Mirror mirror on the wall who is the best am-dram of all?

3:00pm Saturday 22nd March 2008

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TALENTED performers have been treading the boards in the hope of winning the prestigious All England Theatre Festival.

Drama groups from across south Essex staged their one-act plays for adjudicator Arthur Rochester at the Eastwood Theatre.

The winning team, the Wednesday Players, from Hadleigh, will now take their performance of Mirror Mirror to the East Division final.

Chairman Margaret Kenn- edy said the comedy was based on the story of Sleeping Beauty.

She said: "It was really a skit on panto and we had a very comical mirror, a face which we projected on to the wall.

"Our director, Richard Poth, has got really original ideas and he put lots of music in the play which is relevant. It was very amusing. The audience loved it."

Thorpe Hall School in Southend also had cause to celebrate after their team of 15 and 16-year-olds won the best junior team award for Glint of Gold.

Vivienne Cunningham, head of drama, wrote the one-act play around the story of Tutankhamun.

She said: "The story was told from the point of view of his wife, the Queen, and it showed how he came to power as a nine year old and was assasinated at the age of 19.

"The production itself was very stylised, there was a lot of dance and mime so it was quite symbolic in places."

The 24 pupils also performed the play for the Independent Schools Assoc- iation drama festival and are anxiously awaiting their results. Mrs Cunningham said: "I'm absolutely delighted with them, they really worked as a team. They helped make all the costumes and it was quite a spectacle because they had to be as traditional Egyptian as possible. There were a lot of masks for the Gods and obviously, a lot of gold on stage."

The best male actor award was shared by John Banks and Rick Fiore of Southend Drama Society for their roles in the comedy Babysitting Calvin.

Mr Banks, of Edinburgh Avenue, Leigh, starred as ten-month-old baby Calvin who can still remember his past life as a married man.

John Giles, of the Southend Arts Council, said: "It's one of the most successful festivals in Britain."

The Wednesday Players now hope to carry their success through to the national finals, to be held at the Thameside Theatre in Grays on Sunday June 14.

No local group has taken the title since the East Essex Players in 1989.

Tickets for the next round, to be held at Eastwood School on May 3, can be booked on 01702 335779.