Correction to News and Events

14 July 2010

The following piece should have been included in the lineup for this Sunday's final MAD evening. It's a fantastic piece - how could I miss it?

The Road Taken by Steven Kitson
directed by John Parry
Performed by Debbie Gallagher and Matt Brown

Even within marriages there are secrets. But do we hide the seeds of our fate because we want to, or because we must?

News and Events
14 July 2010

Last Night of MAD 2010

This is your last chance to catch a performance of WRiTEON's Monologues and Duologues Festival for 2010.With seven new short and shorter plays we've got everything from comedy to darkest drama on offer. Three out of four of our shows this season have been total sellouts in the new venue of the ADC Bar (we were trumped by the World Cup Final last week but expect to come back strong this Sunday) and the feedback has been lively, sometimes heated, and always valuable for the writers present. Don't be disappointed - book now!

Programme - Sunday 18 July

Two for One by Keith Large
Directed by Simon Kelly
with Pam Jenner and Leon Coleman

Alan Simpson’s obsession with finding ways to save money are driving his long-suffering wife Cecilia crazy…until he gets some vouchers to her favourite Italian restaurant. But like all Alan’s do-it-on-the-cheap schemes there’s a catch, when two for one becomes three for two.

Duty Calls by Julia Bolden
Directed by Jo Smythe
with  Mavis Perkins and Robert Jezek

A son dutifully makes his weekly phone call to his elderly mother but she doesn’t really let him speak. This piece is written in rhyme as a pantoum, a form of poetry with a set pattern of repeated lines which lends itself well to a garrulous character.

UnCommon Ground by Jan Watts
directed by Jean Rees
with Francesca Brown and  Juliette Burton

‘When I was at Greenham Common?’ ‘What’s Greenham Common, Mum?’ This is the resulting play. The Past meets the Present.

Game for Lunch by JM Golder
directed by Michelle Golder
with Sarah Ingram

Diana’s having David for lunch.

A Chapter of Accidents by Will Tate
directed by Michelle Golder
with  Robert Jezek

"You never know when an accident will come a-sneaking up on you. Especially on a farm, cos farms is mighty dangerous places."

Cat Flaps & Other Exits by Sarah Baylis
directed by Trish Rawson
with  Julia Bolden

These days, Maggie spends a lot of time browsing through catalogues, musing about the past  and her less than happy marriage to Gordon. She also has his eight cats to look after...

WRiTEON's MAD Festival Week 5
Sunday, 18 July 2010
7 - 9.30 pm
ADC Bar
Tickets £5/£4
Book free online: www.adctheatre.com
Box Office: 01223 300085

Writing Opportunities

LOST Theatre Company's 5 Minute Festival

We live in an age when no-one has time.  Average viewers spend 3 and 7 minutes on an internet video.  Advertisers get whole stories into 30 seconds. Reduced Shakespeare squeezed the bard’s works into 70 minutes.  Hamlet thought brevity the soul of wit, the Japanese that haiku was the highest form of art.  Can you join the masters and create a piece of theatre - comical, tragical, dialogue-based, musical, physical - to bewitch an audience and make five minutes memorable?  It’s the ultimate challenge, and if you dare try there’s a world of possibilities. 

The LOST 5 Minute Festival accepts applications of fully cast and crewed five minute plays. They provide performance venue in London at the LOST Theatre (180 seats) and time for one technical/dress rehearsal. There is a fee of £10 payable upon acceptance. All plays performed receive a detailed critique from an expert professional panel.

Deadline for application: Monday 2nd August 2010
Performance Dates: 15-18 September 2010
Click HERE for the full details and conditions of entry.

Writers Wanted, Made From Scratch Theatre Company

Made From Scratch need you! We are looking for brand new sketch material for our upcoming show Last Night. We're creating a brand new show for university students that will tour this year's freshers week. Last Night is a sketch based show aimed at students that takes place within a student union bar. If you would like to submit a piece to be included in this project the criteria are as follows -

Although Last Night is primarily a comedy show we are looking for elements of pathos and depth within the writing. We see it as a blend of sketch show and theatre. We want a real variety of situations and characters so let your imagination run wild!

Deadline August 6th 2010
Send submissions to: Euan Borland: mfsneedsyou@gmail.com with the heading "Last Night" on your emails. 

The London Theatre Writing Award

Run by the London Playwrights’ Collective for London Fringe and open to all writers, this Award gives a platform to the most promising piece of new writing or devised work to have arisen from a writer/s or theatre group. Be part of history whether you live, work in or visit this major art capital of the world by applying to win the first ever edition of this fantastic award, shortlisted by a panel of theatre practitioners with final selection by invited judges (names TBC).

The top entries will get their work showcased in a rehearsed reading to an invited audience of industry professionals in a central London venue (produced in collaboration with ScenePool) and the winner given a trophy as recognition at a ceremony for all the London Awards on the evening of August 26 at the Wardorf Hilton Hotel, Aldwych.

