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The 26th Sancta Annual One Act Festival
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The 26th Sancta Annual One Act Festival closes on a high note The 26th SA National Community Theatre Association One Act Play festival ended on a high note with much praise from the adjudicators and plenty of hope for community theatre for the future. The 26th SA National Community Theatre Association (Sancta)- The SA National Representative of IATA International - Annual One Act Play Festival came to a triumphant close on Saturday 27th August with the re - staging of the best three plays of the week, followed by a Gala Award Ceremony and Cocktail Party. Mr Ismail Mohamed - Sancta's new Patron - summed up the views of the three adjudicators for the week - himself, Ms Yvette Hardie and Mr John Whiteley. "We have seen some tremendous new work and talent on stage this week, many new written and workshopped SA plays, highlighting the fact that Community Theatre is very much alive and well in SA and has a rightful place on our stages. In some cases, it outshines what we are seeing commercially and many of these plays and performers deserve to go much further. Yes, there were the few plays that needed more polish and understanding of the scripts, but these are in the minority and still show enormous potential and talent". Ismail also commented on the wonderful spirit of support amongst all the groups for each other, despite being in competition and the good general audience attendance. Ismail also felt Sancta needed to look at the format for the festival in 2006, especially with so many new SA plays being entered into the festival and the separate Playwriting Competition - with more attention being paid to the development of new scripts to enable them to successfully see the light of day on stage. A highlight of the evening was the presence of Nick ("Birdy / Shopping and Fucking" and currently to be seen in "2 for The Price of 1") Borraine and his lovely wife Louise, who were attending a Sancta festival for the first time and said they also couldn't believe the enormous talent - from High School pupils to black workshopped theatre to another SA play - on stage - theatrically, technically and in the written pieces. Not to forget the wonderful array of "real" trophies to be vied for in the Festival. They handed out all the winner trophies and certificates. This 26th Sancta Festival again boasts a few "firsts". It started with a regional Festival in Secunda in July and three plays came through to the main festival. We again had 2 other Provinces participating - Limpopo and Mpumalanga - so we are spreading our wings provincially, and there were plays from many different languages and representing many cultures ethnically - both rural and urban. Many black and white youths took part in the plays, so they are helping to foster a theatrical culture amongst the youth. The adjudicators also invited any groups to a Q&A session on their adjudication prior to the start of the final evening. As part of the Festival overall, The Boksburg Arts and Theatre Society brought the hilarious farce "Who Goes Bare" by Lesley Darbon and Richard Harris, directed by Margaret Todd for 4 performances. This was particularly well received and enjoyed and Sancta presented BATS with a Certificate of Merit on Final Night. Sancta ran a raffle of delicious beverages and sweets together with +/- R3000 worth of theatre tickets as prizes and wishes to acknowledge the following theatre donors - The Market Theatre, Ian Von Memerty, SA Ballet Theatre Company, The Liberty Theatre on the Square. This festival could not have taken place without the support of it's sponsors: Dalro - The Samro Endowment Trust for the Arts; Andisa Capital Ltd - Financial Institution and Stock Brokers; The National Arts Council and Business and Arts SA - BASA - for their supporting fund Grant. Sancta expresses its gratitude to all these generous sponsors. The support of the advertisers, media, TMSA, Computicket Pty Ltd, IATA International is also gratefully acknowledged. The full list of awards and winners appears below: 1.5th Sancta Annual new SA playwriting competition, adjudicated by Ivan D Lucas. No award for 2006, as Mr Lucas felt the standard did not merit an award. 2.Mr Noel Mc Donald received the trophy on behalf of the cast and crew of "The Right to Choose" that they were presented with from The Festival du Mondial in Monaco and a special token of merit from Sancta for representing Sancta and South Africa at this prestigious International Festival. 3.The 2nd Adjudicators Special Merit Award was presented by the adjudicators to Andy Bowman and Noel Mc Donald on behalf of The Sancta Committee for the running of the 26th Annual Festival 4.The Adam Leslie Cup - for the Adjudicators Special Merit Award went to Youth in Trust for ensemble work in both their productions - Desperate Measures and Da Show 5.Best Foyer Display - Roodepoort Little Theatre 6.Best Backstage Technical Excellence - Edenvale Acting and Drama Society 7.Best Set - Waarom Sonneblomme se Koppe Hang - Hoerskool Piet Potgieter - Potgietersrus 8.Best New SA Script - Desperate Measures written by Nelson Mokoena for Youth in Trust 9.Best Performance in a Cameo Role - Liesel Harris in Waarom Sonneblomme se Koppe Hang 10.Best Actress in a Supporting Role - Molly Pitsoe in Desperate Measures 11.Best Actor in a Supporting Role - Richard Bodkin in David's Birthday - Roodepoort Little Theatre 12.Runner up to Best Actress - Heleen Roberts in Skatties - Ridge Amateur Drama Society, Secunda 13.Best Actress in a Leading Role - Nicole Wilkinson - Wake Me When Its Time - Edenvale Acting and Drama Society 14.Runner up to Best Actor in a Leading Role - Henroe Janse van Rensburg - Waarom Sonneblomme se Koppe Hang 15.Best Actor in a Leading Role - Atanda Sithebe - Desperate Measures 16.Best Novice Production - Candid directed by Claire Wilson - Protea Stage Productions 17.Andisa Capital Ltd Shield for "Theatrical Excellence" - Wake Me When Its Time for "Production Value" 18.Best Director - Kim Osborne - Wake Me When Its Time 19. 2nd Runner up to Best Production - Skatties - Ridge Amateur Drama Society, Secunda 20.Runner up to Best Production - Waarom Sonneblomme se Koppe Hang - Hoerskool Piet Potgieter, Potgietersrus, Limpopo 21.Best Overall Production - Desperate Measures - Youth in Trust, Soweto |