The closing date for our competition has been extended by more than a month. See below for details. All the following meetings 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, 29 October at 7.30pm: The Unruly Lady by Keith Melton
A reading of Keith’s tragi-comic stage play about the scrapes and trials of Katy the Baglady and her homeless fellow travellers. We look back to her days as a young traveller and see her wildest dreams.

Tuesday, 5 November at 7.30pm: Open Workshop

Tuesday, 12 November at 7.30pm: Antihappy by Daniel Cull
For Jamie, there are two kinds of pain in Dan’s latest screenplay: the brain-sapping, tedious and yet fun kind, and the real, intangible and soul-destroying sort. The first inspires Jamie to start a support group, but the second puts all his hopes and dreams in jeopardy. Talking animals and the un-dead don’t help. Everything would be ok if only the buses would run on time — but then again, perhaps being miserable isn’t as easy as it seems.

Tuesday, 19 November at 7.30pm: Open Workshop

Tuesday, 26 November at 7.30pm: The Sea and the Horizon by Nicholas Kessler
New member Nicholas Kessler’s stage play investigates the lies people tell each other to preserve friendship, told through the eyes of three old school friends — an artist, a high-flyer and a dizzy girl — plus an outsider…

Tuesday, 3 December at 7.30pm: Open Workshop

 

Competition closing date extension
We’ve heard that we won’t be able to book a week at the Tobacco Factory until June next year, so have decided to extend the closing date for our competition until the second Tuesday in January — the 14th. We then hope to announce the winners early in April. So now you’ve got the whole of the Christmas break to polish your script, there’s no excuse for not entering! This year, the competition will be administered by John Colborn who, of course, will not be entering.

 

Second Doctors showing
If you missed all the recent episodes of Doctors by either Mark Breckon or Ray Brooking, there’s another chance to see one by Ray on either 5 or 6 November, BBC1, 2.05pm — sorry we can’t be more precise, but it seems there’s a little confusion over the scheduling.

 

Nick in Knight of the Burning Pestle
Nicholas Kessler, whose play The Sea and the Horizon we’ll be reading at our meeting on 26 November, is performing in the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School production of The Knight of the Burning Pestle in the New Vic Studio from 13 to 23 November. The play was written by Beaumont and Fletcher who were the Monty Pythons of Jacobean Theatre, so it promises to be an evening of great fun and hilarity. Don’t miss it!

 

Toby’s Playwriting course postponed
Toby Farrow’s course on Playwriting which we publicised in our last newsletter, has been postponed until January because Toby unexpectedly got a short-term contract with Aardman.

 

Speakers’ Club seeks members
Bristol Speakers’ Club has asked us to put out an invitation for new members to join them. They are a friendly group which meets between September and April to practise and participate in both prepared and impromptu speaking situations. Guidance and support is provided, and everyone receives helpful feedback. So if you find the thought of having to speak in public daunting, they may be able to help you. They meet on Monday evenings at BAWA Healthcare and Leisure Centre Southmead Road, Filton.

 

Have your script made into a short film!
The First Barnet Screenwriting Competition is inviting entries of original scripts for short films. The winning script may be made into a short film by Finchley Cinevideo Society and screened at the Phoenix Cinema. All short listed candidates will be invited to a scriptwriting workshop. The entry fee per submission is £5 and the closing date is 30 November 2002.