Local drama collective, Starcast Performing Arts, is celebrating after winning the Totton Festival of Drama.

The festival celebrates local amateur dramatic groups but also acts as a feeder competition to the All England Theatre Festival, which takes place in Frome on 7 May.

Starcast entered two groups in the competition and came away with four awards, as well as entry to the All England finals.

The group’s entries were:
● Brainstorm, from an original play script by Ned Glasier, Emily Lim and Company, which featured a cast aged between 11 and 14-years-old. This told a unique story about how teenagers’ brains work and why they have been designed by evolution to be the way they are.
● A cast of 14 to 18-year-olds performed Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind by Greg Allen. This was an ensemble experiment in presenting 30 plays in 55 minutes, where the plays were performed in a random order with an interactive audience.

The comprehensive collection of prizes went to Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind, which was voted overall winner.

The production also took home the awards for Best Youth Production, Best Direction (Peter McAuley) and Best Youth Supporting Player – which was jointly awarded to Starcast’s Alfie Flynn and
Rosie Fielder.