In Julie's Memory

Every day of the festival, you will be able to see eight different half-hour plays performed at venues around the historic town.

And four of the plays in this year's super programme are written by prize-winners of the Drip Action Theatre play-writing competition.

Organiser Bill Brennan said: "This has been an exciting competition, the standard of entries was so high.

"Most new playwrights have little chance of seeing their work put on for the general public. Drip Action Theatre has always been at the forefront of promoting new drama."

Keith Fitch, Jill Hucklesby, Derek Williams and Jenny Pulling each received the Joy Goun award for their plays.

Joy Goun is an anagram of Jo Young, more formally known as Julie Young.

Julie worked tirelessly for the Arundel Festival and sadly died last year, and the award was set up in her memory.

Writers were asked to submit a half-hour play for judging by Bill Brennan, Lauretta Tomlinson, of Pageant Players fame, and award-winning dramatist Simon Brett.

Lauretta explained: "The competition was open to absolutley anyone and we even had one entry from France.

"The idea was that there would be no theme, it just had to be original and able to be performed in the open air with minimum cast."

They recieved more than 30 entries and paid tribute to the high standard of all the competitors.

And after more than 15 hours' worth of reading, not to mention re-reading and discussion, they picked the four outstanding plays to be premiered.

Not only will their work be performed during the festival, but they were also presented with 100 by Simon Brett.

Simon said: "I would like to say what a wonderful idea I think this is."

He said the task of selecting the winning scripts was terribly difficult and paid tribute to the four and wished them every success.

Keith Fitch's From My Tree starts the daily programme of plays, followed by fellow award-winner Jill Hucklesby's The Gumball Gargoyle.

Next in the running order is Playing with Fire by Paul Ward, Sweaters for Men by Lauretta and Hibiscus by Jeff Armstrong.

Simon Brett's one-man play Time in the Garden, in which he also performs, is on at 4pm each day.

And prize winners Derek Williams and Jenny Pulling wrap up the day's programme with their plays A Coveted Position and Guilt.

Each play costs 4 on the door, or 2 for students.

You can also buy season tickets to see all the plays, priced 20, or 12 for students, which guarantees you a seat up to 10 minutes before the show starts.

These are available from the festival box office in Mill Road, Arundel, tel: 01903 883474.

And for details of venues and latest daily info, call the Drip Action hotline on 01903 885250, log onto their website at www.dripaction.co.uk or look out for posters displayed throughout the town.