QUESTOPICS 139
May 1977
Our Annual Festival of New Plays is quite unique. There is nothing like it in the theatre, amateur or professional, anywhere in the country. World premieres of three new plays, chosen from as many as 200 submitted over the year, performed in repertoire. The aim is to encourage new writers, new forms of writing, new theatre; to stimulate the authors, the actors and the audiences.
We have succeeded. This year we come of age with our 18th Festival. Over 17 years we have seen new plays of outstanding merit, new authors develop into great ones, new plays explore new territory; and above all we have stimulated the interest of audiences and critics who came to see them.
The Questors can justifiably be proud of the New Plays Festival.
We can also be proud of our members who have thought the idea worth supporting. Thank you.
And now, let us invite you back
again.
Festival 18 is the biggest ever. As well as three new plays by authors new to The Questors, there will be live music in the Foyer before each performance, a late night show on every night of the Festival but one, a discussion on the first night of each play led by a distinguished guest critic, and a festive atmosphere around the whole place. The Foyer bar will be open (licensing hours permitting) and coffee will be served after each performance. All music, discussions and late night shows are free to members and guests. So you can take in three events an evening for nothing.
FRINGE EVENTS
DON KINCAID & COMPANY
JULIA COOKE & MICHAEL MORIARTY
PLAY IN ELIZABETHAN STYLE
MIKE CARVER MAKES MODERN MUSIC
ELEVENTH HOUR THEATRE
Devised by David Fletcher
PART OF A WELSH EVENING
with John Francis & Friends
BROTHER'S KEEPER
A Monologue by Michael Moriarty
Performed by John Kearns
ACTRESSES WILL HAPPEN EVEN IN THE BEST REGULATED FAMILIES
devised by Estelle Longmore
with Julia Cooke, Lyn Langridge, Estelle Longmore & Francs Martin
FOOTNOTE
The original aims of the New Plays Festival had been to create an audience for new work, encourage submissions of new writing, develop promising playwrights and establish the Questors as an important contributor to new theatre. By 1977 it was recognised that those aims had been "triumphantly" achieved, but in the run up to Festival 18 there had been a lot of discussion about whether the New Plays Festivals should continue, either in their present format or at all.
The value of encouraging new playwrights was never in dispute, but there was growing concern that the commitment to presenting three new plays every year without knowing whether three adequate scripts existed inevitably meant accepting weaker work. It was also recognised that by the late 1970s The Questors no longer occupied the uniquely important position it held in the 1960s, when the first New Plays Festival had been launched. London fringe theatres were now producing premieres on a regular basis, and The Questors' own studio had established itself as a space for experimentation and new writing.
The time had come to support new writing in a broader more effective way by including new works in the planning of each season and with regular initiatives such as The Student New Writing Competition, The Paul Darby Prize, Questivals I, II and III, and QExtra.
Since 1977, The Questors has presented in excess of 300 new plays and continues to champion new writing through rehearsed readings, productions and workshops