Act Reviews 2024 / 2025 Season

SEVEN DAY PLAY 2024 Hyde festival Theatre While I have seen and reviewed a number of One Act plays completed in a week, or even 24 hours, this was the first time I had been asked to review one from a youth section. Hyde Festival Theatre has, over the years, encouraged their youth element from various groups which use the theatre to take some ownership of their pantomime/play/musical choices. The volunteers work hard to facilitate the choices and also offer support and guidance for the choices so that there are clear opportunities to develop performance skills. There are youth representatives on the HFT committee and they are encouraged to discuss and bring their ideas for future productions and fundraising opportunities that ultimately lead to a performance for the public to attend and enjoy. The idea for the Seven Day Play was just one of these put forward. A week prior to the production all of the cast and creatives attended workshops in Acting, Directing and Writing – all facilitated by the adults from various groups, passing on their knowledge and giving the parameters and scope of One Act Plays that would hold the interest of a range of ages in the audience. The youth were then randomly drawn into four teams to perform the new plays. Each cast member had to bring their own prop that had to be written into the script, whether that was a wig, a stuffed toy or a chameleon! Not only were the performers given opportunity to develop elements of stage craft, the directors planned all the sound effects and lighting for the plays. And so to the four plays: Play 1: Conspiracy, Accusations and Champagne: Theme – On a cruise ship Written by Lee Dodd Directed by Libby Hall Lee had drafted a 15 minute “who-done-it!” Various characters making accusations of one another as they try to work out the murderer. However, there was no murder at the conclusion. With any writing, whether that be story or play, there has to be a beginning, middle and end that doesn’t feel rushed. In my experience, young people often start off with an idea and then it runs out of steam and the end fizzles out. Here, Lee had constructed a piece that felt equally weighted. Performing a play, quite rightly, relies on the delivery of dialogue. Here I mean, vocal

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