News of awards….. we have three NODA District Winners……Harry Petrie as Edward Ferrars in Sense and Sensibility ( Charles Sumner Award for best male in a play), Sense and Sensibility (Pat Redheard Award for Best Drama) and Alek Auton (Sybil Conway Award for best female in a play)…so many congratulations to Harry and Alek, to the directors, Julie Huntington and Darrel Poulos, and to the casts and crews of the two plays.

Details of the NODA AGM and awards cermonies etc will be sent round separately : we hope that we will be well-represented after such successes and there is always the chance that one of the District Winners might well win the overall award for the whole area…Congratulations also to Vanessa Clayton of HAODS for her award as best female in a musical for “Diana” in “A Chorus Line”.Also congratulations to Julie Huntington , who won the Best Actress award for HAODS for her role as Effie in Effie’s Burning at the Henley Drama Festival at the Kenton Theatre (AND the Magic Moment Award!)…so a very successful season all round.

Our Festival entry, Seagulls, by Caryl Churchill, was rewarded at the Henley Drama Festival at the Kenton Theatre with a Best Supporting Actor Award for George Petrie as Cliff, so many congratulations to George. Flushed with success, we are now looking forward to performing Seagulls again at the ODN festival at the Unicorn Theatre in Abingdon, on Thursday 8th June (yes, election night, so if you want to escape it, come and support us!!) We will also be performing the play on Friday 9th. June by invitation, to replace HAODS, who have had to drop out, so there’s another chance to see us then.

Fresh upon our successes at the Henley Drama Festival at the Kenton Theatre…..the award for the Best Original Play (thanks, Ronnie!) and two nominations for Charlie…Best Supporting Actor and Magic Moment, we now have received two nominations for the main NODA awards for our production of The Accrington Pals.

One is for the Pat Redhead Drama Award for the best play (whole NODA London and South area), for which we won the runner-up prize last year for Quartet, and the other is for the Sybil Conway award for Best Actress for Hannah Roberts for her performance as May Hassal.

Andy Marlow and Jenny Haywood had the equivalent for their performances in Quartet last year, and it is lovely to see Hannah and the Pals carrying on the tradition. Long may it continue!