A Weekend Away

The Hamburg Players take home award for best production at FEATS 2024

Belgian waffles, breakfasts that turned into brunches, sightseeing in the beautiful city of Antwerp – and the award for best production. The Whitsun weekend 2024 proved to be a real success for a group of 14 Hamburg Players who went on a trip.

What, you may ask? An award for best production? In Antwerp?

FEATS location: the Zuiderpershuis

Why, yes, the local theatre group BATS (British American Theatrical Society - uge shout-out to them for the brilliant organisation, by the way!) hosted this year’s 4-day theatre festival FEATS in the beautiful Belgian port city. As one of twelve participating groups from mainland Europe, the Hamburg Players took a reimagination of John Cariani’s Love/Sick to the stage.

Our Entry: Love/Sick

You may remember the episodic tragicomedy – or dramedy, however you prefer – from when we produced in Hamburg in February 2023. This time under the direction of Jessica Albiston and Valerie Doyle, some of the cast reprised their roles from back then, others took on different parts, and some even joined the fun (and the tragedy) of Love/Sick for the first time. A new light and sound concept was thought up and executed by our dedicated tech team, all of which was supported by our truly reliable backstage crew.

Sometimes, all things align in a lightning-in-a-bottle kind of moment, and that is what happened in Antwerp – because at the end of the four days of theatre fun, we were presented with the John Kearey Award for best production by adjudicator Chris Baglin.

Four scenes packed into one photo

Competetive, Yet Very Supportive

FEATS is a celebration of live theatre as well as a competitive festival. Every year, theatre groups from all over Europe meet up and celebrate their love for it in a very supportive atmosphere. In Antwerp, we saw, amongst other things, an impressive original script about inept small-time criminals with big aspirations being brought to life, a moving and poignant performance about aging and memory loss, a feminist whodunnit, amazing production design breathing new life into a Greek tragedy, as well as wild and rousing Fringe performances.

Adjudicator Chris Baglin on Satuday night.

The Adjudication

Inviting an official adjudicator from the UK-based Guild of Drama Adjudicators, who assesses each of the performances and gives out points according to a rating system, is a staple of the festival. His or her critical eye has proven to be a very helpful motivator for both actors and directors, and the Hamburg Players have always returned from FEATS inspired and more appreciative of the artform itself.

FEATS 2025 in Hamburg

Which brings us to next year. In 2025, the Hamburg Players will host FEATS at Altonaer Theater from 6 to 9 June – and we couldn’t be more excited to welcome international theatre lovers and performers in our hometown.

Love/Sick by John Cariani

Directors

Jessica Albiston and Valerie Doyle

Cast

Man: Forest Feltner

Woman: Birte Oldenburg

Louise: Madeleine Lange

Singing Telegram Man: Harald Djürken

Sarah: Margaret Metzler

Bill: Ethan Duffy

Kelly: Amy Lee

Mark: Dave Duke

Crew

Stage Manager: Lexi von Hoffmann

Lighting: Dennis Debeye

Sound: Luka Tikvicki

Music/Sound: Trevor Ferdy

Stagehand/Props: Julie Spanswick

Stagehand: Nele Giese

What’s Another Year?

A look back at FEATS 2023

Here we go again. Another Whitsun weekend and finally another FEATS! The first competitive festival since 2019, hosted this time round by FEST Frankfurt in nearby Bad Homburg. While the Hamburg Players were not officially invited to the main stage due to the rotation system, we still had a top spot on the reservation list. As it turned out, we were indeed asked to jump in for a withdrawing group. Our plan was to revive a few scenes from our February production Love/Sick by John Cariani. The perfect solution, it seemed, because each of these hilarious scenes about the joy and failure of love and relationships works on its own, even without the context of the complete play. Unfortunately, when the FEATS deadline came and went at the end of 2022, we were still waiting for rights for this particular one-off venture and therefore, sadly, had to pull out.

Everybody Gets A Second Chance

Of course, in a twist of fate, we did get the rights in the end, which meant that when the festival was just around the corner, the Hamburg Players decided to attend with scenes from Love/Sick as part of the FEATS Fringe, a section of the festival scheduled in the afternoons outside of and unrelated to the main stage evening shows. Martina Plieger and Harald Djürken had already planned to visit Bad Homburg anyway, which meant that ‘their’ scene ‘Lunch and Dinner’ was the one we went with. In addition, it was a bit of a redemptive opportunity for them: during the February run, the two of them had only been able to perform together publicly at the dress rehearsal and the premiere – but then had to drop out one after another due to illness.

