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27-490: The All-England Theatre Festival ("AETF") organises the only countrywide eliminating contest for one-act plays in performance throughout England. It provides an opportunity for Amateurs to compete against like-minded groups and to benefit from the adjudication they receive to improve the quality of their performance. The AETF also maintains contact with other leading bodies involved in Amateur Dramatics throughout

54-446: A central organisation for amateur societies throughout England (despite the name "British"), it conducted drama schools and ran a drama library. By June 1923 there were 360 affiliated societies which included amateur and professional bodies. In 1926 professionals were expressing concern that the rapid growth of amateur drama was likely to cause problems with too many people trying to enter an already overcrowded profession. A Council Meeting

81-629: A performance of The Merchant of Venice at The Crystal Palace when Annie was aged 14. Annie's father allowed her to enter the Slade School of Fine Art in 1882. Here she discovered that her talent in art was limited but she developed other interests, particularly in the theatre and opera. She took great pleasure in Wagner 's Ring cycle and in Ibsen 's plays. She cycled in London and twice over

108-456: Is an initial round of the "All England Theatre Festival" . The competition is organised into both adult and youth sections and each competing team presents a one-act play. A professional adjudicator from the Guild of Drama Adjudicators judges the teams and announces winners. The winning team is then eligible to represent Shropshire in succeeding rounds of the knockout competition which culminates in

135-540: Is the culmination of the National Festival of Community Theatre in the United Kingdom. England is divided into 4 Areas for the purposes of this Festival. Each Area is also divided into a number of Divisions according to the size and / or history of the individual Areas. Each division has a number of festivals and, dependent on the festival, either the winner or the winner and runner-up will proceed to

162-651: The Alps , smoked in public and explored alternative religions. The "lonely rich girl" had become "an independent-minded woman". In 1890 she joined the occult society the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn , where she remained a member until disagreements with its leaders led to her resignation in 1903. During this time she met and became a friend of W. B. Yeats , acting as his amanuensis for some years. Their friendship endured: Frank O'Connor recalled that on

189-612: The First World War the Gaiety continued to stage plays but financial difficulties led to the disbandment of the permanent company in 1917, following which productions in the theatre were by visiting companies. In 1921 Annie sold the theatre to a cinema company. As a result of her tea connection, she was known as "Hornibags". She held court at the Midland Hotel , wearing exotic clothing and openly smoking cigarettes, which

216-585: The Gaiety Theatre in 1908 and developed it into the first regional repertory theatre in Britain. At the Gaiety she appointed Ben Iden Payne as the director and employed actors on 40-week contracts, alternating their work between large and small parts. The plays produced included classics such as Euripides and Shakespeare , and she introduced works by contemporary playwrights such as Ibsen and Shaw. She also encouraged local writers who formed what

243-671: The All-England Theatre Festival dates back to 1919, when the British Drama League was formed. The public inauguration of the league took place at the Theatre Royal , Haymarket on 22 June and was said by the first director of the league, Mr. Geoffrey Whitworth , that "Drama was par excellence the art of the people, and the Theatre everyone's business". There was a wide range of individuals on

270-646: The British Final in June. One-Act Play Festival In the UK there are two main organisations operating festivals For a recently published study of the one-act play, see Stephen Murray, Taking Our Amusements Seriously . LAP, 2010. ISBN   978-3-8383-7608-0 . This article about a theatre festival is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Annie Horniman Annie Elizabeth Fredericka Horniman CH (3 October 1860 – 6 August 1937)

297-638: The British Theatre Association, with effect from 1 November 1972 and for financial reasons was dissolved in 1990. Its collections of play scripts (presented by Annie Horniman ) are held in the most part by the Theatre Museum in London with the remaining part of the collection held by the Drama Association of Wales. The All-England Theatre Festival organises an eliminating series of Festivals which leads ultimately to

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324-816: The Divisional Quarter Final. The winners of the Divisional Quarter Finals go forward to the Area Semi-final. The winners of the four Area Semi-finals go forward to the English Final. The member festivals in 2008 were as follows: The Shropshire Drama Festival is organised annually in Spring by the Shropshire Drama League. It seeks to showcase the best in amateur theatre from around the county and

351-639: The English Finals. The winner of the English Final goes on to compete in the British Final Festival of One Act Plays against the winners of similar Festivals in Wales (Drama Association of Wales's Wales Final Festival of One Act Plays), Scotland ( Scottish Community Drama Association 's SCDA Festival ) and Northern Ireland ( Association of Ulster Drama Festivals 's Ulster One-Act Finals ). This "British Final Festival of One Act Plays"

