Bristol Old Vic’s Clore Learning Studio is the setting for our eighth meeting of 2018 next Tuesday, 21 August.

Enter the theatre complex via the Stage Door off Queen Charlotte Street, BS1 4HJ, sign in and go straight to the meeting on the second floor — please ask BOV staff if you need directions. Everyone attending pays £2.

Tuesday, 21 August at 8pm: Open Workshop

Tonight we’re featuring Matt Sanders’ short film trilogy, Holding Hands, exploring the experience of a gay man in Britain over 75 years. The style of each of the three parts reflects its period setting, the action moving ‘from a frightening and oppressive 1950s London, crossing the Welsh borders in the selfish 1980s to land in the vibrant Cardiff of today.’ The reading includes a chance for a vocal cord workout with ABBA’s Dancing Queen — see that girl, watch that scene…

We’re also continuing The Senseless Counterfeit, Richard Craven’s marital-aid-based, Bristolian, Jacobian revenge tragedy, the first part of which proved controversial at our July meeting.

Work for upcoming meetings

Starting this autumn we’re hoping to meet a little more frequently than the (roughly) four-weekly sessions we’ve managed since June 2017. This means that we’ll have more slots available for your works in progress, and are keen to hear from you via our ‘Book a workshop slot‘ form if you have anything that needs an airing. There’s no need to hold out until you have a full-length script to share with the group as we’d welcome idea pitches, treatments, opening scenes, first attempts or any incipient scriptwriting efforts with which we can help! We’ll still schedule longer works where possible, of course, but please do get in touch if you have something shorter.

 

Scott and Stef in Edinburgh

Group committee members Scott Wilson and Stephanie Weston are both showing work at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this month.

Stef’s Battlelines in The Big Breakfast Show

Bite-Size Plays The Big Breakfast Show

Stef’s short comedy Battlelines has been playing as part of Bite-Size Plays Breakfast Menu 2 in its Big Bite-Size Breakfast Show at the Pleasance Queen Dome (Venue 23) since 2 August. Picked by Bite-Size Plays from amongst the finalists in south west Wales’ Pint-sized Plays last year, Battlelines takes the stage again with four more shorts at 10.30am on 15, 18, 22 and 25 August.

Learn more

Scott in Down the Rabbit Hole and Loco-Motion

Up The Antics Down the Rabbit Hole and Loco-Motion

Scott’s Up The Antics comedy company has two shows on this year’s Fringe — both beginning next Sunday, 19 August and both free to attend.

Down the Rabbit Hole invites you to ‘follow the White Rabbit of improvisation’ to worlds that are spawned and shattered by one-word audience suggestions. Discover these Wonderlands at 12.15pm daily at the BrewDog, 50 Lothian Road, EH3 9BY, from 19 to 25 August.

Loco-Motive, the troupe’s second show, presents a best-of Antics sketches at 10.50pm every evening from 19 to 24 August at the Revolution Bar, 30 Chamber Street, EH1 1UH.

Learn more

Wishing Scott and Stef success in Scotland!

 

Scratch Nights script selection set for September

Southwest Scriptwriters Scratch Nights

A reminder that we’re planning to announce the line-up of material for our first Scratch Nights event in next month’s edition of this newsletter.

Scratch Nights will present evenings of public rehearsed readings of material emerging from our regular workshop programme. We’re staging the first event aboard the John Sebastian lightship, moored in Bathurst Basin, BS1 6SV, at 7.30pm on Wednesday, 24 October.

Script submissions

If you’ve shown work at one of our monthly meetings since June 2017 and would like to submit a script for Scratch Nights by midnight on Monday, 20 August, please get in touch using our Email us form to find out how to do so. We’re sorry, but we cannot respond to submission requests from writers who have not taken part in our activities since June 2017.

 

Write to Play with Graeae

Graeae Theatre Company Write to Play

Graeae is a national theatre company working with D/deaf and disabled people. It is accepting submissions for its sixth annual Write to Play programme until Monday, 3 September.

Write to Play offers a year-long course for writers with a passion for writing for performance who identify as D/deaf or disabled. Participants receive a bursary as well as mentoring and masterclasses to help them complete a monologue, duologue and full-length play during the course.

This time Graeae is calling for Write to Play applications from writers in the South West, and has partnered with Theatre Royal Bath, Bristol Old Vic, Exeter Northcott Theatre, Theatre Royal Plymouth, Wiltshire Creative and Nuffield Southampton Theatres for the project. The company will pair students with its partner organisation closest to where they live for the course.

Write to Play alumni include Amy Bethan Evans — as reported in our March 2015 newsletter.

Graeae is holding a Write to Play taster session for those interested in applying at Bristol Old Vic on Wednesday, 22 August. Find out how to book for the taster session and apply for the course using the link below.

Learn more