Following a spring sabbatical, we’re back in June and July with a pair of summertime Zoom sessions.
We’re yet to schedule any material for our upcoming couple of meetings, so this is your call to get in touch using our ‘Book a workshop slot’ form if you have any work in progress on which you’re keen to get some feedback.
As always, we’re open to scriptwriting at all stages of development — anything from the germ of an idea to an advanced draft script — so if you’d like to pitch your next project, test a treatment, or dazzle with some dialogue, do get in touch!
Wednesday, 8 June at 7.30pm on Zoom: Open workshop
Use the ‘I’m attending’ button on our ‘What’s on’ page to contribute your £2 subs and receive the meeting’s Zoom login details.
Wednesday, 6 July at 7.30pm on Zoom: Open workshop
We’ll post the ‘I’m attending’ button for our July session on our ‘What’s on’ page soon after our June date. Don’t wait to get in touch using our ‘Book a workshop slot’ form to be sure of having your work featured at our July meeting, though!
Another chance to catch Wonder Boy online
If you missed Southwest Scriptwriters alumnus Ross Willis’ hit play Wonder Boy at Bristol Old Vic in March, catch a recording of the livestream of the life-affirming comedy on demand from 23 to 29 May.
The story of Sonny, a 12-year-old living with a stammer, Wonder Boy is a multimedia mix of whip-smart dialogue, physical theatre, live music, signing, and onstage captioning that brings Sonny’s comic-book inner world to life. The livestream footage features multiple camera angles with onscreen captioning so that you don’t miss a moment of the action.
The play’s production run drew a number of five-star press bouquets including a Guardian review that described the show as ‘some kind of wonderful.’
Get an early bird ticket for on-demand access between 23 and 29 May for £15 now using the following link.
The Bruntwood’s back!
Property company Bruntwood and the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester’s biennial opportunity for playwrights aged 16 and above in the UK, Ireland and British Territories is back this year after skipping its scheduled appearance in 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Bruntwood Prize is your chance to win a share of a £40000 prize fund and have your full-length play script developed toward production with the Royal Exchange. The award attracts entries from first-time writers to established playwrights whose submissions are assessed anonymously to ensure that the entrants’ identities don’t influence the outcome — previous winners include Tim X Atack, formerly of this parish. The Prize provides the authors of its top 100 shortlisted scripts with feedback on their work.
It’s a tight deadline now if you’ve got a play to submit this year with its online submission window closing at 6pm on Monday, 6 June.
Another Future at Backwell Playhouse
The Playhouse Theatre Company is presenting Southwest Scriptwriter John Upward’s one-act play Another Future as half of a double-bill at the theatre in Backwell next month.
John’s play, which he gave a runout at our Zoom workshop session last May, combines love story and political drama:
‘Kathy is reassigned from her job as a celebrity journalist to cover a general election when she meets Giles, an environmentalist and candidate. They soon find themselves up against the Machiavellian Torrington Denby. Will their relationship, their integrity and the Earth survive?’
Catch Another Future at Backwell Playhouse, Mariners Drive, Backwell, BS48 3HT, at 7.30pm from Thursday, 16 to Saturday, 18 June.