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SCRIPT
NEWS - April 2010
Please
visit the Script
blog and Facebook
page for regular updates on news and opportunities
for writers and theatre practitioners in the West
Midlands. The comments features also allows you
to feedback on events and activities, creating
a greater sense of community amongst the region's
writers.
The
latest blog entry sees Rogue Play Theatre's announcement
of a new
course for young writers.
Please
note, the Script office will be closed from Friday
afternoon 9th April until Wednesday 21st April.
Any enquiries or bookings will be dealt with on
the 21st.
SCRIPT
READING SERVICE - £35*
We have
had an excellent response to our price drop last
month, with writers taking the opportunity to
have their plays critiqued by a professional playwright.
Promising writers identified through the script
reading service will be recommended to theatre
production companies such as the Birmingham Rep,
Pentabus, and Theatre 503, and may be selected
for future development schemes at Script.
For further details on how to submit, please visit
our resource page
*Up
to 120 pages. For longer scripts, see website
for details.
COMING
UP AT SCRIPT...
SCRIPTING
FUTURES
The
final three workshops in this series will be held
in the next few weeks with sessions on Sci Fi
and Fantasy, Animation and Crime and Detective
Thriller. The programme is funded by Screen WM
and delivered in partnership with Red Room Films,
Animation Forum West Midlands and Hello Digital.
Workshops
are £50 each.
See
www.scriptonline.net/screen.html
for further details
Sci-Fi
and Fantasy
Saturday
10th April 2010
BVSC,
Digbeth (10am-5pm)
Eight
of the top ten grossing movies of all time are
from the science fiction or fantasy genres.
Science fiction transports audiences to worlds
light years away, to alternate realities, fantastic
technologies and new social orders. Fantasy opens
the door to new possibilities, transforms science
with myth and magic and re-examines the spiritual.
But how can screenwriters take the world and twist
it so convincingly that audiences come back to
escape again and again? This 1 day course
will examine the conventions that define the science
fiction and fantasy genres and look at some of
the ways that filmmakers are breaking the ‘rules'
and splicing genres together to create new and
original stories. By the end of the course you
should have acquired a deeper knowledge of the
science fiction and fantasy genres along with
specific tips and techniques to progress your
own scripts and ideas.
Crime
and Detective Thriller
Saturday
24th April 2010
BVSC,
Digbeth (10am-5pm)
Crime
is a massively popular and commercially successful
genre – and our fascination with it has deep cultural
and psychological roots. Crime stories play on
our fears, allow us into the dark places of the
criminal mind – and permit us to test ourselves
against those that hunt and investigate. But within
‘Crime' there are several subgenres each with
their own set of principles and conventions. This
one day ‘Crime Thrillers' course will look particularly
at those stories that combine Detective or criminal
protagonists with the action and suspense of the
thriller, assess how these films are structured
– and look at some of the ways that writers are
moving the crime thriller genre on. By the end
of the course you should have acquired a deeper
knowledge of crime and detective stories, along
with specific tips and techniques to further your
own thriller scripts and ideas.
ANIM@TE
- Scripwriting for Animation (led by Professor
Paul Wells)
1-day
workshops on devising and developing scripts for
animated films. Delivered in partnership with
Hello Digital and Animation Forum WM
Devising
Animated Narratives
Wednesday
14 th April 2010, 10am-5pm
The
Bond, Fazeley Street
Using
a range of devising exercises and development
strategies this workshop will seek to create the
conditions for the preparation of structuring
and pre-visualising an animated narrative.
Opportunities
and Competitions:
STAGE...
Everyone
Has the Right
A free
script submission service - playwrights will receive
written feedback about work that makes human rights
issues real and relevant to people's lives.
We are keen to encourage scripts that take a fresh
and dynamic approach to interrogating these issues,
creating surprising and entertaining theatre.
The best new plays will receive further development
and readings with the aim of taking the most exciting
work in to full production.
For
more information about submitting a play, please
visit the website
or contact us on 020 7377 5299 or email everyonehastheright@iceandfire.co.uk
Robert
Louis Stevenson Fellowship 2010 (Scottish Arts
Council)
Offers
writers the opportunity to spend six weeks self
catering in France. For more information, visit
Playwrights
Studio Scotland Website.
Deadline:
9th April
Appointment
of Women Writers in Residence.
The
Hosking Houses Trust has given reality to Virginia
Woolf's dream of A Room of One's Own. They have
been in operation since 2001, and have hosted
twelve writers/ artists in a tiny cottage they
now own. They are now advertising for the next
appointees and are looking for a woman writer
over the age of 40 writing in English, with rights
to be in the UK and a contract for publication,
broadcast or production.
Closing
Date: April 12.
