We were delighted to launch the new Canford Centenary film ‘Always a Canfordian’ in a YouTube premiere on Friday 27th January at 5pm.
Drama Festival 2020
The 2020 House Drama Festival once again demonstrated the breadth of talent across houses and year groups, from Shells to Upper Sixth. As in previous years, the performances were organised by pupils with minimal oversight from house staff. As a result, pupils were involved in the complete on and off stage production making full use of the Layard Theatre including set design opportunities, technical resources and the extensive wardrobe department.
Over four nights from Monday 20th-Thursday 23rd January, the Layard stage was graced with a varied mix of dramatic styles and genres. The air was tense with anticipation as the judges’ decisions were announced after the final performance by Monteacute. As has become traditional, winners were presented with golden statues in an Oscars-style red carpet ceremony.
Many congratulations to the following winners and highly commended houses and individuals (winners in bold):
Set Design
Court
Marriotts
Monteacute
Lighting Operator
Mike Sorokin for Lancaster
Sound Operator
George Vessey for Lancaster
Stage Manager
Izzy Place, Tamara Read-Ward, Samuel Symes and Agatha Zhao for Beaufort and Franklin
Lower School Supporting Actor
Joe South for Beaufort and Franklin
Millie Heyman for de Lacy
Imy Woodcock for de Lacy
Johannes Bishop-Weston for Salisbury
Leo Burnet for Wimborne
Lower School Actor
Alex Geng for Beaufort and Franklin
Olivia Jackson for Beaufort and Franklin
Theo Snell for Court
Max Lockyer for Lancaster
Lara Wilkinson for Marriotts
Upper School Supporting Actor
Ed Loveridge for Court
Harry Moores for Court
Anna Preston for de Lacy
Zach Fenwick for Lancaster
Gabe Wilkinson for School House
Upper School Actor
Serena Blake for Beaufort and Franklin
Zac Arnold for Beaufort and Franklin
George Farthing for Court
Alex Rogers for Monteacute
Sammy Smith for School House
Ensemble (Sense of cohesion, rapport and consistency amongst cast)
Beaufort and Franklin
Court
de Lacy
Monteacute
Producer (Overall organisation and responsibility)
Tamara Read-Ward and Zac Arnold for Beaufort and Franklin
Sam Downey for Lancaster
Frances Fleming for Salisbury
Director (Creative vision and dramatic intention)
Tamara Read-Ward and Zac Arnold for Beaufort and Franklin
George Farthing for Court
Felix Spencer and Alex Rogers for Monteacute
Outstanding Achievement Awards (Outstanding achievement not covered by other categories)
School House - for the impressive demonstration of focus and determination to elevate performance standards well beyond reasonable expectation, producing a fun, slick and well-paced performance.
Best Overall Performance
Court
Special Lifetime Achievement awards were also presented to Callum Bruce and George Farthing for their services to The Layard Theatre.
Director of Drama Laura Blake was delighted with this year’s entries:
“Now in its fourth year, I have watched the annual House Drama festival grow and develop. This year I have witnessed the most consistently successful entries demonstrating the confidence, creativity and skill sets our pupils bring to this huge undertaking. As a director myself, I know it is not always easy to encourage others to possess the imagination and determination required that might make the many, many hours of laborious, meticulous and repetitive rehearsal worthwhile for the fleeting 40 minutes of performance. There are times within the process where doubt or exhaustion can threaten the outcome, but the work we have seen this week has proven that our pupils possess the stamina, that it is worth it and I thank you all for creating such a successful festival.
Many thanks must also go to my colleagues, the rest of the Drama Department, who have given so much of their time and energy to support these productions, as well as David Benamor who incredibly generously gave up his weekend to mentor those who were new to using the technical equipment.
The judging was extremely difficult with so many individual and group outstanding performances, both on and off stage. Congratulations go to Court as the overall winners of this year’s festival.”