Chesil Theatre Winchester’s new writing festival TakeTen has received the backing of Sir Kenneth Branagh.

Endorsing Chesil Theatre’s commitment to new writing through the TakeTen New Writing Festival, Sir Kenneth,  Patron of the Little Theatre Guild, said: “Three cheers for Winchester’s Chesil Theatre! At a time of challenge for all, they have bravely looked to creativity and imagination. Their new writing competition can lead the way to new ideas and new and entertaining ways to look at our changed and changing world.

“I hope these exciting writers will help herald the return of live amateur theatre, a vital part of Britain’s creative ecosystem. Bravo Chesil Theatre! With respect, Kenneth Branagh”

With the theme The Road Not Taken, Chesil Theatre’s TakeTen encourages new writers to enter their competition for plays lasting just 10 minutes.

Entries continue to come in and with 18th July 2020 the closing date for submissions. The top ten plays chosen by a judging panel will be announced in the autumn this year with performances in February 2021.

Chesil Theatre Chairman, David Small, said: “At this difficult time for theatre, we’re pleased to have an exciting activity encouraging new writers from across the UK. We’ve been organising a national writing festival every two years since 2008 and we think this is our most ambitious. We’ve been hugely impressed by the range and standard of submissions in the past and we’re looking forward to another highly successful event.”

Details of the TakeTen Chesil Theatre New Writing Festival are available from www.chesiltheatre.org.uk including the entry criteria and submission form.

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Editor’s Notes
The attached image of Sir Kenneth Branagh is provided repro-free for editorial use.

About Chesil Theatre
Chesil Theatre (Winchester Dramatic Society) is based in the heart of Winchester, presenting six main productions a year, ranging from comedy to classics. Chesil Theatre also runs drama workshops and readings, plus two lively youth theatre groups as well as offering stagecraft and technical training. The company has been performing for over 150 years.

Since 1966 the Chesil Theatre has been our permanent home - a former 12th century church in Chesil Street. Its medieval building provides an intimate 75-seat studio-style theatre and versatile performance space. It has around 250 members. Auditions are open to everyone; newcomers are welcome.

About Sir Kenneth Branagh
Sir Kenneth Branagh (born 10th December 1960) is an actor, director, film producer and screen writer. He studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where he is currently President. He is also Patron of the Little Theatre Guild, where Chesil Theatre has been a member since 1988.

About the Little Theatre Guild
The Little Theatre Guild of Great Britain (LTG) is an umbrella organisation promoting and supporting independent amateur theatre companies which have control over their own premises and produce drama of a high quality for the benefit of their communities. It has been credited with being pivotal in securing recognition for the theatrical contribution made by these companies throughout the United Kingdom.

1st May 2020: THE ROAD NOT TAKEN has been selected as the theme for a new national playwriting festival run by Chesil Theatre Winchester, with the winning 10 plays performed over one weekend in February 2021.

TakeTen Chesil Theatre New Writing Festival (‘TakeTen’), the new biennial contest, opens today to entries and has a simple format:

• plays need to be ten minutes in length
• scripts can include one to four actors, with minimum props, lighting and sound, and
• they must also be unperformed, unpublished and original work.

The theatre company has built a strong reputation for cultivating new plays and discovering new writers over the past decade and has attracted the attention of some renowned actors. Having watched a performance, Sir Ian McKellen enthused: “I thought the whole enterprise was startlingly good and an example of what a theatre company like the Chesil can do better than a professional one. They should be very proud of the result of their labours.” 
 
TakeTen builds on this success and the company hopes its new contest will be the most successful festival yet.

David Small, Chairman, Chesil Theatre, says: “Chesil Theatre has long been associated with performing ground-breaking work, and ‘TakeTen Chesil Theatre New Writing Festival 2021’ aims to cement that reputation and to give new talent an opportunity to be celebrated – in front of a paying audience – over one weekend.

“We received a large number of suggestions for the festival theme, with The Road Not Taken selected owing to its wide opportunity for interpretation. While it is the name of a well-known poem by Robert Frost, we hope that new playwrights will have a lot of fun with it and use its versatility to come up with some theatre firsts.”
 
A unique feature of TakeTen is its final rehearsal period taken over a concentrated time. This makes it easier for those who can’t normally commit to the theatre’s usual eight-week schedule to take part. The set for each play is also kept intentionally simple, allowing for the 10 winning plays to be performed back to back and with minimum set change time.

David Small concludes: “The whole ‘hothouse’ atmosphere of the festival creates a tremendous team effort when 50 people or more finally get together for the four performances over one frenetic weekend, culminating in a final end of show party.”

All entries must be in by 11:59 on 18th July 2020. Those shortlisted through an initial selection process then go to a panel of judges before the short list of 20 and final 10 winners are announced in autumn 2020. Chesil Theatre will then start appointing directors and stage management, with auditions and casting to follow. 

Rules and entry criteria are available here www.chesiltheatre.org.uk or email if you have any specific queries not covered by the entry criteria to taketen@chesiltheatre.org.uk.

