Happy New Year!
Our first season of 2008 starts next Tuesday, 15 January. All meetings take place in the function room upstairs at the Famous Royal Naval Volunteer pub, 17-18 King Street, BS1 4EE. Ask at the bar when buying a drink if you need directions to the meeting. Everyone attending meetings pays £1. You can find an up-to-date list of the dates, times and locations of our forthcoming programme on the Diary page of our website.
Tuesday, 15 January 2008 at 7.30pm: The Assistant by William House
A reading of William’s short absurdist play set in a library. The Assistant has five characters and all the elements of a drama — except the words.
Tuesday, 22 January 2008 at 7.30pm: Open Workshop
Tuesday, 29 January 2008 at 7.30pm: Open Workshop
Tuesday, 5 February 2008 at 7.30pm: Open Workshop
Tuesday, 12 February 2008 at 7.30pm: Dramatic Time, Space and Reality with Andy Graham
Given that all stage and screen work is artifice, how do we know that what we’re seeing is ‘real’?
Following on from last year’s talk about key moments, Andy will be looking at the importance of time, space and reality in drama.
As always, there’ll be practical work during the session, so do bring along a pen and paper.
Tuesday, 19 February 2008 at 7.30pm: Open Workshop
Bristol Old Vic Open Meeting
Dick Penny, Managing Director of the Watershed in Bristol, has been offered the Chair of the Board of the Bristol Old Vic Trust and has called an open meeting this Thursday, 10 January, to discuss the way forward for the theatre.
It is intended that the meeting will clarify the position on fundraising for the £9 million refurbishment for which the theatre closed last summer. Efforts to raise the money received a major setback last month when Arts Council England decided to withhold £2m promised for the refurbishment as well as a further £1.25m for running costs pending a spending review. ACE’s decision prompted the resignation of BOV’s former Chair of Trustees, Rupert Rhymes.
As well as Arts Council England, South West, the meeting’s organisers have invited representatives of Equity, Bristol City Council and actors and theatregoers to the event, which takes place in the Theatre Royal in King Street from 6pm on Tuesday. They are encouraging everyone interested in the theatre’s future to attend and show their support.
Exhibitionists: A Theatrical Revue of the Archive
Anna Farthing has been working with final year Drama students at Bristol University in the Theatre Collection archive to bring to life artefacts from the interwar period in a revue featuring sketches, song and dance. Thundering trains, chorus girls and magical illusions set the stage for a show filled with theatrical opulence.
You can catch the revue at the Wickham Theatre, Cantocks Close, Woodland Road, BS8 1UP at 7.30pm on Friday, 18 and Saturday, 19 January, with a matinee performance at 2.30pm on Saturday.
Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare at the Alma Tavern
Southwest Scriptwriters stalwart Adrian Harris is appearing as Malvolio in RoughHouse Theatre’s abridged production of Twelfth Night at the Alma Tavern Theatre at 8pm nightly (except Sunday and Monday) from Tuesday, 29 January until Saturday, 16 February. The show sets the action on the Berlin cabaret circuit in the 1930s and features live music and songs.
The Witches by Roald Dahl: BBC Radio 4 Classic Serial
Congratulations to former Scriptwriters Honorary President, Lucy Catherine, whose adaptation of Roald Dahl’s children’s story The Witches was broadcast as the BBC Radio 4 Classic Serial over Christmas.