We start our autumn season with a big welcome to our new Honorary President, Michael Jenner. Full details below. All the meetings below take place in the Macready Room at the Bristol Old Vic. Ask at the bar on the first floor for directions. £1 entrance fee.

Tuesday, 16 September at 7.30pm: Open Workshop

Tuesday, 23 September at 8.00pm: Open Workshop

Tuesday, 30 September at 7.30pm: Manic Defence by Andy Graham
Everyone knows that writing is a tough business. But when two successful crime writers take against each other, it becomes literally murder… Andy’s re-worked Manic Defence is a dark psychological thriller with more twists than an alligator’s wedding tackle.

Tuesday, 14 October at 7.30pm: Shipwreck by DJ Desmedt
A reading of DJ’s play about Michel who leaves Paris to find solace in his remote country house, a lighthouse in Brittany, after a row with his wife. But the situation changes when a runaway teenager, Phil, shows up, followed later by Michel’s wife and his brother Marc. Through his lies, his spontaneity and his dire situation, the teenager forces all three of them to confront their problems and deal with their own tragic past.

Tuesday, 21 October at 8.00pm: Meet David Prescott
David Prescott is Artistic Associate at the Theatre Royal and Drum Theatre, Plymouth, where he assesses and develops scripts, commissions writers, and develops relationships with cutting edge, physical, visual and new writing companies for programming in the Drum. David will answer your questions about the sometimes circuitous and baffling way new plays get selected for production.

 

Michael takes over from Mike
We’re delighted to announce that Michael Jenner has agreed to become our new Honorary President, following the resignation of Mike Bullen. Mike has now moved to Australia, and we send him our best wishes and very many thanks for being such a good friend of the group during his time in Bristol.

Michael Jenner is currently the Southwest Representative of the Writers’ Guild and many of you will remember the fascinating and insightful talk he gave to the group last February. Michael’s first television credit was for The Bill, and to date he’s written over 20 episodes for the series. He’s also written for numerous other popular series, including Soldier Soldier, Heartbeat, Dangerfield, Peak Practice, Holby City, Dalziel & Pascoe, and Taggart. Amongst other projects, he’s currently working on an Australian-based series Bolter Boys. Michael clearly has a fantastic wealth of experience and we’re honoured to welcome him to the group.

 

New Writing Festival 2003 a success
Our season of new writing at the Tobacco Factory in July was a resounding success and our net box office receipts almost exactly covered the cost of hiring the venue. Thanks to the efforts of Andy, we also achieved excellent press coverage, both before the event and in terms of reviews. The financial success of the Festival means that our reserves weren’t depleted as much as we’d feared, and although we don’t yet have enough to cover the full cost of a Festival next year, we do at least have the funds to have another competition judged, so that is what we’re going to do. The closing date will be 27 January 2004. In the meantime, we’ll be seeking funding and/or sponsorship to enable us to present script-in-hand performances of the winning entries at another Festival next July.

 

Five premieres at the Alma
Theatre West launches its autumn season of five new plays at the Alma Taven on 23 September running through to 29 November. All the plays are winners of the company’s Search for a Script earlier this year. It promises to be a really entertaining and innovative season, so please support it.

Theatre West — 2003