but for all his work and that of my fellow council members. Thank you for dedicating so much time to NANDA, despite heavy responsibilities to your own Groups. I would also like to thank Maggie Andrew for being such a dedicated Secretary, a post, she is now to relinquish. Thank you Maggie and good luck in all your future ventures.
On a final note, the Executive Council would like a few more Groups to send a representative to the meetings to help steer NANDA through the 21C and keep us strong as a corporate group, so as to exact our influence on all aspects of drama throughout the county. Drama teaching, youth groups and venues are all vital to our survival and NANDA, as a corporate body, can have an influence as we have seen. Please think about it. Thank you.
JOAN WILDGUST
Chair of the Executive Council