The County Drama Festival 2026 – The Best Yet!
- samuelmallen
- 1 day ago
- 6 min read
This year’s County Drama Festival really was the best yet. The Warehouse Theatre in Ilminster was set alight with high energy performances from nine drama groups from Somerset. The theatre was buzzing with excitement as packed audiences watched a wide variety of plays from traditional dramas, comedies, hard hitting plays exploring dark and disturbing themes to visually high-tech stylised plays. There were also two superbly written and presented original plays. Overall, it was a riveting and entertaining weekend and one that will be remembered for a long time.
The talent from the actors and tech expertise spilled from the stage and mesmerised everyone in the audience as the love of drama stretched across all ages and abilities. From seven-year-olds who had never performed on stage before to mature and experienced actors, and not one failed to impress!
The audience listened with awe and intent to the impressive and hugely entertaining adjudications about each play from Chris Jaeger MBE, GoDA. His experience as an actor, director, playwright, and long-standing adjudicator shone through as he delivered his praise and insightful comments on each of the performances. At the Awards Ceremony on Sunday evening the theatre was alight with excitement and anticipation as the nominations and trophy winners were announced by Chris.
The top award, The County Shield which is for Best Overall Production went to Ilminster Entertainments Society (IES) for ‘Knockin’ On Dave’s Door’ written by Neil Webster and directed by Ken Cooper. Ken had cleverly adapted a screen play into a stage play with a fantastic set that transported us to a London airport, to inside a taxi, to a restaurant and finally inside the home of Ange and Dave. It was an urban myth about Bob Dylan who had apparently in the 1990s come England to visit Dave Stewart. The comedic and impeccable acting by all the cast i.e. Paula Denning, Mick Crooks, Ashley Stockton, Rosie Hawkins and Mick Glynn was impressive. Mick Glynn’s brilliant portrayal of Bob Dylan secured him a nomination for Best Actor and Rosie Hawkins was nominated for Best Actress with her natural and loveable performance of Ange. The delightful proposal from Dave to Ange earned a nomination for Champagne moment. It was certainly a deserving winner, and they are now on their way to the All-England Theatre Festival’s Semi Final at the Merlin Theatre in Frome on the 16th May.
The Eyris Jones Memorial Trophy for the Best Youth Production went to Clevedon School’s Youth Theatre for the dynamic performance of ‘Tuesday’ written by Alison Carr and directed by Hannah Davies and Oliver Davies. It was an abridged version of the play that tells the story of an ordinary Tuesday that turns weird when the sky over a school playing field suddenly rips open. The high-quality performances and an inventive stage presentation with use of boxes throughout and screen at the beginning and end of the play to depict the sky rendering apart was superb. The adjudicator praised the ensemble work, concentration, acting skills, and stage discipline. They were delighted to win the accolade of Best Youth Production and they accepted their trophy to whoops and cheers which filled the theatre.
The Hope Cup for best presentation and the runner up of the competition, was awarded to The @2K Theatre for their production of ‘Please Take Your Seat’ which was written and directed by Lorna Evans. The play explores the decisions made by people whilst sitting on a chair throughout the course of a day. It had a breathtaking start when the play was introduced by Nick Gibbons and the entertaining performance that ensued from all the cast as they used a single chair to tell their tale was impressive, creative and compelling. It was a thought provoking and most enjoyable original play. In light of this, it is not surprising that they also won the Cely Trevillian Bowl for the best production of an original play.
The trophies for Best Actress and Best Actor were won by Liz Browne and Alastair MacLeod for their superb portrayals of Popova and Smirnov in the Taunton Thespians presentation of The Bear by Anton Chekhov. The play is a comedy about a widow who is determined to mourn her dead husband for ever, but when a gruff landowner arrives to collect a debt, she is faced with a dilemma. Liz and Alastair certainly were a tour de force as they had the audience laughing and entranced throughout.
The Edward Grey Memorial Shield for Best Performer under the age of 30 was won by Taya Bray who played Joanne in ‘All the Little Lights’ by Jane Upton. It was directed by Charmaine Bray on behalf of Crewkerne United Dramatic and Operatic Society (CUDOS). The play is a hard-hitting drama based on sexual exploitation of teenagers. Taya portrayed a young girl who recruits others and although she initially appeared as an unlikeable manipulating bully, as the play progressed her own vulnerability, fear, and desperation made the audience realise she was just as much a victim as the others. It was a truly gripping performance.
