Welcome to our debut lockdown edition — letting you know that we’re still alive and kicking online!
We’re doing our bit during the COVID-19 emergency by encouraging all our writers to use the extra time at home to work on scriptwriting projects. It’s unlikely that we’ll be able to meet for some time, but we’ll do our best to keep in touch with these monthly updates throughout the coronavirus shutdown.
Lockdown Monologues for Brass Works Theatre
South Gloucestershire’s Brass Works Theatre company is marking the current coronavirus crisis with a call to writers with BA and BS postcodes to submit five-minute Lockdown Monologues.
Your monologue should reflect life during the current movement restrictions, aiming to offer a creative take on our need to connect while keeping apart — this may be a difficult time, but that doesn’t mean your response should be without humour!
Bristol actors Adrian Harris and Stephanie Weston — both of whom are familiar to Southwest Scriptwriters regulars — will record BWT’s pick of two of the monologues submitted, and the company will post the videos on its website. BWT will also award a £50 prize to each of the winning writers.
Your monologue should fit Adrian or Stephanie’s playing type — find further details and links to their Spotlight pages on BWT’s Lockdown Monologues page — and your script can call for basic costume or props that are likely to be available during lockdown.
You can ubmit one monologue for the project, which has a tight deadline of midnight on Monday, 20 April.
Director’s Cut LockDown OpenUp
Director’s Cut theatre company is offering an ongoing opportunity to draw on your experiences of life during the COVID-19 emergency.
The company is seeking one- or two-minute scripts or videos of the same length throughout the lockdown. It will review LockDown OpenUp submissions daily, selecting some scripts to cast and record for presentation on its video channel alongside its pick of the video submissions. Director’s Cut will also choose some of the scripts for presentation as part of one of its showcases at Southwark Playhouse when the theatre is able to reopen.
Introduce yourself to screenwriting with the University of East Anglia
The lockdown might be a good chance to take up the University of East Anglia’s School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing’s longstanding invitation to enrol on its free online Introduction to Screenwriting course.
Built by instructors and former students of the university’s renowned Creative Writing course, An Introduction to Screenwriting offers a beginner’s guide to the ‘basic elements and key concepts behind a professional screenplay’:
‘You’ll learn from a mixture of basic theory, script analysis and practical exercises. We will explore key principles as they’re expressed in great films, then immediately apply these concepts. Videos, articles and discussion steps will offer you the opportunity to learn and engage with other learners on key concepts and ideas.’