It's not your typical night in the pub; watch the rugby, have a beer ... start an amateur dramatic troupe! Born in a boozer, 'The Thursday Night Project' proved a multi award-winning success at the 58th Woking Drama Festival.
It all started in The Swan Pub in Thames Ditton about a year ago. A group of dads were watching the rugby and a couple of them mentioned they’d like to join a drama group; did anyone know of one? One of the dads was professional actor Richard Brimblecombe. He suggested they try The Rose Theatre in Kingston. A few beers later and they’d decided to set up their own drama group instead and thus was born 'The Thursday Night Project'.
The founding members were an eclectic mix: a teacher Crispin Ashford, a surgeon Parv Sains, a journalist Nick Turrell, a trainer Neil Park and an engineer Matt Boyd. Every Thursday night they’d meet in St Nicholas Church Hall in Thames Ditton and to their surprise the workshops were fun, experimental and alternative; they found themselves using a different part of their brain.
Thursday nights became something to look forward to; it energized them and a sense of community grew. One year on and it’s fair to say it has changed their lives – acquaintances have turned into good friends and their infectious enthusiasm has attracted like-minded folks from Cobham, Hersham and even Earlsfield.
This eclectic group, set up by a handful of dads whose only prior experience of theatre was from Dr Parv’s surgery, decided to put their necks on the line; going head to head with esteemed drama societies such as Runnymede Drama Group and the Cobham Players in the 58th Woking Drama Festival at the Rhoda McGaw theatre in Woking. The festival ran from October the 4 to 15 with 20 local drama societies all competing for the prestigious awards.
They performed their play on Thursday evening and to their surprise were called back to perform it again in the final on the Saturday night. They chose the play ‘After Liverpool’ by James Saunders, which perfectly captures the way society is losing the ability to properly communicate with each other despite the advent of technology that purports to do so. It seemed apt; as the provenance of this drama group has proved; if you want to communicate with people and build a sense of something tangible nothing beats getting together face to face.
Against the odds ‘The Thursday Night Project’ came first in the festival winning Best Play. Richard Brimblecombe picked up the award for Best Director with Crispin Ashford being nominated for Best Actor.
With the group proving to be such an undeniable success, we will definitely be looking forward to its future work with anticipation. If only all trips to the pub were so productive!
You can check out the rest of the winners at wokingdramafestival.co.uk
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