The CUDOS Youth Company demonstrated excellent technical qualities with both their soundscape and puppeteering skills and so they won the Brian Edwards Trophy for Technical Achievement. The three youngsters who controlled the large monkey puppet demonstrated an understanding of movement and expression in interacting with the actors on stage that was professional and slick and they were very worthy winners.
Throughout the festival there were many moments worthy of the Philip de Glanville Trophy for the Champagne Moment, but the overall winner went to the deeply moving farewell toast to a dear departed friend in ‘One Down...’ written and directed by Paul Gorsuch for the Weymouth Drama Club.
Minehead Amateur Drama School (MADS) won the Lydia Durston Trophy for Greatest Endeavour. Sabrina Schwery who directed the Wizard of Oz had been faced with many challenges along the way in getting this play onto the stage and she was complimented for her delightful costumes, set and directing twenty-four young children creatively and with artistic skill.
The festival was organised by the Somerset Fellowship of Drama’s Irene Glynn whose work started as far back as August 2025 to guarantee a successful festival. She worked closely with The Warehouse Theatre and together they achieved a polished and professional event. The Warehouse Theatre volunteers all provided a huge support, with box office and refreshments. However, Dave Goodall, made the whole event happen by providing support as the Stage Manager, technical lead, creating posters, banners and the programme. He worked tirelessly throughout the whole weekend and was assisted by Maggy Goodall as Assistant Stage Manager. Brian Perkins (lighting) and Martin Selwood (sound) both provided great technical support for all the teams. Rachel Dunn was the Festival Timekeeper, and the photographer was Jim Riche. Di Dean and Dendy Harris were the adjudicator’s stewards over the course of the weekend.
At the close of the festival, Dendy Harris, Chair for Somerset Fellowship of Drama, paid tribute to everybody who had made this year’s County Drama Festival another resounding success and complimented the adjudicator on his ability to provide fair and balanced evaluations on each play as he praised aspects of the productions that worked well and suggested ideas where they were not so successful. She also explained that the role of Somerset Fellowship of Drama is to support amateur drama throughout Somerset and that there is funding available for training and development and so groups who are members should apply.
Congratulations to all the competing groups in this year’s festival for bringing their plays and to all the well deserving winners:
The Eyris Jones Memorial trophy for Best Youth Production: Clevedon School's Youth theatre for ‘’Tuesday’ by Alison Carr, directed by Hannah Davies and Oliver Davis.
The Edward Grey Memorial Trophy for Best Performer under age 30: Taya Bray as ‘Joanne’ in ‘All the Little Lights’ by Jane Upton, directed by Charmaine Bray for CUDOS
The Cely Trevellian Bowl for Best Production of an Original Script: The @2K Theatre for ‘Please Take Your Seat’, written and directed by Lorna Evans.
The Brian Edwards Trophy for Technical Excellence: CUDOS Youth Theatre for ‘Scary Play’ by Judith Johnson, directed by Charmaine Bray.
The Lydia Durston Trophy for Greatest Endeavour: Minehead Amateur Drama School for ‘The Wizard of Oz’ by Stewart Auty, directed by Sabrina Stewart
Best Actress: Liz Browne for playing ‘Popova’ in ‘The Bear’ by Antov Chekhov, directed by Alastair Macleod for Taunton Thespians.
Best Actor: Alastair Macleod ‘Smirnov’ in ‘The Bear’ by Anton Chekhov directed by Alastair Macleod for Taunton Thespians
The Philip de Glanville Trophy for The Champagne Moment: Weymouth Drama Club for a very moving farewell toast in ‘One Down…’ written and directed by Paul Gorsuch.
The Hope Cup for Best Presentation: The @2K Theatre for ‘Please Take Your Seat’ written and directed by Lorna Evans.
The County Shield for Best Production: Ilminster Entertainment Society (IES) for ‘Knockin’ on Dave’s Door’ by Neil Webster
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