Our GoDA Adjudicator, Mike Tilbury and Michael Lees were interviewed this morning on Ben Hartley‘s show, The Radio Café on Manx Radio.

The adjudicator gave some lovely insight into how he approaches adjudication and ensures it’s not a matter of personal taste, highlighting the most important point –

“Be objective, not subjective.
Judge the performance, not the play.”

He talked about the importance of diplomacy when adjudicating productions and the need to review the entire package including elements such as; costume, make up and staging, as well as the performances themselves.

Being his 130th festival, Mike mentioned that he is quite picky now and only goes to the really good festivals! He complimented the wonderful Gaiety Theatre and the good strong plays the festival attracts.

A lovely start to the festivities – Mike is also the guest speaker at the Easter Monday lunch at the Empress Hotel and will surely share more insights with festival supporters then.

• Vanessa Williams, Online and Social Media Admin

I was given a fantastic opportunity to engage with some of the island’s media this week ahead of the Easter Festival.

Manx Radio were really welcoming. Bob Carswell and I had a great conversation which you’ll be able to hear today during his show Shiaght Laa between 6-6.30 pm or listen On Demand on the Manx Radio website.

MTTV also interviewed me and this time on camera. Paul Moulton put me right at ease and I’m looking forward to seeing the result this weekend. It’s fantastic to have such support for our festival – please do tune in online!

***Update – you can see the MTTV interview online here!***

• Clare Austen, Chairman

MADF and the Isle of Man Arts Council have decided that young drama students on the Island should be able to see the Easter Festival of Full Length Plays for free!

The MADF Chairman will be contacting schools tomorrow to relay this message.

Having grown up on the Isle of Man and then gone to University to study Drama, I feel I really missed out on the excellent opportunities MADF offered with its festivals simply because I didn’t know they were there. If I had attended the Easter festival, even just during my GCSE and A-Level years, I would have seen 28 plays – many of which would have been classics that I could have referred to in my course essays and seminars in the future. Not to mention if I had attended the One Act Festival which presented 14 adjudicated performances this year alone!

Not only this but the nature of the amateur festival is that you get to watch a range of productions adjudicated by GoDA accredited Adjudicators. This is not something professional productions offer so readily – you may get to read a short critique in a newspaper, that does not however offer the same sort of learning as watching a trained professional breakdown what goes into each production and present their opinions on direction, acting, sound, lighting and staging in such a detailed way.

To make the most of University courses in theatre, film and performance – the ability to express your opinion and to have a wide knowledge of your subject is invaluable. To be able to talk with passion and experience about productions you have seen can open doors. So many students out there are yearning to have successful careers in the performing arts, but fail to make the most of chances that are around them to immerse themselves sufficiently in that world.

This year we have plays by Harold Pinter (who should need no introduction and will be on any Uni reading list), a famous play named Scaramouche Jones (which I heard referenced many times at University). One Man, Two Guvnors which was a massive hit in the West End from 2011 to 2016, the Pulitzer Prize winning Night Mother and The Flint Street Nativity an adaptation of the British Television Comedy.

Coming from a small, albeit wonderful Island can mean not having the access that people who can pop along to the West End any time they like have but we do have such a fantastic wealth of talent, opportunities and one of the most beautiful theatres anyone could hope to visit which we should be shouting about and utilising whenever we can.

Please encourage all the students you know to make the most of this fabulous festival!

• Vanessa Williams, MADF Online Admin

– Are you a budding critic or journalist?

– Are you intending to study theatre at University?

– Are you available in the evenings from Saturday 26th to Wednesday 30th March 2016?

The MADF Easter Festival organisers are looking for a keen young wordsmith to review the plays during the Festival and Young Actor of Mann Final and write a daily blog post with help from the Online and Social Media Admin.

You will receive two tickets for the festival so you can bring a parent or friend.

Benefits:

• You will see 5 full length plays and their adjudication by a GoDA accredited adjudicator – a great opportunity for anyone going on to study theatre at University.
• Your posts will be featured on madf.im and publicised via the MADF Facebook and Twitter accounts and the newsletter sent to all subscribers.
• You will get to meet many people who are interested in the theatre, so it’s a great networking opportunity.
• Universities love to see extracurricular activities on applications, so this would be a great chance to get your writing in print and be a part of a long running Manx festival.

Click here to read the synopses of all the plays in the festival and for more festival details.

Please email onlineadmin@madf.im or facebook message to express interest by 6pm on Wednesday 23rd March.

*If you can only come to some of the performances we would still be very interested in hearing from you!

The MADF Easter Festival of plays 2016 will be a compact 5 day run, full of fun and bringing with it a veritable roller coaster of emotions. This year each team is providing very different material to both intrigue and possibly perplex the audience! We, as a committee, are delighted to have two local groups able to compete and hope this sets a new trend for years to come.  We look forward to greeting old friends from 3 returning teams from across.  They love the island as much as the locals!

As you may be aware the programme usually runs over 7 days.  This is regrettably not possible this year due to a variety of reasons, the main one being that some of our usual entrants from across are running plays this season with a large cast, which makes it too much of a financial burden for teams being of an amateur status, even with the generous financial assistance provided by MADF and much appreciated support from the Isle of Man Arts Council.  In order to prevent this reoccurring, we will be looking into ways to make sure all eligible theatre groups are aware of our annual competition and expect to receive more entries than performance slots next year onwards, so get your entries in early!

We hope all rehearsals are going well and look forward to an exciting 2016 festival!

• Clare Austin, Chairman