Six awards including best play for GAMPA Seniors in Gib Drama Festival

Saturday’s Gala Nigjht at this year’s Gibraltar Drama Festival proved to be a hugely successful night for GAMPA Seniors.

Their play, an original work by their director Christian Santos took most of the top awards on the night including Best Play, Best Techinical and Best Original.

But there was more to come as the main actors - Julianne Coleing and William Menez won Best Youth actor and actoress awards for the same production.

In total they were presented with six awards on the night. here’s always a buzz on the final night of the Drama Festival. Who will be the winner?

Judging from the commentes coming from the audience there were two possible winners and both plays were on on Saturday night.

And it was the GAMPA Seniors who were trimphant. A smiling director, Christian Santos, who had also written the winning play ‘I Am Me’ went up three times - for best techincal, best original script and best play.

This was a play for our times in which the young players had all played a major part in putting forward their own ideas as the story developed around a transgender teenager (played by Julianne Coleing and William Menez) who tell the audience their story of self discovery. This was a well directed play... allowing the players to give their all - with excellent cues and perfect timing - there was simply nothing out of sync and the message clear and sharp... and it worked.

“I am grateful to all the young people who have shared their story with me to create this play, and aall the young people who trusted me to tell their story,” Mr Santos told the audience.

Importantly, he said, as adults it was “our responsibility to create a safe space for young peoiple to be able to feel free and know that things that feel are a choice sometimes are not”.

“Being short or tall, being gay, being transgender is not a choice, and we must show them that our choice is to accept people, respect everyone and create a future where these young people will grow up and be adults who will shape the nations of the world.”

The second play on Saturday night was from the Traflagar Theatre Group. Directed by Daniel Strain Webber, “How My Light Is Spent” was the runner up in this year’s festival.

With two strong performances it was not surprising that Tim Seed took best actor and Erica McGrail Barabich took best actress. The play also received the award for best set presentation.

The Adjudicator’s Award was this year presented to Julian Felices for his original script “La Calle Commedia”. He also received the award for Best Supporting Actor for this performance as Pantalon in “La Calle Commedia”by the Bayside and Westside Drama Group.

Kai Nemes from Bayside and Westside Drama Group won best youth supporting actor for his performance as Valerio in “La Calle Commedia”

The best young supporting actress went to Molly Morel from Medway Youth Theatre for her performance as Astrid Mum in “The Adventures of Polly”

The best supporting actress award was jointly won by to Kim Soiza and Rosalind Rogers from the Trafalgar Theatre Group for their performances as Polly and Lizzie in “Exit Right, Running”.

The night also saw a speical mention for the Medway Youth Theatre and Kerri who have now been coming to the festival for the past few years - part of their weekend is a workshop on the Saturday morning with the local players. Kerri promises that next year they plan to bring over both youth and adults to the festival.