For
more information, visit The
Hosking Houses Trust.
Royal
Court: Unheard Voices: Young Muslim Playwrights:
The
Royal Court is running an 11 week playwriting
group starting in May 2010 and is currently looking
for submissions to join the group.
Deadline:
16th April. For more information please see
The
Royal Court Theatre
Avatars - Live!
Adventures
in interactive art and drama at The Public
Could
you write a piece of performance using digital
artworks at The Public art gallery in West Bromwich?
Blossom Theatre Co are looking for short plays
of 15 minutes max, with a cast of 4 or less, that
use interactive artworks as inspiration and as
a performance space. Four pieces will be selected
as a promenade script in hand performance at The
Public on May 2nd. A small fee of £50 will
be provided for each winning entry. The interactive
artworks at The Public are a permanent exhibition
that you create by interacting with flying avatars,
winding paths, digital waterfalls and sound tunnels,
amongst others. See the website to find
out more.
Entry
requirements:
- You should live, work or study in the West
Midlands and be prepared to attend rehearsal
and performance on 1&" May
- Approximately 4 pieces will be performed
- Max 4 characters
- Max 15 minutes
- Please make sure it's in standard Word format
and double-spaced
- Visit the gallery and choose one of the digi-artworks
as your site-specific basis
Deadline:
17th April 2010
Further
details:info@blossomtheatreco.com
Bare
Bones Night
Bare
Bones is a regular event at the Old Red Lion Theatre
in London. The night consists of four new
short plays submitted by exciting playwrights
of the moment, which are chosen and directed by
emerging directors and using professional actors.
The concept for the night is that only the bare
minimum stage devices are used - so only the absolute
necessary props, costumes, set, lights. The focus
is therefore very much on the quality of the writing
and performance.
For
further details and submission guidelines, visit
the website
Submission
date: 17th April at 5pm
Next
Bare Bones Night: Monday 21st June
Street
Voices 3 - Stories by a New Generation of Writers
Street
Voices 3 is a playwriting course for committed,
emerging writers, particularly from first and
second generation born Black, Asian and minority
ethnic backgrounds aged 17 and over from Yorkshire.
Freedom
Studios is an Arts Council regularly funded organisation,
and represents a new wave of theatre company dedicated
to investing in new writing, touring work nationally
and collaborating internationally. Freedom Studios
intends to commission a writer from Street Voices
for its next national touring production - it
could be you!
Street
Voices 3 will take place over five weekend workshops
between May-September 2010 to develop and support
emerging writers in the realisation of original
twenty-minute short plays. There will be one-to-one
mentoring sessions, feedback on work in progress
and creative communication and exchanges.
Eight
of the short plays will be performed by an ensemble
of actors to the public and invited theatre writers,
performers, directors and producers in October
2010.
Read
the full details here
To request
an application form, email hello@freedomstudios.co.uk,
stating your full name and email address. If you
have any questions, send an email or phone 01274
730077.
Closing
Date: Friday 23rd April 2010
Ten
Minute Play Competition 2010
Sussex
Playwrights' Celebrate 75 Years of Creativity
in 2010 with a new One Act Play Competition.
Prize: Up to eight scripts will be selected for
production in the NVT studio between July 2010
and 17 2010. Plays should last no longer
than 10 minutes. Plays should feature no
more than 3 characters. Judge's announcement
will be announced in early June 2010, and winners
will be notified by post or email.
Closing
date: 23 April 2010.
Visit
www.newventure.org.uk
for more information
HighTide
- Call for Submissions
HighTide
is open for play submissions for HighTide Festival
2011. You can submit online via the HighTide
website. We are looking to fully produce and
premiere new works by emerging playwrights. We
welcome international scripts, written in English.
We remain excited by strong stories, political
and ambitious narratives, and clear and well-shaped
characters. Beyond that, we are open to anything,
and look forward to continuing our tradition of
producing the work of writers from around the
globe. Plays can also be sent to the address below,
but online submissions are preferable. Scripts
will not be returned.
Deadline:
15th May
2010
Please
send all printed submissions to: High Tide, 24a
St John Street, London, EC1M 4AY
SCREEN...
Birmingham
Film Producer - call for writers
Media
Art is an independent film and TV production
company based in Birmingham. We are currently
planning for new film productions and are looking
for stories which could be adapted for low budget
films, feature and TV drama. We would like to
hear from professional writers with fresh ideas
and stories, particularly stories with social
themes such as diversity and immigration. This
does not exclude other genres if they could meet
the criteria for a low budget production. We would
like to invite writers to submit their story,
script or idea to: script@mediaart.co.uk
The
Page International Screenwriting Awards
Entries
to the 2010 PAGE International Screenwriting Awards
are currently being invited.
