WEDNESDAY 15 JULY 2009
The NANDA Open Forum meeting was held on Wednesday 15th July at the Nottingham Arts Theatre Studio. Twenty seven people attended, representing nine societies.
The chairman, Joan Wildgust, welcomed members and said that the meeting would consist of four topics for discussion: Workshops, the One Act Play Festival, Communication and the Youth Festival.
Workshops
Jack Barrett (Lace Market Theatre) led the first discussion item on workshops. At last year's Forum, members had expressed an interest in workshops and in response to this the Council had organised two. The first one - a workshop on voice coaching - was held on the evening of Thursday 20th January 2009. The session cost £5 and was led by Julia Gaunt. Sixteen people had attended, had enjoyed it and found it useful.
Following this success, the Council members organised a whole day session of two workshops - costume and make-up. This was planned to run from 10am to 3.00pm on Sunday 8th March at the Lace Market Theatre; the cost was to have been £10. There was a very poor response to this and the event had to be cancelled.
Two reasons emerged for the unpopularity of the second workshop:
Time. - a full day at a weekend is inconvenient for a lot of people.
Cost - Some members felt that £10 was too much to pay, although this cost was not excessive as the course leaders gave their time for nothing and the main cost was the venue hire.
From the subsequent discussion it emerged that several societies organised their own workshops and would consider opening these to members from other societies. There was enthusiasm for the idea of groups sharing skills and expertise in this way.
NANDA's role would be as a facilitator, by allowing groups to inform other members of their workshops through the website, newsletter and email. Any group holding a workshop could invite other NANDA members
To monitor the success of this new initiative, it was proposed that feedback comments be emailed to Chris, Hayley and Mike after the event.
West Bridgford Dramatic Society said that they would be holding a Movement workshop on 10th November at 7.30pm at their theatre. Anyone interested please contact their secretary
One Act Play Festival
Roy Ainscough announced the dates for the festival and distributed a letter from Bob Wildgust and entry form for the event. The festival will take place on Friday 5th March 2010 at 7.00pm and on Saturday 6th March at 2.00pm and 7.00pm. at Chilwell Olympia Theatre, Chilwell, Nottingham. They are aiming for a target of eight or nine entries, but if there are more, the event could also be held on the Thursday. The adjudicator will be Jill Gautrey.
The festival will be open to non NANDA members and to groups from Derbyshire and Lincolnshire. The winning play from this festival will be eligible to compete in the All England Theatre Festival Regional final and subsequent English National final which is to be held in Burton on Trent.
Roy said he could offer a list of one act plays suitable for entry. He also pointed out that one act from a longer play could be performed. Both Roy and Bob would be willing to visit any group interested in entering to offer help and advice in selecting a suitable piece, or to talk about the competition itself.
Full details of the competition, rules and entry form will be sent to all NANDA groups.
Communication
Hayley Masom (ELAPS) led this discussion. It is a recurrent problem that NANDA members do not always receive information, however, the situation has improved since last year. Communication is by the website, the Newsletter and by email.
Mike Stewart and Jon Jones are currently working on updating and improving the website, to make it more accessible and easier to use.
The Newsletter goes out three times a year. Hayley is responsible for this and said that she always has difficulty getting articles and information in time for the deadline. The deadline for the next issue is early October. Hayley would also welcome articles from members and ideas for items of interest.
Information on forthcoming events is also emailed to the secretary of each group. Sometimes this information is not passed on to the group. Some of the groups attending were asked how they passed information on to their members:-
Bonington Players - Information is read out at committee meetings and put on a website noticeboard. Members are circulated by email and those without computers are contacted personally.
Radcliffe on Trent Drama Group - emails are forwarded to all members and a hard copy sent to the two members without a computer. Reminders are sent out as a matter of course.
West Bridgford Dramatic Society - short, pithy emails are sent out regularly every Thursday.
ELAPS - Individual members put information on their website's bulletin board, which is sent out on Mondays.
It was considered that two committee members from each group should receive information, either the chairman, secretary or another designated member.
The updated NANDA Members' list will be sent out in October, after all groups have had their AGM and appointed committees. This information must be passed on to Hayley as soon as possible.
Youth Festival
Joan Wildgust introduced the final discussion item. She said that this year's Youth Festival, held at Chilwell Olympia Theatre on 8th and 9th May, had been a great success and that the standard had been excellent. What was disappointing, however, was that there had only been four entries. Eighteen information packs had been sent out to schools without success. Next year's Youth Festival has been provisionally booked for 13th/14th/15th May 2010 at Chilwell Olympia Theatre and Joan is hoping for more entrants. To this end, she asked if anyone within NANDA knew of any drama contacts within schools, or of any drama youth groups who could be contacted.
Final comments
There were complaints from several members about the quality of the adjudication for the play of the year competition. On the whole, the written adjudication was short, no detailed comments were made and sometimes it was not received until several weeks after the performance. Considering the cost of the adjudication, this was not considered value for money. It was agreed that Joan write a letter of complaint to GODA.
It was agreed that individual societies could use the website to facilitate sharing such items as scripts, costumes and props. This idea immediately produced a result. Prospect Players asked if any group had an old style pram for them to borrow for a forthcoming production. The Nottingham Arts Theatre was able to oblige.
The evening's proceedings produced some lively and useful discussion. It is hoped that the Forum will become a regular event in the NANDA calendar.