Welcome to our final season before our festival of new writing at the Tobacco Factory, Raleigh Road, Bedminster, Bristol from 19 to 23 July. See below for the winners of our competition whose work will be performed there. All the following meetings take place in the Macready Room at the Bristol Old Vic, King Street, Bristol. Everyone attending pays £1.
Tuesday, 24 May at 7.30pm: Old Enough by Andy Graham
Old Enough (Jack’s story) is the first part in Andy’s proposed four-part comedy-drama series for TV. It looks at issues of sex, death, fatherhood and bladder control for men in their middle years.
Tuesday, 31 May at 7.30pm: Open Workshop
Tuesday, 7 June at 7.30pm: Mr History by Ed Viney
Ed’s new stage play with a recycled title is about a young schoolteacher who goes to visit the parents of a student on the last day of the school term and stays for a lot longer than he intended.
Tuesday, 14 June at 7.30pm: Open Workshop
Tuesday, 21 June at 7.30pm: Interviewing Alice by Heather Lister
A shorter version of this play was a winner in our 2003 Festival and Heather is submitting this rewritten version to Theatre West’s Search for a Script. Interviewing Alice is set in a chaotic office at a mysterious factory where a young woman is waiting for an interview. The play is about the anarchic power of words, and people’s attempts to keep them under some kind of control.
Tuesday, 19 to Saturday, 23 July: New Writing Festival at the Tobacco Factory
New Writing Festival 2005 competition winners
We’re delighted to announce the results of our 2005 competition:
Overall Winner: Air Guitar by Peter Kesterton
Second: Resting by Kevin Cattell
Third: Last Train by Steve Lambert
Fourth equal: Coast by Richard Lambert
Fourth equal: Living Doll by Lesley Bown and Ann Gawthorpe
Sixth: The Return by Didier J Desmedt
All these will be given script-in-hand performances at the Tobacco Factory, Bristol, from 19 to 23 July — so please keep these dates free and come to see as many of them as possible. If you’re one of those who didn’t make it to the list, don’t worry — we’ll look forward to hearing your work in a group meeting.
Latest from Albert Square
Our Honorary President, Michael Jenner’s episode of EastEnders goes out on Friday, 3 June. Don’t miss it! Find out what makes Michael so successful!
Speeding takes the 90-second Challenge
Tim Massey and Steve Brown’s short film about speed dating, Speeding, can now be viewed on the 90-second Challenge website.
Autumn at the Alma now funded
Theatre West has now received a grant to fund its season of new writing at the Alma Tavern Theatre from 20 September to 26 November this year, so if you submit a 50- to 60-minute stage script (preferably with around three characters and minimum props), your chances of getting it produced are now much better. Five new plays will be performed and each will have a two-week run.
The Play’s the Thing
If you’ve got a stage play on the boil that deserves a full West End production, let the nation watch you develop it on Channel 4 and take it through to its opening night at a top London theatre.
Scripts for Exeter workshops
The Northcott Theatre, Exeter, invites you to submit a stage play for workshopping and a subsequent public rehearsed reading at the Northcott in the autumn.