This
years Grand Prize is $25,000 but perhaps more
significantly, the winning scripts stand a good
chance of being read by some pretty influential
producers, agents, and development execs in the
US.
Final
deadline for submissions is April 1st.
See
www.pageawards.com
for details.
Writers
Factory: Intro to Screenwriting- Express 17-18th
April & 1-2 May 2010
Edinburgh
Skillset Screen and Media Academy. Location: Screen
Academy Scotland Production Centre. Cost £195.
If you've
got a head full of ideas but are pushed for time,
this course is for you. It's an express version
of the Introduction to Screenwriting course and
runs over tow non-consecutive weekends. Over the
two weekends, you'll develop a premise and outline
for a five to ten minute screenplay. For more
information or to book your place, please visit
April
17 & 18 and 1st & 2nd May - Writers Factory: Intro
to Screenwriting - Express! | Edinburgh Skillset
Screen and Media Academy Hub
Muslim Writers Awards
For
the fourth year running the Muslim Writers Awards
is calling out for creative, interesting and exciting
submissions from writers across the country. All
entrants must be Muslim and work should eb submitted
in the English language. Submissions do not need
to be centred on the topics of Islam or Muslim
identity, however this is equally welcome. The
screenplay category accepts short films (10-20
pages), feature length scripts (over 60 pages)
and TV episodes (30 pages)
Deadline:
14th May 2010
Further
information: Visit the website
RADIO...
News:
The Friday Play to be axed from BBC Radio 4: Join
the debate. See The Guardian Blog on Radio and
TV for more coverage:Television,
radio and TV coverage | Television & radio | guardian.co.uk
EVENTS...
Tale
of the Country - Pentabus on Tour
8
April-16th May
By Brian
Viner, adapted by Nick Warburton
The
award-winning Pentabus Theatre tell the story
of Brian Viner and his family as they move from
a terrace house in north London to a rambling
grange in rural Herefordshire. Inspired by his
popular weekly dispatches from the country in
The Independent and based on the successful
book of the same name, Tales of the Country
is a heart-warming chronicle of the pleasures
and pitfalls that await a family from the city
chasing a rural idyll.
Visit
Pentabus Theatre's website
for full tour details
RoguePlay
Theatre Presents:
Young
Creative Writers
20th
April onwards
Are
you aged between 15-25 and would have to be surgically
removed from your bic? Then we are looking for
you! We, here at RoguePlay, have a few spaces
left on a brand new writing course starting on
the 20th April 2010.
Each
Tuesday from 6pm-9pm, the sessions will take places
in the inspiring and creative centre that is The
Custard Factory, with RoguePlay Theatre's Artistic
Director Kim Charnock leading each session. During
the ten weeks you will be exploring many different
ways of approaching writing with the focus on
practical exercises. There will be a performance
of your work at the end of the ten weeks in a
professional space.
Course
costs: £120
Booking
information: Contact Collette Mason on
info@rogueplay.co.uk
Sherman
Cymru: Script Slam 28th April, Chapter Arts Centre
Cardiff.
Showcasing
the best new writing received by Sherman. For
more information see ScriptSlam
: Sherman Cymru
Getting it Good, Getting it Right: An
evening with Bryony Lavery and David Edgar.
Thursday
29th April, 7-9pm
Derby
Theatre Studio.
From
their different personal perspectives, these two
accomplished playwrights will talk about how their
writing approach and discuss David Edgar's new
publication How plays work and Bryony
Lavery's latest collaboration with Frantic Assembly
Theatre Co.
Swan
Playwrights present:
2010
A Race Odyssey
29
April-1st May 2010, Rose Theatre, Kidderminster
Swan
Playwrights have been inspired by the forthcoming
Olympic Games in London 2012 to write one-act
plays based on this fabulous event.
Olympic
Diamond by Chris Owen
From
working-class hero to drug-induced down and out.
Can Jim Diamond, ex-Olympic champion and darling
of the tabloids give up his glamorous lifestyle
and get back on track?
Building
Bridges by Liz Parkes
In an
attempt to reconcile the differences between the
warring workers at the stadium building site,
Julie discovers an exciting way of making money
- and finds more than she bargained for!
Tickets:
£7 (Thurs), £7.50 (Fri, Sat)
Box
Office: 01562 743745
DO
YOU HAVE SOME NEWS YOU'D LIKE TO SHARE WITH THE
SCRIPT MEMBERSHIP? If so, then e-mail
info@scriptonline.net by the end of the month
and it will go into the following month's Newsletter.
Script
asks you to note: These listings are drawn from
varying sources, all current at time of publishing.
Script
endeavours to investigate and validate all information
and opportunities listed here. We advise you to
make contact with companies before submitting
scripts.
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