Here’s an additional e-bulletin with some extra details of our upcoming events, news of opportunities that has broken since our last full update, and a look ahead to 2010…

All three of our remaining events this year take place at the Famous Royal Naval Volunteer pub, 17-18 King Street, BS1 4EE, the first two upstairs in the function room and the third in the bar. Ask at the bar when buying a drink if you need directions to the meeting.

Wrap up warm again!

The Volly’s central heating system is in need of a part that isn’t due to arrive until later this week and so the function room might be on the chilly side again. Conditions at last week’s meeting weren’t too arctic, though, and it will be worth your while donning an extra layer for…

Tuesday, 24 November at 7.30pm: The Controller by Daniel Brennan
Frank Farsel buys what he believes is a computer games controller from a second-hand shop. It is in fact an otherworldly device used to control the behaviour of a colony of space-faring insects. The controller also affects the minds of those who use it with unforeseen consequences for the Farsel family.

Tuesday, 1 December at 7.30pm: Open Workshop
Tonight’s session features short pieces by Crysse Morrison and Claire Griffiths. Claire’s seasonal ten-minute script, Wrappers, centres on gift wrappers in a department store over the Christmas rush.

Tuesday, 8 December from 8pm: Yuletide drinks in the Naval Volunteer
Join us downstairs at the Volly for a solstice celebration to round off our meetings for 2009.

 

Back to Bristol Old Vic

We’re meeting back at the Bristol Old Vic in the New Year having been away from the theatre since June 2007. Many thanks and a jaunty salute to David Lee and Sue Lee-Lovell at the Naval Volunteer for giving the group a home over the past two and a half years! From January our meetings will still adjourn for drinks in the Volly, so the pub will stay a Southwest Scriptwriters stamping ground.

You can now find the dates of all our meetings until mid-February on the Diary page of our website. I’ll include details of our first season back at Bristol Old Vic in the next full update in January, but now’s the time to get working on your entry for…

 

The Ten-Page Challenge

We’re kick-starting 2010 with a mini competition inspired by the BBC writersroom selection process. (NB This is a Southwest Scriptwriters contest alone and has nothing at all to do with BBC writersroom apart from being based on how it assesses submissions.)

The writersroom team reads the first ten pages of the unsolicited scripts it receives to gauge whether their authors have what it takes to write for the BBC. Only the scripts that impress within this range take their writers to the next stage of development with the writersroom.

This is the starting point for our Ten-Page Challenge in which you have the chance to scoop £50 of Amazon vouchers. Workshop the first ten pages of your new stage, screen, radio or television script at one of our first six meetings in the New Year to take up the Challenge. An independent reader (to be confirmed, but his/her decision will be final) will judge the beginnings brought along to our opening season of 2010 and pick the one s/he would most like to go on reading. The author of the selected ten pages wins £50 to spend at Amazon.co.uk.

The Ten-Page Challenge marks the New Year and a fresh start for us at Bristol Old Vic, and we’re hoping it will inspire new work from group members. It’s a chance for you to make a positive start on a new writing project and so nothing that’s been heard at our meetings before is eligible for entry.

It’s also important to be clear that the Challenge is for the first ten pages of longer scripts and not for ten-page scripts — it’s about making an impressive start and so we don’t want any endings, please! We hope to hear your completed scripts at meetings later in 2010.

 

Script Space III launched

Script Space, the Tobacco Factory Theatre’s forum for new writing, returns for a third year and invites submissions of original plays for consideration for a series of rehearsed, script-in-hand readings.

Script Space received more than 250 submissions for its series of
public readings earlier this year, and selected four new, diverse plays including Water’s Not So Thick by Southwest Scriptwriter Gill Kirk. A team of directors and actors worked to bring the quartet of finalists to life and audiences offered constructive feedback in post-reading discussions.

Script Space III will focus on one-act plays, allowing more than one play to be read at each event. Submissions for 2010 must be between 15 and 60 minutes long and have a cast of four or fewer.

 

To you… to me 2

Theatre Bristol, which works to develop and promote all aspects of theatre in the city, is holding its second To you… to me evening at the Bristol Old Vic on Monday, 30 November from 6pm until 9pm.

To you… to me is a forum at which those who participate in theatre in Bristol (either in creating it or as audience members) raise and discuss issues they feel are important in groups, as well as meeting other Bristol theatre people more informally.

The event is free and includes drinks and a buffet.

 

Bristol Old Vic Writers’ Room: The Writers’ Lounge

A reminder that Bristol Old Vic Writers’ Room is holding the second of its biannual social and networking meetings for writers in the region next month.

The Writers’ Lounge is taking place in Renato’s, 33 King Street, Bristol, BS1 4DZ (opposite the Volly) on Thursday, 3 December.

 

South West New Writing Network comes to BOV

The South West New Writing Network, a network of theatre writers and producers from across the region, is holding its next quarterly meeting at the Bristol Old Vic on Tuesday, 15 December.

SWNWN events are a (daytime) chance to meet and catch up with people involved in the production of new theatre writing throughout the South West. They feature discussions on issues facing playwrights and the production of their work as well as meetings to share information on playwriting activities in the area.

South West New Writing Network Google Group

 

Farewell to Clive

Clive Williams, who’s been a regular at Southwest Scriptwriters meetings since 2006, has moved recently to Dumfries. Clive feels that although the journey from his former home in Cheltenham to Bristol on a Tuesday evening was doable, Dumfries to Bristol is pushing it!

It’s a shame to lose a familiar face at meetings, but we wish Clive all the very best for his new life in Scotland.