378-798: The Man . In 1903 Yeats persuaded her to go to Dublin to back productions by the Irish National Theatre Society . Here she discovered her skill as a theatre administrator. She bought a property and developed it into the Abbey Theatre , which opened in December 1904. Although she moved back to live in England she continued to support the theatre financially until 1910. Meanwhile, in Manchester she had purchased and renovated

405-732: The United Kingdom by means of its membership of the Central Council for Amateur Theatre, The Drama Festivals Consortium and the British Finals Standing Committee. The festival is also involved with the Geoffrey Whitworth Trophy Competition, in conjunction with the other 'Hosts' of the British Festival, to judge original unpublished scripts that are first produced within the relevant festivals. The history of

432-503: The day Yeats heard of her death, he spent the entire evening speaking of his memories of her. Annie's first venture into the theatre was in 1894 and was made possible by a legacy from her grandfather. She anonymously supported her friend Florence Farr in a season of new plays at the Avenue Theatre , London. This included a new play by Yeats, The Land of Heart's Desire , and the première of George Bernard Shaw 's play Arms and

459-520: The elder child of Frederick John Horniman and his first wife Rebekah née Emslie. Her father was a tea merchant and the founder of the Horniman Museum ; her grandfather was John Horniman who founded the family tea business of Horniman and Company. Annie and her younger brother Emslie were educated privately at their home. Her father was opposed to the theatre, which he considered sinful, but their German governess took Annie and Emslie secretly to

486-628: The final of the National Festival was held outside London for the first time following the invitation of the Scottish Community Drama Association . The war brought a significant reduction in the league's membership but activities continued as best they could throughout. The emphasis changed somewhat to encourage Youth clubs and military units for educational purposes. After the Second World War

513-491: The first committee. The Drama League was in essence an association composed of individual co-operators in amateur drama and affiliated amateur dramatic groups. It was very active in the pursuit of the creation of a National Theatre . One of the main planks of the Drama League was its Education platform. This evolved into a strong commitment to new writing and eventually the establishment of competitive Festivals. It provided

540-494: The number was 400, in 1932 600, and by 1936 seven hundred and forty seven groups had entered. Very quickly a system of rounds had therefore been developed to cope with the numbers of entries. There was a first round at a regional level from which adjudicators would send their selections forward to a second round. Another set of adjudicators would then send a selection forward to a final round held annually in London. This final round, started in 1927, included Scottish entries, thus there

567-425: The organisation of summer schools. It has been argued that 1926 is the most important date in the history of the revival of the one-act play. The reason being that it was in 1926 that the British Drama League held its first experimental festival of one-act plays. In its first year seven societies took part in the competition, or festival as it was known. The next year the number was up to one hundred and fifty. In 1930

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594-506: The regions started to organise their own Festivals and the first England only Final was held in 1947. Until 1957 the organisation of subsequent annual Finals continued to be run by the British Drama League and eventually became the remit of the All England Theatre Festival. After 1957 the role of the British Drama League gradually faded away to be replaced by a mixture of support groups. The British Drama League became

621-630: Was an English theatre matron and manager. She established the Abbey Theatre in Dublin and founded the first regional repertory theatre company in Britain at the Gaiety Theatre in Manchester. She encouraged the work of new writers and playwrights, including W. B. Yeats , George Bernard Shaw and members of what became known as the Manchester School of dramatists. Annie Horniman was born at Surrey Mount, Forest Hill , London, in 1860,

648-619: Was considered scandalous at the time. She introduced Manchester to what was called at the time "the play of ideas". The theatre critic James Agate noted that Horniman's high-minded theatrical ventures had "an air of gloomy strenuousness" about them. Annie moved to London where she kept a flat in Portman Square . In 1933 she was made a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour . Horniman and Algernon Blackwood may have been

675-638: Was held to discuss this and in 1927 it was noted that the league's monthly journal 'Drama' was selling 3000 copies. This interest had started a British 'Festival of Community Drama' which was used to find an entry for the American New York Little Theatre Tournament. Other aspects of the league's work included the making of a substantial contribution to the Stratford-on-Avon Memorial Theatre, visits to Europe to help establish Festivals and

702-455: Was known as the Manchester School of dramatists, the leading members of which were Harold Brighouse , Stanley Houghton and Allan Monkhouse . The Gaiety company undertook tours of America and Canada in 1912 and 1913. Annie became a well-known public figure in Manchester, lecturing on subjects which included women's suffrage and her views about the theatre. In 1910 she was awarded the honorary degree of MA by Manchester University . During

729-466: Was no English Final as such. In 1927, the Scottish counterpart of the British Drama League, the Scottish Community Drama Association , had set up their own annual knockout festival which experienced similar success and by 1937 was attracting around three hundred and fifty entries. The Scottish festival had its own Scottish final, which went on to the London final to compete with English teams. In 1938

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