Happy New Year!

2015 starts with a series of six meetings in Waterside 1 at Watershed, 1 Canon’s Road, Harbourside, Bristol, BS1 5TX, beginning on Tuesday, 20 January. Ask at Watershed’s box office on the ground floor if you need directions to a meeting. Everyone attending pays £1.

Tuesday, 20 January at 7.30pm: Southwest Scriptwriters meeting
Tuesday, 27 January at 7.30pm: Southwest Scriptwriters meeting
Tuesday, 3 February at 7.30pm: Southwest Scriptwriters meeting
Tuesday, 10 February at 7.30pm: Southwest Scriptwriters meeting
Tuesday, 17 February at 7.30pm: Southwest Scriptwriters meeting
Tuesday, 24 February at 7.30pm: Southwest Scriptwriters meeting

Check the date of the next meeting by clicking the double down arrow on our website’s home page or find a full list of upcoming dates on the What’s On page.

 

Bruce’s Blue Carbuncle now at Brass Works Theatre

You have until Saturday, 17 January, to catch Bruce Fellows’ quirky adaptation of Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle at Brass Works Theatre in Warmley.

The lively show, directed by Southwest Scriptwriters committee member Adrian Harris, is Bruce’s third seasonal adaptation for the new theatre following The Mystery of the Hound of the Baskervilles in 2012-2013 and Robert Louis Stevenson’s Kidnapped in 2013-2014.

Based on an original Arthur Conan Doyle short story, and set soon after the festive season, the Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle finds a female Sherlock Holmes – who disguises herself as a man to do her sleuthing – deducing her way from a battered blue hat and stolen Christmas goose to a case connecting the theft of a priceless blue jewel with a blackmail plot involving the Royal Family. Bruce’s Sherlock is also a singing detective who has a music hall act in which she ap;ears (apparently) as a female impersonator.

Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle is at Brass Works Theatre in Tower Lane, Warmley, BS30 8XT, with performances at 7.30pm on Tuesday to Saturday and a 2.30pm matinee on its closing Saturday until 17 January. Book tickets (£12/£10) here.

 

Theatre West’s Moving On

Following the success of its first autumn season away from the Alma Tavern in 17 years in 2014, Theatre West has embraced its new life as a travelling company with the launch of a script development initiative for a ten-week programme later this year.

The company has invited writers from the South West who have had at least one play produced to submit proposals for scripts on the theme of ‘moving on’. The project will offer five playwrights opportunities to work on their ideas with a choice of developmental support – the chance to work with a dramaturge, director, performer or musician, for example, or travelling expenses to make a research visit – for a five-month writing process concluding at the end of July.

You’ll need to move quickly if you’d like to take part in Moving On – the deadline for proposals is this Friday, 16 January. Find full submission details here.

 

Brian offers Death for Rent on Amazon

Brian Weaving has published his second novel, Death for Rent, with Amazon. The 408-page thriller joins 2012’s Death on Demand in the online store’s catalogue.

Death for Rent is not a sequel to Death on Demand, but does feature some of the characters from Brian’s earlier book. The story centres on what happens when daughter and mother, Mary and Linda Wilkins, rent a house near Bath. When the owners prove elusive, Linda is determined to discover the truth, and her investigations put her life at risk.

Brian gave an intriguing account of his online at our final meeting of 2014, and you can invest in his latest venture in paperback or electronic versions here.