We start the New Year with a pre-season visit to Sea Life by our President, Lucy Catherine, and then take a couple of weeks off before starting the season proper on 30 January. All meetings take place in the Cooper’s Loft — ask at the bar on the first floor for directions. Everyone attending pays £1.

Tuesday, 9 January at 7.30pm: Sea Life in the New Vic
Come and see our President, Lucy Catherine’s new play and then join the after-show talkaround. An enthusiastic review in The Stage calls the play ‘gripping, funny and jam-packed with intellectual ideas and raw human emotions’.

Tuesday, 30 January at 7.30pm: Open Workshop

Tuesday, 6 February at 7.30pm: Play reading to be announced
A reading of one of the scripts that didn’t make it to the final of our current competition — but we don’t know which one yet!

Tuesday, 13 February at 7.30pm: Open Workshop

Tuesday, 20 February at 7.30pm: Open Workshop

Tuesday, 27 February at 7.30pm: Meet Theatre West
Come along to an informal discussion with Theatre West about the kind of one-hour scripts they’re seeking for production at the Alma Tavern. What they have to say could have a big influence on the way you write your next script — or re-write your last one!

 

Competition judging nears completion
The judging of the New Writing 2001 competition is going as planned with most scripts having now been read once and some twice. We hope to have all the results in by the end of this month.

 

Mother Me Daughter makes Western Lights
Congratulations to Anne-Marie McCormack whose screenplay Mother Me Daughter is one of only two scripts to be produced for this year’s Western Lights. The film is being produced by Maiden’s Voyage, the production company in which Anne-Marie is a partner, and she herself is directing it. Pre-production starts next week and filming towards the end of February. An earlier draft of Mother Me Daughter was read in the group some time ago, and Anne-Marie says comments made by members at that time helped shape the final script. We hope to show the film later in the year.

 

Mike’s Mother Country in the Basement
Mike Akers — partner of Lucy, our President — has a full-length comedy drama being produced in the Basement at the Theatre Royal, Bristol from 16 to 20 January at 7.30pm each evening. Mother Country is about a couple in Norwich who import booze and cigarettes illegally. This is Mike’s first full-length play following a number of successes with one-act plays produced both in the Basement and by Theatre West at the Alma Tavern. It promises to be great entertainment, so please give it your full support.

 

SWMDA offers script critiques
The South West Media Development Agency (SWMDA) is a funding organisation that aims to promote the independent production of film and video in this region. SWMDA also offers a Script Critique service which offers, for £15 per script, advice on developing your work and, if appropriate, on funding and production.

 

disPLAY 4 and The Exchange seek disabled writers
Soho Theatre Company, in association with Writernet and Graeae, is seeking four disabled writers to be commissioned to write a stage play and take part in disPLAY 4. Also to promote disabled writers, the BBC is running The Exchange to help successful candidates develop radio scripts.