You’ll need to concentrate for this, our final programme of 2010, because we have several venue changes with meetings back at the Famous Royal Navy Volunteer, 17-18 King Street, Bristol, BS1 4EF, and at Bristol Old Vic with a trip to the Alma Tavern Theatre as well.
Ask at the bar when buying a drink in the Volly for directions to our meetings there, and at the reception desk on the right of the entrance lobby at Bristol Old Vic. You can find a list of the dates, times and locations of all our upcoming meetings on the Diary page of our website and check the date of our next meeting in the panel on the right beneath the slideshow on the site’s home page. Everyone attending meetings pays £1.
Tuesday, 26 October 2010 at 7.30pm in the Famous Royal Navy Volunteer: Solitary Vice by Andy Graham
The Bristol Jam festival of improvised theatre is taking over Bristol Old Vic entirely this week and next, so we’re moving back to the Volly for two Tuesdays.
Tonight it’s the latest draft of Andy’s Victorian medical drama. Set in the 1860s, it looks at the role of sex in medicine (or is it medicine in sex?!) and the birth of the tabloid media. (Solitary Vice is a full-length stage play, so we need to start on time tonight, please.)
Tuesday, 2 November 2010 at 7.30pm in the Famous Royal Navy Volunteer: The Queen and I (Part 2) by Paul Wiggins
The second part of Paul’s continuing TV saga of Bruce and Viv. Bruce is gay, Viv is not, but he does have an old Russian diplomat’s limo, which Bruce needs to transport him and his magic act around.
Their initial reluctance to accept each other’s lifestyle gives way slowly to mutual respect, and the first buds of friendship sprout. But there is a dark secret following one of them leading to a surprising conclusion…
Tuesday, 9 November 2010 at 7.30pm in Meeting Room 1 at Bristol Old Vic: Love Hearts by Joanna Thirlwall
The first part of Jo’s feature-length screenplay in which, unable to cope with her husband’s infidelities any longer, Olivia cuts and runs. A chance encounter at the airport leads her and musician, Ed, to Love Hearts. There she cures his writer’s block and he makes her live again. But when her family needs her, will she go?
Tuesday, 16 November 2010 at 8.30pm at the Alma Tavern Theatre: Rabbit Ears by Bruce Fellows
Tonight we’re supporting the first performance of Rabbit Ears, our second production in association with Theatre West at the Alma Tavern Theatre, 18-20 Alma Vale Road, Clifton, Bristol, BS8 2HY.
Theatre West chose Bruce’s new one-act play from the 20 script submissions it received from the group in July for a two-week run starting this evening:
‘The clock’s ticking; her world might crumble, so Bren needs a good mate to be there for her. Someone she can rely on, someone she can talk to about stuff: anxiety, love, conscience. But if Rosie thinks we’re all just a bunch of chemicals, where do finer feelings come into it? And what about those rabbit ears? Well, a bunny’s not a bunny without them, is she?’
The show continues at 8.30pm nightly from Tuesday to Saturday until 27 November if you can’t make it this evening.
Theatre West autumn season 2010
Rabbit Ears by Bruce Fellows Facebook event page
Tuesday, 23 November at 7.30pm in the Macready Room at Bristol Old Vic: Open Workshop featuring Write Response entries
Your penultimate chance to get feedback on your response to You, Me and Wii by Sue Townsend — you need to workshop your script at a meeting listed here to be eligible to enter (see below for full submission details). Tonight’s meeting includes Write Response scripts by Brian Weaving (in The Zoo, the Government’s new scheme to get people back to work brings it success unexpectedly) and Liz Kalaugher.
Tuesday, 30 November at 7.30pm in the Macready Room at Bristol Old Vic: Museum Pieces launch and last chance for Write Response entries
Tonight we’re launching a new project and entering the closing stages of an ongoing one. Anna Farthing will be at the meeting to launch Museum Pieces, which invites you to write a short monologue or simple dialogue inspired by an exhibit in Bristol’s City Museum and Art Gallery (see below for more information). There’s also time for a few final Write Response submissions — including one by Bruce Fellows.
Tuesday, 7 December from 8pm in the Famous Royal Navy Volunteer: Christmas drinks
Join us for our traditional festive glass or two in the Volly.
