Durham Drama Festival

Want to see some original student theatre, at lots of different venues? Ever wanted to learn about getting into the performing arts industry? Interested in a Greek Tragedy workshop? Or learning about producing or playwriting? Just want to relax at a chilled out comedy night or acoustic night?

The 38th Annual Durham Drama Festival kicked off in style yesterday evening (Tuesday 19th), with an official launch party at 8:30pm in Varsity. For 37 years Durham Drama Festival has been celebrating the wealth of creative talent shared by students at Durham University. Featuring all new writing – plays, comedy, movement pieces, you name it – all written, directed, and performed by students.

The festival provides Durham students with a unique opportunity to create a piece of original theatre, and have it performed on a professional stage for the public.

This year’s exec have promised the festival to be the biggest yet. Comprising four days of workshops, performances and social events, the festival is known as one of the highlights of the student theatre calendar.

The judging panel consists of a number of high-profile industry professionals. They will attend each performance, provide feedback and, ultimately, present awards at the D’Oliviers ceremony, which will be held on the final day of the festival to celebrate students’ achievements. The judging panel will also be holding workshops throughout the festival on a range of subjects such as ‘Breaking into the Industry’, ‘Producing’, ‘Playwriting’ and ‘Greek Tragedy’. This year also sees individual audition coaching slots on the Saturday of the festival, though the exec have warned these are very popular and must be signed up for as soon as possible.

The festival’s hub is in The Assembly Rooms Theatre, just a stone’s throw from Durham Castle and Cathedral in the stunning heart of the city. In addition to their Assembly Rooms base, they are also staging performances in the World Heritage Centre on Owengate, the Birley Room of Hatfield College, and the Norman Chapel in Durham Castle.

A full programme of events can be found here.