Hertford Theatre Week 2004

Hertford Theatre Week 2024, Monday 27th May to Saturday 1st June

After a successful 60th Hertford Theatre Week in 2023 we are pleased to announce the 2024 festival will again be presented at the Ayckbourn Theatre in the splendid setting of the Haileybury College campus, just three miles from Hertford town centre.

A little later in the year than our regular time of late April (when we were able to use Hertford Theatre, still in the process of rebuilding), and later than the 2022 and 2023 festival weeks by a couple of months, we hope you will be able to support us, either as audience or a competing team, for the 61st Hertford Theatre Week.

Weekly tickets are £54 for all six performances, single nightly tickets are £16. Tickets will be available from 9:00am on April 15th at www.ticketsource.co.uk/hertford-dramatic-and-operatic-society.

If you want to be sure not to miss any updates why not click or tap the button on the right and join our email list to be kept up to date with this, and other, Hertford Dramatic & Operatic Society productions? It only takes a moment, we don't send hundreds of emails, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Steve Onyon
Chairman



The festival was instigated when a small committee from Hertford Dramatic & Operatic Society, investigating the possibilities of further stimulating amateur drama, invited neighbouring societies and drama groups to perform one of their own productions under festival conditions. With rules agreed and sufficient support promised to ensure a full week's programme of six different plays, 1962 saw the first Hertford Theatre Week.

Sponsorship of the first ten years was provided by the directors of the Hertfordshire Mercury and County Press, the publishers of our local newspaper and supporters of local drama. Since 1972 Hertford Dramatic & Operatic Society has not only been the hosts and organisers but also the main sponsors.

In recent years the festival has been completely self-financing and, unlike many full-length play festivals which draw sponsorship from their local authority or commercial organisations, our only revenue comes from the Box Office sales.

Hertford Theatre Week is run by a team of unpaid volunteers from HD&OS, some of whom give up a week of their annual holiday to work on the competition, and whose only reward is their love of theatre and the satisfaction of being involved in what has become recognised as one of the leading full-length drama competitions in the country.

Since 1986 the Hertford competition has been affiliated to the National Drama Festivals Association and we are proud to say that in a number of past years, Hertford Theatre Week provided the winner of the NDFA National Drama Festival (formerly the British All-Winners Drama Festival).

More information on the NDFA can be found at www.NDFA.co.uk

Programme for 2004

The programme for 2004 featured 6 productions:

The Woman Who Cooked Her Husband by Debbie Isitt, presented by In Yer Space
The Real Thing by Tom Stoppard, presented by Hertford Dramatic & Operatic Society
Of Mice And Men by John Steinbeck, presented by The Barn Theatre Club
There Goes the Bride by Ray Cooney and John Chapman, presented by Dragon Theatre Company
A Passionate Woman by Kay Mellor, presented by Kytes Theatre Group
Soapsud Island by Phillip Sheahan, presented by Masters Performing Arts College

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Let us keep in touch

If you would like receive information about Hertford Theatre Week and other Hertford Dramatic& Operatic Society forthcoming productions by email please click here to join our contact list.

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Adjudicator for 2004

Russell Whiteley

Russell trained in Theatre Studies at Trent Park and the Rose Bruford College, holds the London University Diploma in Dramatic Art. He is an Associate of the Drama Board and of the London College of Music.

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Cover for flyer of 2024 Hertford Theatre Week