The Write Response
Following a lively discussion on You, Me and Wii in September, we’ve already heard a couple of unique takes on the short play at our workshop meetings. Our former Honorary President, Catherine Johnson, has agreed to choose which of your scripts she feels is the best answer to Sue Townsend’s. Here’s how to be in with a chance of winning a £50 Amazon gift certificate in our Write Response contest…
- If you haven’t already, buy or borrow a copy of Women — Power and Politics: Now,
and read You, Me and Wii, which is the final play in the collection.
- Write 1800 words (including character names and directions) of an original script inspired by You, Me and Wii. Your work can be for stage, screen, radio or television and can be either a complete story or part of a longer script. Your piece should not use any of the original material from Townsend’s play (characters, storyline, setting etc) but respond to it with ideas of your own.
- Book a slot for your script to be read at one of our upcoming workshop sessions. You must have had your script read at one of these meetings to be eligible to enter. We have a packed programme this time and will be focusing on Write Response entries on 23 and 30 November.
- The closing date for entries is Tuesday, 14 December. I’ll email everyone who has had a Write Response script read at a workshop meeting with details of how to submit in December.
- Catherine Johnson will read the submissions and decide which of them she feels is the best response to You, Me and Wii. Her decision will be final.
- We’ll present the writer of the winning script with a £50 Amazon gift certificate in the New Year.
Looking forward to hearing your takes on Townsend!
Museum Pieces
Southwest Scriptwriter Anna Farthing is currently Acting Head of Learning with Bristol’s Museums, Galleries and Archives and, in a joint project with the group, invites you to write a ten-minute (1800-word) monologue or simple dialogue inspired by an exhibit in the collection to be performed in the museum alongside your chosen artefact in the spring.
There’s plenty to spark your imagination in the City Museum and Art Gallery, from Alfred the gorilla to the gypsy caravan to what Banksy dubbed the ‘boring old pots’. Find your muse at the museum in Queen’s Road, BS8 1RL, which is open from 10.30am until 5pm daily with late opening until 8pm on Wednesday.
Workshop your short script at a group meeting in the New Year to rewrite in time for the project’s submission deadline at the end of February — full submission details in our next newsletter. Anna will read your scripts and decide which of them will be performed.
Anna will be at the group meeting on 30 November to launch the project and answer your questions.
The Rondo Theatre New Writing Festival 2011
Bath’s Rondo Theatre is inviting writers from across the UK to submit full-length plays of between 75 and 90 minutes with a cast of five or fewer for potential production in its New Writing Festival 2011.
The Rondo will choose one submission for a full staging at the Festival in May next year. All submissions should be original plays and not have been performed or produced previously. To enter, you need to submit your script with an application form and entrance fee of £15 to the Rondo by Monday, 6 December.
Southwest Scriptwriters trio selected for Bath Ustinov Writers’ Forum project
Adrian Harris, Heather Lister and Katherine Mitchell have been selected for a Bath Ustinov Writers’ Forum initiative to create new scripts for performance with student actors from Bath Spa University.
The three Southwest Scriptwriters will work with up to four actors each in a series of workshops to devise and develop the scripts for performance at Bath Spa University Theatre as part of the Bath Spa Live programme on 16 February 2011.
Bath Spa Live
Little Deaths transfers to the Gatehouse
Following its critically acclaimed debut at the Alma Tavern Theatre last month, ScenePool’s production of Steve Lambert’s psychosexual drama, Little Deaths, transfers (in a revised version) to Upstairs at the Gatehouse, Highgate, London from 18 to 20 November.
Please ‘Like’ Southwest Scriptwriters
No, we haven’t got all needy; it’s a Facebook thing!
We’ve started a new Facebook page to keep those of you who use the social networking site up to date on group events and activities, and so that you and others can post relevant news, requests and discussions online. Our page offers a more flexible way of doing this than our current Facebook group, and so we’re migrating from the group to the page.
Unfortunately, there’s no way of transferring everybody who’s joined the group to membership of the page, and so we need you to visit our page and click the ’Like’ button.
Southwest Scriptwriters Facebook page
Hope you’ll ‘Like’ us!