With this summer shaping up to be the wettest on record, it’s your chance to stay in out of the rain and write some fresh scripts to debut at Southwest Scriptwriters this autumn. We’re back at Watershed for our next season of meetings on Tuesday, 11 September.
Book now for Engineers’ Blue
Engineers’ Blue by group committee member Adrian Harris is the debut production at Brass Works Theatre in Warmley, beginning its three-week run tomorrow, 10 July, with performances at 8pm on Tuesday to Saturday evenings, and a 2pm matinee on Saturdays, until 28 July.
After it was commissioned by Kingswood Heritage Museum, Adrian developed Engineers’ Blue with financial support from The Peggy Ramsay Foundation, and using feedback from a reading of an early draft at our workshop meeting on 27 March. He won National Lottery Grants for the Arts funding to produce the play.
Engineers’ Blue is set in the summer of 1941 when Britain stood alone against the Nazi war machine. Kingwood’s Douglas motorcycle factory was one of many retooled to support the Allied war effort, and the government pushed for women to join the workforce to make up for the loss of manpower to the armed services. Female workers were often far from welcome in factories.
Adrian appears in the play as Cliff, an engineer wounded at Dunkirk, and forced into a reserved occupation. Pete is a young entrepreneur, looking to rake in the benefits during the blackouts. The two men are heading for a fight on the home front, with Ivy Drake, a young woman volunteer at the Douglas factory, caught between them.
The show also launches Brass Works Theatre in the spacious room above Kingswood Heritage Museum. Building on the success of last autumn’s Living Local show, which presented a selection of short monologues and duologues by members of Southwest Scriptwriters in the museum itself, Adrian is staging Engineers’ Blue to test demand for a professional theatre in South Gloucestershire. If all goes well with this month’s production, he plans to present more work in the 100-seater space. This may well include further opportunities for group members to see work staged in Warmley.
You can read more about the project in Venue’s feature here, and find information on how to get to Brass Works Theatre on its website.
Around the World with an Overnight Bag
A memoire of his 2004 world tour, John’s book offers a ‘quirky story of the first circumnavigation of the globe by this particular route. The author visits friends in several different countries on the way to attending his stepson’s wedding in Lake Toba, Sumatra — and gives entertaining insights into how different nationalities tackle day-to-day life wherever he goes. A lighthearted, informative and easy read.’
You can order Around the World with an Overnight Bag from Amazon
John is the second Southwest Scriptwriter to publish prose this year, his travel book following hard on the heels of Bruce Fellows’ novel, That Quiet Earth, which you can also order from Amazon
Find us, follow us…
Keep up to date with Southwest Scriptwriters during our summertime hiatus through social networking. We have feeds to suit your taste — on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter — and you don’t need to sign up for the networks to see our posts.
Since our last email update, we’ve posted news of Bruce Fellows’ and Andrzej Wawrowski’s contributions to Bristol’s Harbourside Jubilee Trail; a show by improvised comedy company Instant Wit! (featuring group committee member, Stephanie Weston) at the Brewery; Craig Malpass’ appearance in David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross at the Alma Tavern Theatre; Saturday Shorts at Bristol Folk House (produce by longtime Southwest Scriptwriters associate, Mark Breckon) featuring a short script by Andrzej Wawrowski; and ongoing coverage of progress on Engineers’ Blue.
Be sure to tune-in to social media for further updates before our next e-bulletin in September.