Welcome to our final five meetings of 2012, which are all happening in W1 at Watershed, 1 Canon’s Road, Harbourside, Bristol, BS1 5TX. Don’t forget that you can find a list of upcoming dates on our website’s What’s On page. Ask at Watershed’s box office if you need directions to W1. Everyone attending meetings pays £1.
Tuesday, 23 October at 7.30pm: Exploring exposition
This week we’re looking at how to start your script successfully, introducing plot and characters subtly so that your setup doesn’t get in the way of your story. With some examples to illustrate different techniques, this session will be a group discussion, so come with your ideas about what counts as elegant exposition.
Tuesday, 30 October at 7.30pm: Open Workshop
Tonight’s meeting includes a ten-minute drama by Lissa Carter and a short film script by Jamie Hughes.
Tuesday, 6 November at 7.30pm: Open Workshop
Tuesday, 13 November at 7.30pm: Brass Works Theatre Christmas play
See below for exciting news of the script selected for Brass Works Theatre’s Christmas production. Tonight we’re working on the play’s latest draft to help with polishing the text before rehearsals begin.
Tuesday, 20 November at 7.30pm: Disposable by Craig Malpass
We’re rounding off 2012 with a reading of Craig’s one-act stage play: Martin finds a disposable camera, and decides to get the photos developed to try to find out the camera’s owner. On collecting the prints he’s taken into police custody and forced to prove his innocence as he becomes prime suspect in a kidnapping case.
Baskervilles at Brass Works for Christmas
Following our workshop meetings early this month at which six of you aired ten-minute extracts of your plays adapted from traditional stories and classic literature for potential production as Brass Works Theatre’s festive family show, Adrian Harris — BWT’s Artistic Director and Southwest Scriptwriters committee member — picked Bruce Fellows’ quirky take on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes story The Mystery of the Hound of the Baskervilles for the new venue’s seasonal offering.
The play finds Holmes based not at 221B Baker Street, but in the dressing room at the music hall where she performs as a female impersonator. By day she dons a deerstalker to become Victorian London’s go-to sleuth, and is approached by Lady Henrietta Baskerville to look into some curious canine occurrences at Baskerville Hall. Holmes investigates assisted by her trusty sidekick, Dr John H Watson, who is as baffled by his illustrious colleague’s cross-dressing as by the mysterious hound.
Bruce is developing his play to a very tight deadline with the Brass Works Theatre team. This dramaturgical process takes in our meeting on 13 November when you have the chance to feedback on the draft script.
The Mystery of the Hound of the Baskervilles previews at Brass Works Theatre (above Kingswood Heritage Museum) in Tower Lane, Warmley, BS30 8XT, on Monday, 17 December, and premieres the following evening with performances at 7.30pm with a 2pm Saturday matinee until Saturday, 22 December. The run continues from Thursday, 27 until Saturday, 29 December, and concludes in the New Year with performances from Wednesday, 2 until Saturday, 5 January 2013.
Southwest Scriptwriters on air and stage
Looted by Southwest Scriptwriters’ former Honorary President Lucy Catherine kicked off BBC Radio 4 Extra’s The Gothic Imagination season last Saturday, 20 October. In Lucy’s 30-minute drama set during last year’s London riots, three friends become transfixed by the lights of an apparently deserted department store.
Group members feature in the ‘Short Trip’ 10-minute companion pieces preceding the hour-long plays in Theatre West’s A to Z autumn season now running at the Alma Tavern Theatre. Lissa Carter’s brief drama Allotment took the stage as a preseason rehearsed reading last month — you can hear Lissa’s play at our meeting on 30 October — while Park and Ride by Crysse Morrison was last week’s Short Trip. Lissa is performing in Hummus by Mark Shand, which opens the evening’s entertainment at the Alma this Tuesday, 23 to Saturday, 27 October, and the season concludes with Katriel Costello’s Myfanwy as the preshow short from 4 to 8 December.
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