The Winner Takes It All…Chapter 2: Thank you for the plums.

Wow. 2 weeks. An entire British fortnight has passed since the Triliteral Festival began, and Daniel, Richard and I are just about ready to be rehabilitated into mainstream society. We’ve finally cleaned out Watson’s Warehouse (not a children’s play area in a pub but a geographically convenient safe haven where we rehearsed, built and stored a staggeringly diverse range of props and costume throughout the festival) which was in equal measures sad and cathartic. While it was sad to see our home away from home completely empty, it feels like now we can finally let go of Triliteral* and move on to other projects.

I meant to write this blog the day after my last one, but life somehow gets in the way. So, the following list of acknowledgements is way overdue, but hopefully better late than never. There wasn’t anywhere near enough room on our tiny Triliteral programmes to credit all the wonderful people who have worked so hard and contributed so much towards making the Festival the great success it was, and so, here it is- Halden Theatre’s official thank-you list.

• Paul Sellwood: For re-locating to Nottingham for five weeks and taking up the challenge of directing Thanks to his Sister, Selina and Daddy’s Bed, and doing a superb job.
• Sammi Searle: Also, for packing her bags and moving to Notts to direct After Life and The Price of Legs; both stunning shows. Also for her relentless help, support and calming influence throughout the festival weekend.
• Gareth Morgan: For providing endless guidance with our nine brand new scripts, and diligently communicating with our nine emerging playwrights.
• Cath Nichols: For writing the feel-good fantasy, The Price of Legs.
• Ryan Sullivan: For authoring the hilarious piece Selina.
• Yvonne Lake: Writer of the quirky comedy drama The Mason’s Apprentice.
• Roxanne Wells: For supplying the script for the magical family drama Land of the Lost and Found.
• Susi Wrenshaw: For writing Be Rain for Me, a harrowing but moving tale.
• Georgina Lock: For writing the witty and provoking drama Daddy’s Bed.
• Robin Acland: For supplying us with Thanks to his Sister, a delightfully cleverly-written play.
• Chris Tolley: Our youngest writer, who provided us with the Pythonesque comedy The Blazers.
• Nick Athanasiou: For writing After Life, a funny and moving family piece.**
• Leo Lanzoni: For acting in The Mason’s Apprentice, Land of the Lost and Found and The Blazers, even shaving off his beloved beard to do so!
• Jessica Chamberlain: For relocating to Nottingham in order to act in The Price of Legs, After Life and Be Rain for Me. Also learning a truly enormous amount of lines.
• Liz Smith: For perfecting a magnifique French accent in Thanks to his Sister, as well as acting in Selina and Daddy’s Bed.
• Kristy Guest: For being truly frightening in The Mason’s Apprentice and lost and found in Land of the Lost and Found.
• Rob Ferguson: For acting in FOUR shows (The Price of Legs, After Life, Be Rain for Me and Thanks to his Sister) and donating (practically) his spectacular vehicle to the cause.
• Scott Wilson-Besgrove: Whose plasticine-like face and endless energy made him David in Selina. Also, for coming closer than any other actor to full-on nudity.
• Becky Draper: For playing the child-like Molly and Land of the Lost and Found and Serena in The Mason’s Apprentice, a part written in especially for her!
• Tilly Mac: For enduring having to wear three different sets of ‘old people’ clothes! In The Price of Legs, Be Rain for Me and After Life.
• Sarah Lee: Who acted for the first time since childhood, and did a superb job taking on Selina, Daddy’s Bed and Thanks to his Sister.
• Nick Newman: For stepping in at the last minute to perform in The Mason’s Apprentice and The Blazers. Also for readily running out to buy things by my command.
• Sally Turton: Whose brilliant comedy talents brought The Price of Legs and Be Rain for Me to life, and also had a substantially less funny role in After Life.
• Tom Spencer: Who, despite having to swap parts several times, made the characters of Brian in Thanks to his Sister and Martin/Bondage Dad in Selina his own.
• Russell Tanham: A keen quantum-physicist who brilliantly played a know-it-all student in The Blazers and a horrifically hairy man in The Mason’s Apprentice.
• Leah Burrows: Small blonde firecracker who brought tonnes of laughs to Selina, Daddy’s Bed and Thanks to his Sister.
• Adam Spinos: Who generously allowed us to rehearse in his wondrous Nottingham Workshop (http://www.thenottinghamworkshop.com/) for Triliteral.
• The Grosvenor Staff: For lending us their function room for an obscene amount of time.
• Ashley and Matthew Watson: For kindly allowing us to effectively move into their glorious lace warehouse.
• The Broadway Staff: For allowing us to perform in their cinema, and helping our shows there to run smoothly.
• Central Inn Staff: For letting us perform in their great upstairs space and being very laid back and helpful.
• Andrew and all the staff at Lee Rosy’s: For- well, tolerating us.
• Nicola Monaghan, James K Walker and Ray Gosling: For helping to select our final nine scripts, way back in March.
• Fran Bonner and Left Lion magazine: for writing this glowing review of the festival- http://www.leftlion.co.uk/articles.cfm/id/3019
• Rob and Katrina Garton: My ever supportive parents, who not only bought full festival passes and saw all nine shows, but provided props, transport and accomodation for directors.
• Ewan Waters: Who bought a full festival pass and unwittingly got roped into being a full-on production assistant/stagehand.
• Our audience: For coming to see the shows and support Triliteral, I can’t thank you enough. It is heartwarming to see that so many people still care about good, scratch-made theatre.
• All the writers who submitted scripts: For showing an interest in our festival and handing over your work. Triliteral will be going ahead next year, so please submit again!
• Tim and Bobbie at Sharespace Offices Ltd: For all the printing (surprising amount!).
• Arts Council England: For giving us the funding, without which Triliteral would have just been a pipe dream.
• Everyone who donated props (particularly Christmas trees); Mr.Pilgrim Senior, Amanda Smith, Jean Doar to name but a few.
• Daniel Hallam, for coming up with the bloody idea in the first place.

…I think that’s everyone. Undoubtedly I’ll remember someone I forgot and write them in- if you are that person, I apologize. But for now, that’s everyone I can think of. That was a long, long, list. If you’ll excuse me, I think I need to lie down after that.

Richie G

*For this year, at least.

** We also thank all the writers for attending the festival, some travelling great distances to do so.