Our 2023 FEATS Fringe cast and crew

In a spur-of the-moment idea our chair Valerie Doyle, who rarely misses FEATS, suggested to add another scene: ‘The Singing Telegram’ in which Harald played the Telegram Man; Valerie offered to take over the counterpart herself. Okay, why not double the fun?! As Valerie was also heavily involved in our regular June production (The Children), she basically sat down to learn her lines on the train to Bad Homburg! All the while, Julie Spanswick had joined the Fringe crew as stage manager.

A Walk In The Park

The Hamburg Players were scheduled for Saturday 27th May at 4:30pm – the last group to perform that day. Excellent, more time for preparation! On the performing day we had an early call at the Bad Homburg Youth Hostel (the location of the Fringe) to check out the space and clarify what we needed for the performance. The Fringe team was absolutely lovely and helpful. After a relaxing breakfast in the sun and a stroll through the centre of town - Harald constantly running lines with both Martina and Valerie - we took a walk through the Kurpark. Martina and Julie checked out an outdoor sculpture exhibition while Valerie and Harald conquered a bench to rehearse their little scene.

Bad Homburg’s Kurpark

The Show Must Go On

Taking into account that it was one of hottest days in May, our hopes for a large audience were very low. But, to our surprise the room was quite packed when we arrived and more people were showing up, including our FEATS friends from Brussels, and even the festival adjudicator came to watch us perform. All the pent-up tension was suddenly gone. After Julie introduced us we managed to do our two scenes without any big hiccups – and the audience loved it. We received a standing ovation and were, needless to say, absolutely thrilled!

After the Fringe show

Help!

There is no way that a festival like this can be pulled off without a large number of volunteers – people who are in the theatre from the early morning till late at night. The Hamburg Players will face the same challenge when it’s our turn to host the festival again in Hamburg in 2025.

When this year the organizing group (FEST) encountered problems to find enough helpers, the entire FEATS community pulled together and many members from the participating groups jumped in to offer a helping hand. So did Julie, Martina and Valerie. They handed out badges for the performing groups during the day, provided general information for people showing up at the theatre or sold programmes and raffle tickets at night. In addition to the work on stage this is also very fulfilling and truly reflects the spirit of FEATS.

Julie volunteering at the hospitality desk

The Winner Takes It All

Back to the main festival: it certainly was a good one. The setting and topics of the plays varied greatly from suburban utopia to a fancy hotel; from the magic of northern lights to houseguests from hell. But how does the old saying go? Save the best for last! ‘Theater de WAANzin’ from Ghent performed their entry Desperados on the final day and were absolutely brilliant. A story about four middle-aged men dressed up as cowboys and imitating what cowboys do while reflecting on life using hilarious props as substitutes for guns, fishing rods and horses. The group won three awards in the end including best production. With the award ceremony, always the highlight of the festival, FEATS 2023 came to a glorious end. It was a wonderful weekend in the historic city of Bad Homburg. We are really looking forward to FEATS 2024 in Antwerp – of which we have fond memories from when we last visited back in 2018

Harald Djürken

A day in the life...

… of the Hamburg Players at the Festival of European Anglophone Theatrical Societies FEATS 2022

Cast, crew (minus one - we’re so sorry!) and director of Contractions

Timetable for Rehearsal Hamburg Players Crew + Cast Sunday 29th May

08:30 Collect Badges at Kulturhaus Mersch + Briefing

08:45 – 09:00 Unload van (set and tech)

09:00 – 09:15 Tech Coordination Meeting

09:20 – 09:15 Cast + Crew Assemble + Safety Briefing

09:30 – 11:30 Rehearsal at theatre

11:30 Go back to Luxembourg City – Cast to relax, and if they wish, run lines

17:00 Cast to meet once again in Mersch with tech crew to go over sound cues

18:00 Call time, everyone at theatre

19:30 Curtain up for Contractions

Crew

Wear Black clothes + Shoes

Black shoes must be closed i.e. no open toes or flip flops

Stage Manager is Queen – all instructions/proposals to go through her.

Cast + Director

Stage Manager is Queen – all instructions/proposals to go through her.

Order of Rehearsal will be given by Stage Manager

All people not involved in rehearsal activities to stay in auditorium

That, dear readers, was the rough schedule for all Hamburg Players participating in this year’s Festival of European Anglophone Theatrical Societies (FEATS) – which after a two-year hiatus was finally back to in-person performances in front of an actual audience!

Over the Ascension weekend 2022, nine English–speaking theatre groups from five different countries met in Luxembourg to present twelve one-act plays over the course of four evenings. This time round, FEATS was organized by the New World Theatre Club Luxembourg without the usual competition (i.e. no awards) but rather as a celebration of live theatre itself.

