We’re gathering online for our fourth virtual meeting this evening, Wednesday, 19 August.
To join us, tap or click the ‘I’m attending’ button in the following listing (find the button on this newsletter’s page on our website) and use the PayPal link that appears to contribute your £2 subs. When you’ve been through the PayPal process, we’ll send you an automatic email that includes the Zoom meeting joining details — please check your spam folders for the email before getting in touch to let us know if you don’t receive it.
Wednesday, 19 August at 7.30pm on Zoom: Crisis by Bruce Fellows
In Bruce’s 70-minute stage play, it’s 1962 and the world’s on the brink of nuclear Armageddon, but even worse, Brush has got to kiss a girl in the school play. Then the kiss is forbidden for a reason Brush finds unacceptable and he has his own crisis decision to make and who knows what the consequences will be?
Get set for autumn
We’ll be announcing our early autumn dates in next month’s newsletter. We hope to get back to face-to-face meetings as soon as we can, and will then offer programmes combining actual and virtual sessions. Until it’s possible to gather at Bristol Old Vic again, though, we’ll continue on Zoom.
If you have a script that’s ripe for an autumn airing, get in touch using the ‘Book a workshop slot’ form on our Contact us webpage to schedule a reading.
Bitter Pill prescribes bimonthly analgesic
London-based company, Bitter Pill Theatre is running a rolling monthly playwriting contest to find two short scripts to feature in its fortnightly podcast. The Painkiller Project seeks short two-handers (500 to 1500 words) that have been written since 20 March — the day on which most UK theatres closed because of the coronavirus crisis.
The choice of material for your script is yours, although, while Bitter Pill accepts that contemporary scripts will inevitably reflect life during the pandemic, it suggests that your work will have more chance of success if it doesn’t address current preoccupations too directly.
The company offers feedback on submitted scripts where it feels this is helpful. It awards a prize of £150 to the two writers chosen each month plus a chance for them to enjoy a ‘video coffee’ with an established theatre maker.
Actors who have appeared in Painkiller Project podcast scripts to date include Toby Jones, Miriam Margolyes and Sophie Thompson. Bitter Pill plans to continue the initiative while theatres remain closed, and will stage an event featuring performances of the selected scripts when live performances are possible again.