Rules and the entry form to accompany your script are available using this link 
https://drive.google.com/file/d/12rBtqR0TnvCGg12xJ85TMezweRPaAMbH/view.

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For further information please contact:

Flavia Bateson
Chesil Theatre Marketing Team
07855 253452
flavia.bateson@starspray.org

Editor’s notes

The Chesil Theatre (Winchester Dramatic Society) is based in Winchester and presents six main productions a year, ranging from comedy to classics. Chesil Theatre also performs regular rehearsed readings as well as offering stagecraft training. The company has been performing plays for 150 years.

Since 1966 the Chesil Theatre has been our permanent home - a former 12th century church in Chesil Street. Its medieval building provides an intimate 75-seat studio-style theatre and versatile performance space. It has around 250 members including two youth groups, and auditions are open to everyone; newcomers are welcome.

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The evenings may be getting lighter but a darkness will hang over the Chesil Theatre, Winchester, when Dracula engulfs the stage in a modern adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Gothic tale, which runs from 28th March to 4th April 2020.

It’s the close of the nineteenth century and a freak storm brings more than bad weather to the cosy town of Whitby. The most famous vampire of them all, Count Dracula, has arrived. His interest is in the Westerman sisters, who are enjoying a seaside holiday. Mina, an intelligent young woman, conforms to the requirements of Victorian society but Lucy is quite the opposite. Vivacious and bold, she strains at the leash, pushing barriers and with horrifying results.

Poet and playwright Liz Lochhead, tells this intriguing story, whilst also bringing contemporary issues into the drama. Faith battles with reason, madness with sanity. Does the heart rule, or the head?

Dracula runs at the Chesil Theatre, Chesil Street, Winchester, nightly from Saturday 28th March to Saturday 4th April 2020, with a matinee on Sunday 29th March at 2.30pm. Tickets are available here.

​This production contains strong language and adult themes.

In 1913 The Winchester Amateur Operatic Society presented their first show, The Pirates of Penzance. The programme shows many members of the Winchester Dramatic Society, established 1863, were in the cast and backstage.  The close links have remained and now the two groups have joined forces to bring a Summer Festival in the beautiful gardens of Wolvesey Palace.

The Festival opens on July 14th with the Chesil Theatre, as Winchester Dramatic Society is now known, performing one of Shakespeare's best loved comedies, A Midsummer Night's Dream. It will be directed by Sarah Hawkins. As well as appearing on stage and directing at the Chesil, she brings a wealth of experience in outdoor productions and Shakespeare from her years as Head of English Literature at Peter Symonds College.

WMOS swing aboard on July 21st with their 2020 approach to the 1913 G&S operetta . Suzanne Hall, the chairman of the Society takes the helm. She has a fine reputation as actor, singer, dancer and choreographer and directed her first WMOS show in 2007. She has been in charge for several more productions including the stunning Singing in the Rain in 2018

Both directors have won much acclaim from audiences and NODA Awards for their high standards and are sure to bring fine entertainment to the gardens of Wolvesey Palace.

A Fine Bright Day Today by Philip Goulding

​Reading Friday February 21 7.45pm

Auditions Sunday February 23 7.45pm and Monday February 24 7.45pm

Performances May 16 - 23 7.45pm. Matinee Sunday 17 2.30pm

The Chesil Theatre has a fine record of bringing a wide range of drama of all genres to Winchester; classics, favourites but also of introducing new works.

The May production, A Fine Bright Day Today by Philip Goulding is a contemporary play which explores, with warmth, understanding and humour, the intertwining past and present lives of three very different people.

Set in a small English coastal town, where trawler men take their boats out in all weathers, this is a delicately constructed story of hope in later life.

Since her husband was lost at sea more than 30 years ago, Margaret has lived with her daughter, Rebecca. Now she is moving out to be with her boyfriend and Margaret faces a future alone. However, when Rebecca asks her mother to take in a lodger, on impulse she  agrees. It’s not long before he’s disturbing her calm routine, dripping rainwater on her clean floors and appearing for breakfast in his boxers.

Director, Caroline Helcke, said: "There are open auditions for these three fine parts in this entertaining, thoughtful play with a big heart. Philip Goulding makes us really care about these people and their hopes for the future."

There will be a reading on Friday February 21 with auditions on Sunday February 23 and Monday 24; all at the Theatre at 7.45pm.

New members are always welcome.

Chesil Theatre Winchester opens the New Year with a classic piece when Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts runs from 25th January to 1st February 2020.

To her social class, Helen Alving’s marriage appeared outwardly successful yet it was inwardly miserable, due to her husband’s continued philandering. Now a widow, she wishes to protect her son Oswald and guide him from his father’s ways. But is she already too late? Will ghosts from the past reappear and events repeat themselves?

Ibsen’s drama is now considered a masterpiece but in 1883 19th-century audiences were shocked, particularly by comments on incest, prostitution and venereal disease. This new adaptation by former-National Theatre Director Richard Eyre was welcomed as “fleet and vivid” (The Telegraph) and “spellbinding” (The Independent).

