Inspiring youngsters

2023-03-09 - BY BRAD BARNES

The Peterborough Festival of Speech and Drama returned last weekend with an inspiring range of acting, verse speaking, duologues, storytelling, and choral speaking. This was a much anticipated, and welcome return for the City Festival which, over the last 70-plus years, has set several local youngsters on the road to stardom, some appearing on the London stage and others pursuing drama and the performing arts as a career.

Festival organisers were delighted to be back after two years of lockdown and disruption, and next year they wish to build further on this year’s successful return, hoping that many more local schools will be joining in the fun.

Although the 2023 Festival consisted of a much-reduced range of skills and disciplines, it was deemed to be very successful, and now the organising committee hopes to build on this again in 2024, when many more of the traditional disciplines are re- introduced.

Professional adjudicators from the National Federation of Festivals, Mrs Vivienne Redford and Mrs Vivienne Cunningham, spoke highly of the youngsters’ performances and praised teachers for their hard work and enthusiasm.

This 2023 Festival was hosted, for the first time, by

The Lime Academy Parnwell, and the new venue proved to be a great success, being highly praised for its support, facilities, and friendly hospitality. Trophy-winners were:

Lara Taylor – the Alan Edgeley Trophy.

Liane Justo – The Brendan Cave Trophy.

Shreya Sajosh – The Cupit Shield.

Thomas Boyd and Amber Stirling – Peterborough Drama Festival Cup.

Shreya Sajosh - The Eric and Joan Sutton Trophy.

Harrison Whitty – The Joyce Baker Trophy.

Ayden Turner – The June Horner Cup.

Libby Sharp – The Kathleen Munford Cup.

Charles Bass – The Mary Nesbit Trophy.

Henry Jiang – The Sheila Anstey Trophy.

Zinachidi Nwamarah – The Stamford Studio of Speech and Drama Award.

Harrison Kilbon – the Steve Cutts Trophy.