Southwest Scriptwriters meeting, Mcready Room, Bristol Old Vic, 29 June 2004

We have just four meetings in June, leading up to our New Writing Festival of competition winners at the Alma Tavern Theatre from 5 to 10 July. All meetings below take place in the Macready Room at the Bristol Old Vic. Ask at the bar on the first floor for directions. Everyone attending pays £1.

Tuesday, 1 June at 7.30pm: Great Tarpots by Jack Hyde
A reading of Jack’s screenplay, based on a real story, about a group of tearaway teenagers coming of age in 1958. The social focus of the teenagers’ activity is a café called Great Tarpots, and we see them in various escapades, calamities and battles with the police as they come to terms with growing up.

Tuesday, 8 June at 7.30pm: Vengeance is Mine by Brian Weaving
When a four-year old boy goes missing, everbody panics. And when the child is seen with a strange man, everybody jumps to the conclusion that they’d like to kill him. After all, isn’t a man like that better dead?

Tuesday, 22 June at 7.30pm: Open Workshop

Tuesday, 29 June at 7.30pm: Surprise! by Heather Lister and Stella Wintle / A showing of Bill Maryon’s new short film
In Heather and Stella’s one-act stage play, Sam’s family and friends arrange a surprise party for her 40th birthday. But Sam has a few surprises of her own to spring. How will her loved ones react, and can her relationships survive..?

Bill Maryon’s new short film features some (stellar?) performances from people you may recognise…

5 to 10 July: New Writing Festival at the Alma Tavern

2004 Competition Winners

We’re pleased to announce the results of our 2004 competition:

First
Wingless Victor by Bruce Fellows

Second
If Possible, Make a U-Turn by Linda Ewles

Third
A Pint on the House by John Colborn

Fourth
Living Doll by Ann Gawthorpe and Lesley Bown

Fifth Equal
Bottled Up by Kate Stonham

Fifth Equal
Abraham by Patrick Makin

These will all be given script-in-hand performances at our New Writing Festival at the Alma Tavern Theatre from 5 to 10 July. The winner will be on the Saturday, second place on the Friday, and so on down the list to Monday. The Writers’ Guild has generously paid for the hire of the theatre, but we still need a sell-out box office to pay all our actors and directors and to help cover the costs of insurance, having the competition judged etc. Booking details will follow nearer the time. Five of these scripts haven’t been heard in the group before, so please come and enjoy a host of world premieres!

 

Say a Little Prayer scoops Soap Award

Many congratulations to Ray Brooking whose Doctors episode Say a Little Prayer was voted Best Single Episode at the British Soap Awards earlier this month. The ceremony was televised on ITV, but Ray got crushed in the stampede of Doctors actors rushing onto the stage to receive the acclaim of the audience — so you’ll have to come along to the group to see his beaming smile.