Leala Burton, Charmaine Goode and Katherine Bond are just a few of the Acting students working to make Open Wide drama festival happen. We've been along to find what it's all about.

Is this the first alternative drama festival to take place at Bretton?
Leala: Yes. Basically we have a tutor called Rachel Karafistan and she's relatively new to the University - she's come with a lot of new ideas. Last year a group of us went to a similar theatre festival in Germany with the aim of setting one up ourselves just because there's nothing of this nature - it's a more experimental, physical kind of theatre which is what a lot of people at Bretton are interested in. There's nothing like that to draw people to the area so we learned from the German festival and we're trying to launch this one as our own little baby.

The Bretton Hall campus is throwing its doors open to drama companies from across Europe between June 15th and June 19th.

Is there nothing else in Yorkshire like this? Katherine: I didn't realise before I started but Bretton has got this reputation for being a little bit off the wall and it's quite difficult in Yorkshire to see the sort of groups we were interested in, and when we do they are in smaller venues so it's nice to bring international groups to the region, especially as we are based near Wakefield rather than in Leeds. It's a different kind of community to the city atmosphere of Leeds. It's more rural and it's getting people from this community to see theatre they might not otherwise think about seeing.

Is this Festival a one-off?
Charmaine: No. They are hoping to do it next year and they've got first and second year students shadowing us so they can do the same next year if this one's successful.

COSmino Theatre aim to speak to all the senses at once.

The Festival includes two ' Scratch' days. What exactly is a Scratch day?
Katherine is a member of the 'Scratch' day team: It's a two-day event for non-professional theatre groups who just want to come and try out their work in front of quite a big audience hopefully and they get a 20 minute slot in a blank studio space and just to come and experiment and try their work out. There will be students from Bretton performing on Scratch day but we want to keep it equal between outsiders and Bretton-ers.

What do you think the highlight of the Festival will be?
Charmaine: Unlike a lot of the team I haven't seen any of these theatre companies. They saw them in Germany. I've heard a lot of good things about them and I'm just excited about seeing something that's a bit different.

The Paper Birds formed in 2002 when the members of this all female collective were undergraduates in Bretton.

For Katherine there is much more to Open Wide than what happens on the stage:
We know from the theatre events in Germany that we are going to have a couple of parties and the social events will be really exciting. Hopefully there will be a real celebratory atmosphere and for us, because we're leaving, it's like going out on a bang.

Would you say the Festival is more than just the performances or the social events?
Leala: It's not just that there's a performance every night and it's what people come for. It's about the whole week. It's going to be a really good experience from start to finish and in Bretton the campus is quite closed off so once you are there, you are there and hopefully if it's nice weather people will have the opportunity to get that nice summery atmosphere.

Why do you get excited by drama?
Katherine: It's about communicating with people and entertaining people and making people feel a certain way and I think there's something, and I know it sounds really pretentious, quite rewarding about communicating with people in this sort of way.

So would you say the Open Wide Festival is about communication?
Leala: Definitely. It's about inter-cultural communication as well. We are trying to heighten that by certain things we are doing. We're having themed dishes from the countries which the performers have come from and things like that. A lot of people are interested in people from a different country.

For Charmaine it's all to do with having an interest in how things are done elsewhere:
It's just a chance for people to see theatre from a few different countries. We wouldn't be able to go to Poland or to Germany, or wherever, to see that theatre so it's nice to bring it together and have it all in one place.

Wednesday June 15th: COSmino Theatre (UK/Poland). Also a programme of after-dark 'secret' performances

Thursday June 16th: The Paper Birds (UK). Scratch performance day.

Friday June 17th: Paoli Nani Teater (Italy/Denmark). Scratch performance day.

Saturday June 18th: Oleg Zhukovsky (Russia/ Germany).

Sunday June 19th: Teatr Porywacze Cial (Poland), Teatr Usta Usta (Poland). Also a programme of after-dark 'secret' performances

Plus workshops, discussions and debates throughout the Festival.

More details at www.openwidefestival.co.uk/
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