Happy New Year — looking forward to your scriptwriting successes in 2018!

We’re getting the year underway next Tuesday, 16 January, with an exploration of the writer-director relationship in filmmaking — learn more below — in Bristol Old Vic’s Rehearsal Room. Sign in at the Stage Door entrance off Queen Charlotte Street, BS1 4HJ and go straight to the Rehearsal Room on the second floor — ask the Stage Door staff for directions. Everyone attending meetings pays £2.

Tuesday, 16 January at 8pm: ‘What is that director doing with my script?’

Filmmaker Keith Wilhelm Kopp leads a 60-minute workshop exploring what a director does with a script in development and production, and why it changes from the screenwriter’s original vision.

Keith has directed more than 20 short films that have been screened at festivals around the world. Since moving from writing his own scripts to directing other writers’ work, he has developed an interest in the process of creative collaboration, and believes that a key to filmmaking success is for everyone involved to have a clear understanding of the work of the rest of the production team — including writers knowing why a director wields his or her red pen.

Using examples from his own work, Keith will discuss how a director approaches a script, the workflow (the way in which a director reads a script, lines it during production to record the coverage he or she has shot, decides whether or not to storyboard, and collects references), and look at how writers and directors can build healthy relationships. He will also explore the need for writers to make films of their own.

Keith encourages participants to contribute examples from their own experience, and hopes to learn from this feedback.

There may be time to feature some of your work in progress following Keith’s session. If you have a short script or script extract you’d like to share tonight, please get in touch using our ‘Book a workshop slot’ form.

Tuesday, 13 February at 8pm: Open Workshop

Please also get in touch using our ‘Book a workshop slot’ form if you’ll have a script or script extract ready for feedback at next month’s meeting.

 

Papatango New Writing Prize 2018 open for entries

Papatango Theatre Company logo

Now in its tenth year, The Papatango New Writing Prize remains the UK’s only annual playwriting award to guarantee its winner a full professional production with associated royalties plus publication of the play text (by Nick Hern Books). The prize also offers a £6000 commission to research and develop a follow-up play with Papatango Theatre Company.

Papatango is accepting emailed submissions of full-length (a minimum of 9000 words), original stage plays by UK and Republic of Ireland-based writers until midnight on Wednesday, 28 February. The company will assess entries anonymously and offer all entrants feedback on their scripts — it expects to receive around 1000 submissions. It will work with the winning writer to develop his or her play for a four-week production at Southwark Playhouse this autumn, for which the playwright will receive royalties of 10% of gross box office. The company will continue to work with the prizewinner on the subsequent script commission.

Please read Papatango’s Literary Guidelines carefully for full details of how to enter

 

One-act plays for Windsor Fringe Kenneth Branagh Drama Writing Award

Windsor Fringe has issued its annual international invitation to amateur playwrights to submit one-act plays for its Kenneth Branagh Drama Writing Award.

The Award’s judges (to be confirmed) will select three scripts from the worldwide field for fully staged performances during the Windsor Fringe Festival in October. The foremost of the three finalists will also receive a prize of £500.

Your script should have a maximum playing time of 30 minutes with a cast of six actors or fewer and be suitable for performance in a studio theatre.

Southwest Scriptwriter Michelle Douglass is a previous winner of the Award, taking the top prize in 2014 with her play Blown Apart.

The deadline for entries this year is Monday, 5 March.

Find full entry details on the Windsor Fringe website

 

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