St Peter's Hill Players in Grantham win seven awards at Boston Playgoers Society’s inaugural One Act Drama Festival at Boston’s Blackfriars Arts Centre

Grantham’s thespians swept the board after treading the boards, with a string of prizes for a poignant yet amusing one-act play.

The Boston Playgoers Society’s inaugural One Act Drama Festival was held on Saturday 30 and Sunday May 31 at the Blackfriars Arts Centre in Boston, with amateur dramatics groups coming from across the county to take part.

Among those participating by performing their selected one-act plays were St Peter's Hill Players (SPHP) in Grantham, St Nicolas Players from Spalding, Heckington Players, and Cutwater Productions who performed on Saturday night, followed by Boston Operatic Society (BOS) Musical Theatre Group on Sunday night. There was also a ‘cold read’ competition where actors are presented with a script to read from with no preparation, before the awards ceremony took place.

After taking its one-act play A Dog’s Life, by Pam Valentine, on tour to Allington Village Hall and Scalford St Egelwin’s Church as part of a one-act play collection, SPHP then entered the One Act Drama Festival.

The play is set in a dog pound with four homeless hounds — pampered French poodle FiFi, Fritz the grumpy German Shepherd, excitable puppy Ginger, and former homeless man’s companion Ben — each hoping to be rehomed.

St Peter’s Hill Players earned 10 nominations out of a possible 15 for A Dog’s Life, winning six of these, with awards for Sharon Antony for Best Supporting Female, Best Director for Andy Masters, Best Costume, and the main award for Best Production.

There were also three Adjudicator’s Choice awards, with Margaret Glenn and 10-year-old Dorothy Kelley-Price winning one apiece, and the ‘cold read’ competition was also won by SPHP’s Jacqueline Dowse.

SPHP was also nominated for Best Set, Audience Award, Best Male for Gary Cadwallader, and Best Supporting Male for Gus Sparrow.

Heckington Players took home five awards, with Cutwater Productions winning two, and St Nicolas Players and BOS won one each.

Director Andy Masters thanked Boston Playgoers for organising the event, and said that he was “delighted” that the group’s hard work had been rewarded with seven trophies and that he was proud of the society's success.

“From the moment the curtain opened the cast of dogs captured the audiences attention, responded well to the audience reactions and pleased the three adjudicators,” he said, “The festival was a wonderful weekend of theatrical entertainment and Dan Poulson should be congratulated for organising this occasion to celebrate amateur dramatics across the county.

“SPHP certainly enjoyed the event, and are already thinking about what they might do next year.”

SPHP chairman Gary Cadwallader said: “My thanks go to all involved for the effort they put in, especially Andy and Jackie while directing Tol.

“When I first put forward the proposal to do this festival, I had no idea what was involved. It has certainly been an experience. I did know until shortly before this weekend that we were being judged, I had little expectation that we would anything, so imagine my delight when I learned late Sunday of how well we had done.”