This festival finished on Wednesday 19 April 2000, and this page is being kept for archival purposes only.
If you are able to provide any more information, please contact the Archivist.
This was our most successful Festival yet of our 11 years in Scarborough. Attendance figures shot up to around 1,000 visitors, of whom at least 600 came for the full 7 days and some 400 came for part of the time, including a noticeable proportion of local adults and other non students. A huge number of productions, 127, were submitted for the Festival, of which 16 were selected for performance in Scarborough, sandwiched between more than 100 workshops and masterclasses. Four of the finalists transferred to the Edinburgh Festival in August and a further one to London. Increased use of the Stephen Joseph Theatre’s 2 auditoriums may well have helped to swell the number of non students attending, and it was particularly gratifying to see the Round theatre totally full for one of the discussions of plays seen and nearly full on other discussions days. As usual, most of the performances were sold out. Other venues used, for performances, talks, masterclasses, workshops and rehearsals, were The Spa (Theatre and Ocean Room for shows, several other spaces for workshops etc), Scarborough College, The Westwood Campus and University College. Theatre celebrities giving talks and/or masterclasses this year included playwright Willy Russell (Educating Rita, Blood Brothers etc), actor John Nettles (Bergerac etc), TMA President Barbara Matthews, actor Timothy West and acclaimed Physical Theatre supremo John Wright, while award-winning Lithuanian film and stage actress Ingeborga Dapkunaite joined Sunday Times critic Robert Hewison and award-winning Mike Alfreds (International Director and Teacher, Shared Experience Founder) on the panel of judges.
Agamemnon by Steven Berkoff,
Bristol University Drama Department
Can’t Stand Up for Falling Down by Richard Cameron,
Minotaur, University of East Anglia
Carol Smillie Trashed My Room (n d),
Here Comes Truffle, Middlesex University (Award for Design)
Classifieds (n d)
Firsty Work, North West Kent College (Commendation for Transcendent Movement)
Counterbalance (n d)
Sheffield University (Commendation for Use of Space)
The Hunting of the Snark (ns) by Lu Kemp & Robert Evans (ad from Lewis Carroll),
Edinburgh University (Cameron Mackintosh Award for Outstanding Contribution to Musical Theatre; Commendation for Ingenuity)
Insomnia (n d)
Warwick University (Award for Dance and Physical Theatre; Commendation for Direction, Dominic LeClerc)
The King of Schnorrers by Robert Messik (ad from Israel Zangwill),
Labyrinth Theatre, Birmingham University (graduates) (Commendation for Storytelling)
The Lion, the Witch and a Bag of Chips (n, d)
The Way We Are Over Here, Middlesex University (Award for a Devised Piece; Commendation for Individual Performance, Phil Marshall & Audrie Woodhouse)
Marge (ns) by Peter Morris,
Oxford University Dramatic Society (Sunday Times Playwriting Award)
Not Him by Howard Barker,
Minotaur, University of East Anglia
Silence by Moira Buffini,
Welsh College of Music & Drama (Buzz Goodbody Student Director Award, Owen Lewis; Company Commendation for Acting)
Sunnyside by Neill Morton,
Lagan College, Belfast (Commendation for Ensemble work)
A Trip to Scarborough by Nicholas Phillips (n musical ad from Sheridan),
LIPA
Who Wants to Be the Disco King? (n) by Adrian Page,
Pear Shaped Productions, Goldsmiths College, London
Words, Words, Words by David Ives,
Seasonal Productions, Birmingham University
Sunday Times Harold Hobson Student Drama Critic Award, Katie Nicholson
Festival Director’s Award, Nick Kraven
Sponsors: The Sunday Times, The Mackintosh Foundation, BBC Talent, The Bush Theatre, Danka Office Imaging, HSBC & Arts Council of England; financially assisted by: Scarborough Borough Council & The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation;
lo: Katrina Farrell;
td: Chris French