Ghosts runs at the Chesil Theatre, Chesil Street, Winchester from Saturday 25th January to Saturday 1st February 2020 nightly with a matinee performance on Sunday 26th January at 2.30pm. You can buy your tickets here. 

​Be afraid! Be very afraid! The most famous vampire of all, Dracula, is coming to Winchester’s Chesil Theatre in March 2020. Open auditions for the 10 exciting roles, five male five female, are being held on Sunday 8th and Monday 9th December 2019. The characters cover a wide age range from 18 to 60 including two young women (one vivacious the other very proper), an insane inmate of Bedlam asylum, an upright solicitor, plus of course the Prince of Darkness himself.

Set in the 1890s, the narrative follows Count Dracula’s attempt to move from Transylvania to England, seeking, what else, but new blood. From the remote Yorkshire coast to the crowded streets of London, the struggle to stop his vampiric reign begins.
Director John Wakeman said: “This bold modern adaptation is by renowned poet and playwright Liz Lochhead and stays unnervingly close to Bram Stoker’s original nightmare tale.”

An informal reading is being held at the theatre on Friday 6th December at 7.45pm when newcomers are particularly welcome. Dracula runs from 28th March to 4th April 2020 and tickets are now available from 

Dracula by Liz Lochhead – open casting call (with playing ages)
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Lucy Westerman/Bride of Dracula (18-25) – a vivacious young woman who strains at the bounds of Victorian society, with horrifying results.

Mina Westerman (20-30s) – an intelligent yet proper young lady conforming to Victorian norms and engaged to Jonathan Harker.

Florrie Hathersage/Bride of Dracula (18-25) – maid to the Westerman household, young but worldly.

Mrs Manners/Doctor Goldman/Bride of Dracula (40s+) – Mrs Manners, housekeeper to the Westermans. Doctor Goldman, an intellectual who views her patients as objects of study

Nurse Nesbitt, Grice (40s +) – one character with opposing personalities, sadist/masochist, working at Bedlam.

Dracula/Drinkwater (ageless) – Dracula the Prince of Darkness, pure evil, charming, sophisticated. Drinkwater, an orderly at Bedlam.

Arthur Seward (20s-40s) – old school acquaintance of Jonathan, consulting physician to Renfield at Bedlam, suitor to Lucy.

Jonathan Harker (20s-40s) – fiancé to Mina, up-and-coming solicitor, encounters Dracula on a business trip to Eastern Europe.

Professor Van Helsing (50+) – the one person familiar with vampires and how to fight them.

Renfield (30s-60s) – inmate at Bedlam. Prior encounters with Dracula have left him insane and an unwilling accomplice.
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For further information please contact:

Flavia Bateson
Chesil Theatre Marketing Team
01962 855544
flavia.bateson@starspray.org

Chesil Theatre Winchester’s New Year production will be Henrik Ibsen’s classic tragedy Ghosts and open auditions are being held on 13th and 14th October 2019. The play is a scathing commentary on 19th century morals and offers challenging roles for two women and three men.
 
At the centre of the narrative is Helene Alving, a widow, wanting to escape the ghosts of her earlier life but as the drama unfolds she learns that present consequences are brought about by past actions. This award-winning adaptation is by former National Theatre Director Richard Eyre.
 
Director Peter Andrews comments:
“This play shocked 19th-century audiences because of its comment on religion, incest, and inherited disease but this contemporary production gives it enormous freshness and power”.
 
An informal reading is being held at the theatre on 11th October at 7.45pm when newcomers are particularly welcome. Ghosts runs from 25th January to 1st February 2020 and tickets are now available from www.chesiltheatre.org.uk
 
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​In Praise of Love by Terence Rattigan
Saturday September 28th - Saturday October 5th
Matinee Sunday September 29th 2.30pm

The new season at the Chesil Theatre, Winchester, opens with In Praise of Love, a tender and deeply moving play by a master of twentieth century theatre, Terence Rattigan. 

Sebastian Crutwell, an acerbic arts critic on a Sunday newspaper, keeps the world at bay with his aggressively mocking banter. His reluctance, or inability, to admit his true feelings for his wife, Lydia and son, Joey,  results in him talking to them in the same witty, but detached, style.

Lydia knows she has polyarteritus but shields Sebastian from the knowledge. However, he also knows and in turn is trying to protect her. We learn of the hidden truths and reticent emotions in this marriage when both confide in their friend, Mark. It is ironic that they can confess their passion more easily to other people than to each other.

Director, Norma York, said: "In Praise of Love, Rattigan's penultimate play, is packed with allusions to his own life and those of his friends. He was particularly inspired by  Rex Harrison's decision not to inform his beautiful wife, the actress, Kay Kendall of her terminal diagnosis." 

The play opens on Saturday September 28th and runs until October 5th at 7.45pm with a matinee on Sunday 29th at 2.30pm.Tickets from £12 available from our online booking facility.