Spring begins for Southwest Scriptwriters on Tuesday, 19 April, with the first of a five-week season of meetings in Waterside 1 at Watershed, 1 Canon’s Road, Harbourside, Bristol, BS1 5TX. Ask at Watershed’s box office on the ground floor if you need directions to a meeting. Everyone attending pays £1.

Tuesday, 19 April at 7.30pm: Southwest Scriptwriters meeting
Tuesday, 26 April at 7.30pm: Southwest Scriptwriters meeting
Tuesday, 3 May at 7.30pm: Southwest Scriptwriters meeting
Tuesday, 10 May at 7.30pm: Southwest Scriptwriters meeting
Tuesday, 17 May at 7.30pm: Southwest Scriptwriters meeting

 

Eileen Elsey (1949-2016)

Eileen Elsey at a Southwest Scriptwriters meeting in 2008

We’re saddened to report the death of Eileen Elsey on Monday, 8 February.

Eileen began a long association with Southwest Scriptwriters after moving to Bristol to take up a position as Principal Lecturer in Time-based Media with the University of the West of England’s Faculty of Creative Arts in 1997.

She served on the board of the internationally-renowned Encounters short film festival from 1998 until 2013, and explored her interest in the brief cinematic form in a book, In Short: A Guide to Short Film-making in the Digital Age, co-written with Andrew Kelly, and published as a BFI Modern Classic in 2002.

Eileen established UWE’s MA Media (Screenwriting) degree, and tutored several members of Southwest Scriptwriters on the course in the mid-2000s.

More recently Eileen focused on short stories, writing as D A Allen.

 

Alma Theatre seeks scripts for autumn in-house production

Followers of our Facebook page may have spotted Alma Tavern Theatre Manager Holly Newton’s recent post requesting script submissions for the venue’s first in-house production later this year.

Potential play scripts will have running times no longer than 90 minutes with casts of four characters or fewer. The Alma will consider scripts of any genre.

Rather than submitting an entire play, you can send a short synopsis with the opening two scenes and a further sample scene from later in the action. Hoklly is able to offer no feedback on submissions because of the large volume of scripts she is expecting.

Email your submission to Holly.

 

The Somme in South Gloucestershire on social media

@thesomme_sg

South Gloucestershire Council is marking the centenary of the World War I Battle of the Somme (1 July-18 November 1916) with a number of projects including a fictional Twitter feed commissioned from Southwest Scriptwriters committee member Adrian Harris.

Adrian has imagined the lives of ten characters from South Gloucestershire during the Battle, and gives voice to them in a series of tweets to be posted as the centennial drama unfolds. The Twitter feed will chronicle the characters’ experiences on the battlefield and at home, and feature period pictures to illustrate the action.

Tweets begin on the anniversary of the Battle’s outbreak on Friday, 1 July, but you can get set to receive them by following @thesomme_sg on Twitter now, and read character biographies and learn more about the project here.

 

More Mid Somerset success for Brian

Having scooped top creative writing prizes at the Mid Somerset Festival in previous years, Brian Weaving turned in another very strong showing this year, winning the Duologue silver plate, the MSF Prose Prize, and overall Evelyn Sandford Cup — find a full list of this year’s winners on the Festival’s website

Congratulations, Brian!