Newsletter, October 1997

Welcome back to our new season! All meetings take place in the Cooper’s Loft at the Theatre Royal, King Street, Bristol 1. Ask at the bar on the first floor for directions. Everyone attending pays £1.

Tuesday, 28 October at 7.30pm: Open Workshop

Tuesday, 4 November at 7.30pm: Hurry Down Doomsday by Tim Massey
A reading of Tim’s new play, a satirical sex comedy, which marries an updated version of Chaucer’s Miller’s Tale with the prophecies of Nostradamus.

Tuesday, 11 November at 7.30pm: Character Creation and Development
A talk by Southwest Scriptwriters’ chair, Andy Graham on the creation and development of character.

Tuesday, 18 November at 7.30pm: Gringo Blues — a Loser’s Odyssey by Toby Farrow
A reading of Toby’s black comedy. Three clueless travellers and their dysfunctional tour guide tackle crocodiles, coke and strip joints in a South American trip to hell and back.

Tuesday, 25 November at 7.30pm: Open Workshop

Tuesday, 2 December at 7.30pm: Open Workshop

Tuesday, 9 December at 7.30pm: Christmas Drinks in Renato’s, King Street, Bristol 1
At which we tell each other how brilliant we all are.

Toby stars in White Liars
Theatre West’s forthcoming season of productions at the Alma Tavern, Alma Vale Road, Clifton, has White Liars by Peter Shaffer as its second show, starring our very own Toby Farrow — whose play Gringo Blues — a Loser’s Odyssey you can hear at our meeting on 18 November.

Theatre West seeks new plays by Bristol-based writers
Theatre West is also offering two awards of £750 each for new plays of 55 to 75 minutes by writers from the Bristol area. The plays should have minimal sets and a maximum of four characters.

Treatments for Radio 4
Bill Dare, Script Executive, BBC Entertainment is looking for treatments for a light drama or non-audience comedy series (not a serial) for a new 30-minute slot at 11.30am on Radio 4. The listenership at this time is older with a strong female bias.

Don’t Feed the Pigeons at the Hope Centre
Congratulations to Lori Hill for the successful production of her play Don’t Feed the Pigeons at the Hope Centre earlier this month. Congratulations also to Felicity Marris who starred in it.

Hampstead accepts Terms of Abuse
Jessica Townsend’s play Terms of Abuse, which was given its first reading at a Southwest Scriptwriters meeting, has now been extensively re-written and accepted for production by the Hampstead Theatre in London. It will probably be performed in the second half of January — for which it may be re-titled Bad Mouth. The play is about a rough West Country woman who is caught up in a Fred West type trial and sells her story to the tabloids — but finds that the consequences are not quite the bonanza she expected. We’re thinking of organising a minibus trip to go and see it.

Catherine’s Band of Gold on in December
Catherine Johnson’s Band of Gold story will now almost certainly be screened in early December — sorry we don’t have the exact dates. The two-parter is episodes 5 and 6 of the new series which starts in November — so look out for it!

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