Welcome to our 2002/2003 season. From now on, meetings will normally take place in the Macready Room at the Bristol Old Vic as the Cooper’s Loft is no longer available. Ask at the bar on the first floor for directions. Everyone attending pays £1.
Tuesday, 10 September at 7.30pm: Ever Shall Be by Daniel Cull
A reading of Dan’s intriguing screenplay for a children’s fantasy adventure about a world hidden between the cracks of time…
Tuesday, 17 September at 7.30pm: Open Workshop
Tuesday, 24 September at 7.30pm: The Red Peacock by Heather Lister
A reading of Heather’s one-act play about Kate Redland who visits her husband in Nairobi and tries to find her feet in an evangelical Christian organisation. The group is scornful of the local beliefs in a terrifying Red Peacock, but is their belief in a vengeful God any less superstitious? And Kate’s husband is under a curse, leading her to wonder how far the future can be predicted or manipulated…
Tuesday, 1 October at 7.30pm: Open Workshop
Tuesday, 8 October at 7.30pm: Open Workshop
Tuesday, 15 October at 7.30pm: Open Workshop
Mike’s off to Oz
Our President, Mike Bullen, is off to Australia for a year, but has agreed to stay on as President until he knows for sure whether he’s going to have to change his name to Bruce Bullen, or return to England and stay as Mike. We wish him well Down Under. His final series of Cold Feet will go out in the New Year and will consist of 4 x 90 minute episodes.
Mark’s Doctors debut
Congratulations to Mark Breckon whose first episode for Doctors will be screened on BBC1 on Monday, 16 September at 2.05pm. We’re losing count of how many episodes Ray Brooking has written for the series, but he’s got three screenings coming up on Monday, 9 September, Friday, 27 September and Tuesday, 5 November. Don’t miss any of them!
Andy leads Bath Screenwriting course
Andy Graham, the group’s Chair, is running a Film and TV Scriptwriting course at Bath University for ten weeks from 9 October. The sessions are from 7.15pm to 9.15pm on Wednesday nights at Carpenter House in the centre of Bath. The cost is £68 (£34 concs). Here’s what the brochure says: ‘With the coming of satellite and now digital television, the market for creative drama has exploded over the last few years. This course intends to give you the basic tools necessary to take advantage of this demand. Looking at plot and character development, writing dialogue and using images, it will provide an overview of the scriptwriting process from first draft to final screening. It’s a practical course so bring a pen and lots of paper. Andrew Graham is an award-winning screenwriter and playwright and has taught many film and TV writing courses. His film Reflex Action was shown on Channel 4, he’s won a Radio Times Drama Award and had work developed by BBC Scotland, as well as script-editing many projects for other writers.’
Toby’s Tobacco Factory workshops
Toby Farrow, whose play Gringos was given its first airing at a meeting of Southwest Scriptwriters — and which was subsequently produced in the New Vic — is leading a course of eight workshops on playwriting at the Tobacco Factory this autumn. Most recently, Toby has been the Bristol Old Vic’s Playwright-in-Residence, in which capacity he co-produced this year’s acclaimed BOV Basement season of new short plays. He has also worked on the National Theatre’s ‘Bake-off’ project, and is currently under commission to the Bush Theatre. The practical course, which is structured around the teachings of New York dramaturg Paula Vogel, will examine narrative structure and form, subtext, characterisation, action, language and back-story. It starts on Sunday, 29 September, from 6.30pm to 8.30pm and runs for eight weeks.
Anna teaches Bristol University day school
And last, but by no means least, the University of Bristol’s Short Courses in Drama and Film include a day school by our own Anna Farthing.