News from our partners: Drama company seeks Florence Nightingale themed recitals and readings
News from our partners Shropshire Drama Company
Shropshire Drama Company (SDC) has organised a ‘record a reading’ competition based on the theme of Florence Nightingale.
To commemorate the recent 200th anniversary since her birth and a date that is now celebrated as International Nurses Day, people are being invited to submit a recited speech or poem (in part or whole) based loosely on the theme of Florence Nightingale.
For example, the piece may be a poem about war, whether by Shakespeare or a present day writer, a Winston Churchill speech or contain the name Florence or the word nightingale; may have been written in the year that Florence Nightingale was born – 1820; or even an extract from one of her books and letters. Self-penned submissions from writers keen to step in front of the camera, as well as those not so keen but who have managed to persuade a friend or family member to read their piece, are also welcomed.
Prizes will be awarded for the winning entries and, depending on Government guidelines regarding Coronavirus, SDC aims to organise an evening of performances later in the year. Winners will be announced on 13 August 2020, the date of Florence Nightingale’s passing in 1910.
Entry is free and submissions can be made by individuals or groups of no more than four people, where social distancing has been observed. They should be no longer than two and a half minutes and sent to SDC by 31 July 2020 using the following media:
1 As an attachment in a message to SDC’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/ShropshireDramaCompany
2 File transfer using for example, Wetransfer.com or Dropbox, and emailed to shropsdramaco@gmail.com
3 YouTube link emailed to shropsdramaco@gmail.com.
Commenting on the competition, chair of SDC Rosalind Garrard, said:
“We are living during unprecedented and extraordinary times, which have not only disrupted SDC’s planned productions but may yet have a devastating on the arts as a whole and in the wider context, may alter all of our lives. To keep positive, to keep performance skills honed, and to encourage creativity we are setting up this competition which we hope will stir the imagination and raise the spirits resulting in some truly creative and inspired recitals. We hope that anyone with any sort of dramatic interest will take up the challenge and run with it!”
For more information email SDC at: shropsdramaco@gmail.com.
Video link: SDC’s Matt Deakin reciting a slightly amended epilogue from William Shakespeare’s Henry V is available to view on YouTube here.
Further information
About Shropshire Drama Company (SDC)
SDC is an amateur company that aspires to provide audiences with high quality performances covering a wide genre of plays. Apart from acting, members of SDC also have the chance to develop various aspects of behind-the-scenes skills, essential ingredients in the making of a play.
Over the past years SDC has staged the following: Henry IV (Part One) in Haughmond Abbey as part of the Battle of Shrewsbury 600th Anniversary Commemorative Festival, The Lion In Winter at the Edge Arts Centre, King Lear, All’s Well That Ends Well, King Richard III, Romeo & Juliet, The Merry Wives of Windsor and The Taming Of The Shrew at the biennial Much Wenlock Festival, Inherit the Wind in St. Chad’s Church as part of Shrewsbury’s Darwin Festival, A View From The Bridge at Concord College and Ellesmere Arts Centre, All’s Well That Ends Well as part of The RSC’s Complete Works Festival (2006) and She Stoops to Conquer, Hay Fever, Creditors, An Inspector Calls, The Accrington Pals, As You Like It, All My Sons, Bedroom Farce, Henry V, Flare Path and Round And Round The Garden at Theatre Severn.
For more information about Shropshire Drama Company contact:
Neville Street
Tel: 01743 246917
Email: media@shropshiredramacompany.co.uk
www.shropshiredramacompany.co.uk
Facebook: www.facebook.com/ShropshireDramaCompany
Twitter: @ShropsDramaCo
