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Every year in the villages, towns and cities of the United Kingdom, over 600 amateur theatre companies prepare plays for the local, regional and national festivals that form part of the National UK Festival of Community Theatre. The culmination of this is the British Final Festival of One Act Plays, where the best drama groups of the four nations come together to celebrate their work.

Key personalities of the four amateur theatre associations which share governance of the ‘British Final’ met in Edinburgh recently February to look at the future development of the event.

The Edinburgh meeting was Chaired by Keith Robinson the new Chair of the Scottish Community Drama Association with Mike Linham and Roger and Jean Cunnington representing the All England Theatre Festival, Alan Marshall from the Association of Ulster Drama Festivals, Aled Rhys-Jones from the Drama Association of Wales and Gordon Hibbert and Fiona Rogan from the Scottish Community Drama Association.

The committee are committed to keeping the ‘British Final’ fresh, vibrant and relevant and will be preparing proposals for the development of the festival which will lead it forward in to the care of the next generation of amateur theatre enthusiasts.

2008 will see the 75th ‘British Final’ hosted by the Drama Association of Wales at the Taliesin Arts Centre in Swansea on the 4th and 5th July. Plans are already underway for the 2009 event which will be hosted by the Association of Ulster Drama Festivals at the Ardhowen Theatre in Enniskillen and the Scottish Community Drama Association hope to take the event to Glasgow in 2010.

Whilst delegates were in Edinburgh they took the opportunity to attend the final evening’s performances of the 2008 Edinburgh and Lothian Festival at St Serf’s Church where a capacity audience enjoyed a hugely varied programme from local amateur theatre companies. These included a dramatisation of work by Charles Dickens, an emotional and multi-faceted journey through one woman’s mental illness, a brand new play set on a corporate team-building exercise and a tale from Kerala in Southern India performed by the newly formed Holy Cow Performing Arts Group. A melange of theatre, representative of hundreds of similar local festivals throughout the land that all take part in the National UK Festival of Community Theatre.

For further information on the ‘British Final’ 2008 or on one act festivals in your area contact:
All England Theatre Festival – 0121 707 6684
Association of Ulster Drama Festivals – 0289 086 1234
Drama Association of Wales – 029 2045 2200
Scottish Community Drama Association – 0131 557 5552