Speech & Drama Competitions

2024 Classes

We are pleased to announce that the Festival this year for Speech and Drama will be held on Sunday 24 November 2024 from 9am to 5pm at the Chickenshed Theatre, Southgate, North London. See here for venue details.

The syllabus includes a list of classes there are for which age groups, and which poems are to be recited. Unfortunately, we omitted some classes when we first issued this. Please see the latest version of the syllabus – 2024 Speech and Drama Syllabus. This now includes a class for Solo Modern Acting Year 8 (12—13 years).

Dan Collins

Up until 2024 Dan was the Administrator of the Speech & Drama section of the North London Festival of Music, Speech & Drama. Sadly he passed away in April 2024. He put so much energy, time, enthusiasm, skill, joy and care into his organising the Speech & Drama classes over recent years. He will be greatly missed and the NLF Festival organisers give our condolences to Dan’s family and are very grateful for all he has done for young people in giving them the opportunities to develop their talents.

Applications

Applications (via the button below) are now open. Deadline for applications 1 November 2024

The North London Festival is open to all. We are a very friendly festival and want our performers to enjoy themselves. If you have any questions about any of the classes please feel free to ask.

To enter the festival you will need to have a Play and Perform account. Registering is easy just click on Apply online. If you are a teacher who would like to block book for a class send us an email and we can help you with the process. For each entry where age is required, it is the age on 1 September before the class so that all the entrants in a class are in the same school year or school years.

Section Administrator

Richard Mansfield

Email: speechanddramanlf@outlook.com

Adjudicators

Louise Manders

LOUISE MANDERS LLAM ALAM GODA MSTSD (Adj)
Louise was born in Westcliff on Sea and first trod the boards when only five days old and has never looked back. Her varied and interesting professional theatrical career began with Haymarket Stage Productions progressing from stage management to acquiring her Equity card as an actress. She enjoyed touring the UK and appearing in all aspects of theatre including repertory and musicals, as well as appearing on television and in films.

Louise is presently not only an adjudicator for the British and International Federation of Festivals and the Guild of Drama Adjudicators, but is also an adjudicator member of the Society of Teachers of Speech and Drama. She was Artistic Director of the Phoenix Youth Theatre in Southend, formerly the New Focus Theatre for many years. Louise’s extensive work as an adjudicator has taken her all over the UK and abroad. She has adjudicated for festivals in Sri Lanka, Hong Kong and Canada. During the pandemic, Louise also adjudicated online.

She runs workshops and master classes, directs plays (including open air productions) and musicals, devises original drama compositions, writes poetry and has written many musical plays for children and students. She teaches speech, drama, musical theatre, mime and dance drama to all ages of students, including adults and specialises in the LAMDA examinations.

Louise is an experienced theatre director and even finds time to dance flamenco!

A festival is a celebration and enables all entrants to bring their creativity and enthusiasm to fruition. Louise is really looking forward to visiting the North London Festival of Music Speech and Drama and sharing in these celebrations.

Syllabus

View the Section syllabus

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