Contractions tech rehearsal in Mersch on Sunday morning

The Hamburg Players’ contribution to the festival was a two-hander by Mike Bartlett called Contractions. You could call it a corporate satire dealing with shrinking privacy and the ever-growing power of companies over their employees.

Cast:

Manager: Jocasta Godlieb

Emma: Naomi O’Taylor

Directed by:

Valerie Doyle

Crew:

Stage Manager: Julie Spanswick

Lighting: Thomas White

Sound: Thomas White

Director’s Assistant: Jessica Albiston

Stagehands: Camilo Daza, Harald Djürken, Nele Giese

Because it’s such a pretty shot: Luxembourg City by night

Thank you, Antwerp! A look back on FEATS 2018

Not to give anything away - but this photo shows an award-winning group of theatre people!

The long weekend around Whitsunday and -monday is traditionally the time for FEATS. For those of you not in the know, the Festival of European Anglophone Theatrical Societies is an annual theatre event bringing together English-speaking amateur theatre groups from all over Europe for friendly competition and lots of socializing under the guise of watching (and occasionally performing) a row of short plays each evening.

You may remember it from when we hosted it in Hamburg in the Altonaer Theater in 2015. The Hamburg Players have a history of competing successfully in the event, so we arrived in Antwerp, this year’s FEATS location, in high spirits. We took part in the festival with “The Hunchback Variations” by Mickle Maher, directed by Rebecca Garron.

How to pass the time before you're on

As our play wasn’t on until the third evening, we had two nights to check out the competition and reunite with old FEATS friends. All in all, the Hamburg Players came to Belgium with a congregation of nearly twenty people. Those included the cast and crew, as well as a number of spectators who came to cheer for our play, give moral support and simply have a good time in Antwerp watching theatre.

Beautiful Antwerp

Being such a big group meant we didn’t necessarily spend all of the day together. Some people went sightseeing in the beautiful city of Antwerp, some watched the Fringe, the out-of-competition afternoon programme at FEATS, some kept themselves otherwise occupied. Watching the Royal Wedding that happened that weekend was also high on some to-do lists. But in the evenings, everyone came together in the theatre for the plays and the following adjudication.

Dress rehearsal and last-minute solutions

Two days passed in this way, but by Sunday, it got serious. The day of our performance, we got a two-hour rehearsal period in the theatre. This is part of the FEATS process. Every group can use that rehearsal time however they please, but typically it’s used to arrange the set and test lights and sounds. I originally came to Antwerp only as a spectator but was allowed to join the crew last minute and take part in the rehearsal. It gave me a tiny little sneak peek into our play which already at this point promised to be good. Every last-minute problem that arose was solved, the most creative one being the replacement of our Quasimodo’s carefully prepared hump with a handbag, because it simply looked better.

Quasimodo and the the magical handbag

In the end, we were so effective that we finished our rehearsal half an hour early – something I’m sure must be unheard of in FEATS history. If you ask me, we should have been given the stage management award just for that. After all, it provided the hosting crew from BATS a longer break before the next group came in. (We didn’t win that, though. Turns out there are other considerations…)

There was some time to kill before the evening’s performance. After having lunch with all cast and crew, everyone fell back to their own methods to quell those pre-performance nerves. Taking a rest. Going for a run. Having an ice-cream. Whatever helps.

Finally, the evening had arrived. One minute into the play, it was already clear it would be a success. Audiences were laughing long before our two brilliant actors, Martin John Mills and Harald Djürken, even uttered their first lines. And they didn’t stop until the curtain closed after about 45 minutes of hilariously absurd theatre. The adjudicator, Ben Humphrey, had nothing but praise for our performance, both during his public adjudication in the evening and the private one with just our group the next morning.

And two awards go to...

After this, the hard part for us was over and we got to enjoy one last sunny day in Antwerp before the last three plays and of course the award ceremony on Monday night. While the first few awards went away to other groups for their great performances, our big moment started when it was time for the best actor award. Both Martin and Harald received a nomination, with Harald Djürken taking home the price!

Harald Djürken receiving the award for best actor

This was only topped when “The Hunchback Variations” was awarded the Founder’s Trophy for best play! A well-deserved achievement by the two actors, director Rebecca Garron and everyone else included in the production.

Martin Mills (playing Ludwig van Beethoven opposite Harald's Quasimodo) with the award for best production at FEATS 2018

Martin and Harald - Beethoven and Quasimodo - with the two trophies for "The Hunchback Variations"

We spent the rest of the night like every self-respecting theatre group would do after such a success: celebrating at the theatre bar until late in the night. It was well into the early hours before everyone finally said goodbye to all their FEATS friends. Until we see them again next year in Munich, for FEATS 2019!

Nele Giese