Happy New Year!
Our 2009 programme starts on Tuesday, 13 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.
This time we’ve programmed three meetings with details of the next three to follow.
Tuesday, 13 January 2009, 7.30pm: Adaptation with Andy Graham
Adaptation can seem like a very specialised area, but it’s actually a useful way to exercise your creativity and hone your editing skills. Scriptwriters’ Chair, Andy Graham, looks at some of the key aspects of adaptation, especially the differing requirements of stage, screen and radio. Please bring pen and paper for this practical session.
Tuesday, 20 January 2009, 7.30pm: Open Workshop
This week’s meeting features Still Standing by Eileen Elsey.
Tuesday, 27 January 2009, 7.30pm: Adaptation follow-up
Tonight we’ll look at the work generated by Andy’s adaptation workshop. Bring along your scripts or script extracts based on other writing.
Southwest Scriptwriters is under expanded management
We’ve recently co-opted some fresh blood into Southwest Scriptwriters’ organising committee. The group’s core executive team of John Colborn (Secretary/Treasurer), Andy Graham (Chair) and Tim Massey (Artistic Director) was joined last August by Adrian Harris, William House and Gill Kirk.
For those of you unfamiliar with the new committee members: Adrian is an actor and writer who has been very active both at meetings and in promoting our work elsewhere since joining the group three years ago. He represented Southwest Scriptwriters at meetings of the South West New Writing Network throughout the region, and is the driving force behind Script @ Starbucks, which presented two rehearsed reading events at the Broadmead branch of the coffee shop last year.
William is a longstanding group member whose plays Between the Lines, Knocking, Percy and The Elevator Man (pictured) featured in our New Writing Festivals in the Bristol Old Vic Studio in 1999 and at the Tobacco Factory in 2003 and 2005. He is keen to contribute more to organising and running Southwest Scriptwriters after retiring as a GP last year.
Gill joined Southwest Scriptwriters in autumn 2007 and is developing her satirical stage play with feedback from the group. Her extensive public relations experience includes time as acting director of communications for the Royal Shakespeare Company and work with Arts Council England.
The newly expanded team looks forward to working together to help make Southwest Scriptwriters even better in future!
Script Space 2
A reminder that the submission deadline for Script Space 2, the Tobacco Factory’s adventurous forum for new writers that presents original plays in a series of rehearsed script-in-hand performances, is fast approaching.
Now in its second year and led by an energetic new team, Script Space aims to nurture new writing and help with the leap from script to stage, offering selected writers practical support with developing their work for performance.
The theme for Script Space 2 is ‘Adversaries’ and submissions should ideally reflect this. They should also be 90 minutes or shorter, written for a maximum of four actors and include simple stage directions.
Bristol Old Vic Writers’ Room Events
Following a huge response to its call for new scripts for Script in Hand, a series of rehearsed readings to be held in February (the successful entries for which will be announced on 12 January), Bristol Old Vic’s Writers’ Room has also announced a series of writers’ masterclasses by nationally-renowned practitioners at the theatre.
The following four classes will offer a unique opportunity to hear writers, literary agents and theatre-makers talk about their practice and careers:
Saturday, 31 January
David Eldridge
David has written over 20 plays for stage and radio, and his work has been performed at major theatres in the UK, including The Royal Court, The Bush and the National Theatre. His stage adaptation of Festen transferred from the Almeida Theatre to the West End and Broadway. His play, Market Boy was commissioned by the National Theatre and in 2008 his play Under the Blue Sky was revived at the Duke of York’s Theatre starring Chris O’Dowd, Catherine Tate and Francesca Annis.
Saturday, 14 February
Nina Steiger
Literary Manager of Soho Theatre, an award-winning theatre space dedicated to discovering, developing and producing writing for performance.
Further information
Saturday, 28 February
Polly Teale
Writer, director and producer with the internationally acclaimed theatre company Shared Experience, Polly will be exploring adaptation for the stage and how to weave a more physical approach into the building of character. Her latest play, Mine, was recently produced at Hampstead Theatre and is currently on tour.
Further information
Saturday, 14 March
Simon Stephens
Simon has had a long association with the Royal Court where four of his plays have been performed, but he has also been commissioned by the National Theatre, The Bush, Royal Exchange, Manchester, The Crucible, Sheffield and the Traverse, Edinburgh. His past work includes Harper Reagan (NT), Pornography (The Traverse), Herons (Royal Court) and On the Shore of the Wide World (Royal Exchange).