This year thanks to the kind offer from Sarah-Newall-Lecrivain we are restarting the Derek Lomas Playwriting Competition.
This year for:
One-Act Original ‘New’ Plays
Between 20 and 55 minutes
With two or more actors
Any topic, any age (both Youth and Adult Plays)
Entry Fee: £10.00 payable to ‘Wellington Theatre Company’ plus £5.00
for printing costs if an emailed copy only is sent.
The winning prize = See your play performed by Wellington Theatre Company at The Belfrey Theatre and entered into a Drama Festival.
Rules and Cover Sheet (right-click and save for download)
The relaunch date was Friday 21st October 2011 The programme for the evening was
ABOUT DEREK LOMAS John Binns former colleague and friend
READINGS FROM PREVIOUS WINNING PLAYS
Three former members returned to the Belfrey stage to recreate in readings small scenes from these plays alongside current members who took on some roles for the first time.
DETAILS OF NEXT YEAR’S COMPETITION
BAR AND NIBBLES AND CHAT
Part of the 2012 Wellington Literary Festival.
THE DEREK LOMAS PLAYWRITING COMPETITION…
The Competition was orginally launched in 1999 in memory of Derek Lomas, a published playwright and former Belfrey member who passed away in 1997. His plays “Darlings You Were Wonderful” and “Are You All Decent” have been performed throughout the world and still bring in royalty cheques from Samuel French and others each year. Derek wrote many more plays some of which are available from Amazon and still more which were only performed at the Belfrey and remain unpublished.
The competition was held every other year, as part of the Wellington Literary Festival. The Belfrey then staged the winning play the following year, again as part of the Literary Festival.
The first competition winner in 1999 was
Alan Fraser with “Randon Acts of Malice” this chilling psychological drama was performed with great success in October 2000 at the Belfrey Theatre and was then produced at The Crescent in Birmingham and had its three week long London premier in 2003 with good reviews in Time Out
Heather Dunmore won the 2001 competition with “End of Term” a play which looked at depression. Following her success at the playwriting competition Heather’s play was endorsed by the Mental Health Foundation and Depression Alliance. This play was subsequently revised to a one act length by Heather and retitled “Blue”. We performed “End of Term” in October 2002 and by then the shortened version had already been performed by Broken Lace Theatre in Oxford and Craven Image Theatre had taken it to the Edinburgh fringe in August . In the September Another Theatre Company (their actual name) had taken the shortened version to Woking Drama Festival and won first prize.
Heather’s play “Blue” is now handled by Samuel French.
The third competition winner was Trevor Harvey with “Hearafter” described as a black comedy, the twists and turns of this play were a feature of the writing. Trevor, a retired Lecturer from Brighton University is best known for his comic verse for children.
“Hearafter” was performed in October 2004
Also that year the One Act Youth Play category was won
by Frank Gibbons with Bully Dancers (an update from Frank is below)
Bully Dancers was my very first attempt at writing a one-act play. Until then, I had only written comedy sketches. After its “Derek Lomas” success, I made a few necessary changes to the script and it was accepted for publication in 2007. Up to the present time, it has had approximately thirty performances.
The 4th winners in 2005 were Ann Gawthorpe and Lesley Bown with a farce “Don’t Get Your Vicars in a Twist” which was performed in October 2006.
“Don’t Get Your Vicars in a Twist” is published by Jasper Publishing and seems to be quite a favourite with amateur groups as it is being produced by three amateur groups this year (2011). It can be seen at Merchistoun Hall in Hampshire from 24th to 26th November performed by Horndean Amateur Theatrical Society. Monkton Players are performing it at their village hall in Monkton Heathfield from 27th to 29th October
Through a variety of reasons the 2007 competition was cancelled and it is only now in 2011 that we are able to announce its relaunch as Sarah is willing to take on the hard work that its organisation requires.
As mangers of a fully independent little theatre, “The Belfrey Theatre” , Wellington Theatre Company has many responsibilities to cover before it can reach out to new playwrights and promote new drama. All of our staff in our many posts are unpaid volunteers and we are not supported by grant funding.
We have in the intervening years taken on new plays and this year Grant Foxon’s play “The Waiting Room” was successful at both the Wellington and Shropshire Drama festivals going on to receive a favourable adjudication in the Quarter Final of the All England Theatre Competition in Hereford.