Conditions of Entry:

Deadline:25 July 2010
Entry at the theatre writing award’s page. Click HERE.

The 35th International Student Playscript Competition (2010)

The International Student Playscript Competition (ISPC) has been celebrating and promoting new writing in the theatre by students since 1976. It is an exciting opportunity spanning the globe. The winner receives a cash prize - currently £1,000 - and a highly rated, rehearsed reading at the National Student Drama Festival. The free-to-enter ISPC is unique in several respects, being genuinely worldwide, having no restrictions on form, content, length, number of characters or locations and - above all - giving every entry a helpful, encouraging but honest appraisal. There is no limit to how many scripts any student can enter. .
Patron: Sir Alan Ayckbourn CBE

Deadline: 30 November 2010
For more information, or details of how to become further involved in the competition, please visit the website.

The Script Factory Development Scheme

Would you be interested in getting a year-long support programme for you and your screenplay? Add in a £1,000 Bursary? How about a guaranteed meeting with BBC FILMS at the end of the year? Oh - and would you like to have a private lunch with screenwriter Peter Morgan along the way? Yes? Then our upcoming Development Scheme may well be just what you're looking for. Launched as part of Serious Screenwriting at BAFTA earlier this month, the Development Scheme  is designed to show just how seriously we are committed to your screenwriting career - and while you can enter to take part the scheme for free if you attended Serious Screenwriting there is also the chance to enter even if you didn't.

Application deadline: 31 August - click HERE for more information and to apply.

Playwright Required, The BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology, London

Playwright wanted to work on a collaborative project with The Bridge Theatre Company at the BRIT School to create a new piece of work to be toured to the Edinburgh Fringe in 2011.  The company comprises 12 actors aged 18-19, all of whom have studied Theatre or Musical Theatre at the BRIT School at Post 16.  The successful candidate will need to be available to work with the company and their director from September for workshops and development, with a view to delivering the script by the beginning of January 2011.  Payment will be a fee of £3250, offered in two instalments. Prior to taking up the post, an enhanced CRB check will be required.

Please apply with a CV, and covering letter outlining your interest and suitability for this position.  Please include an extract from any of your plays with your application. Applications should be sent to Imogen Brodie, Director of Theatre at ibrodie@brit.croydon.sch.uk or The BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology, 60 The Crescent, Croydon, CR0 2HN

Closes Wednesday 21 July 2010
Interviews: Tuesday 27th July
Contact: Imogen Brodie: ibrodie@brit.croydon.sch.uk
www.brit.croydon.sch.uk

Whiting Award

The Whiting Award, presented by Nottingham Playhouse in association with The Theatre Writing Partnership, is now officially open for  submissions. Awarded annually to the new play which best demonstrates an original and distinctive development in dramatic writing, The Whiting Award - now supported by the Peter Wolff Trust - has been instrumental in the development of the careers of some of our best known and well respected British dramatists in the last forty-five years.

To be eligible for this year’s award plays must be:

Scripts which fulfill these criteria can be sent as three unbound copies on double sided A4 paper each with a completed cover sheet to: The Peter Wolff Theatre Trust supports the Whiting Award, Nottingham Playhouse, Wellington Circus, Nottingham, NG1 5AL. It is important to note that e-mailed scripts will not be accepted and please ensure that each play is only submitted by once; be that by the writer, the agent or the producing theatre. The award’s prize value is £6,000.

Deadline for submissions: 20 August 2010.
For more information click HERE.

Submit for The First 20 Minutes
 
Are you a new writer? Do have a play script you would like to test out in front of a supportive audience that will give honest feedback? The First 20 Minutes gives new writers a chance to do just that.
 
Every two months new writers can show their work in progress in a fringe venue in central London. Writer's Avenue will choose three contrasting plays. The first twenty minutes of each play will be performed in front of an audience that will give written feedback which will be given to the writer. The plays with positive feedback will go on to have a rehearsed reading.
 
In 2011 we will select up to six writers from the 2010 series of The First 20 Minutes to compete for the chance to have their full length play produced at a London fringe venue. This will be another chance for the writer to receive feedback from the audience and gain industry exposure.
 
For more information including submission guidelines click HERE  or write to info@writersavenue.co.uk.

Acting Opportunities

Voiceover Artist, Peverel

We are looking for an experienced voiceover artist to record a script for 3 short one minute videos. Ideally a female voice between the ages of 35-50. But all applications are welcome. We will offer £50 for 1 hours work recording in a sound booth in London. Please send a link or attachment with a sample of some of your voice work to Sledge Selvan: sledgeforce@gmail.com

Closes Thursday 15 July 2010
Paid

Actor/ Actress, Metaplay

Wanted: multi-cultural cast of 2 women and 1 man able to devise a range of ages/characters.  Actual ages between 18 - 24;  must have experience devising. Experience with physical theatre and forum theatre desirable. We will be creating 3 x 10min performances to show at Islington SEN, primary and secondary schools between 13th and 24th September (not Sat/Sun). Two performances per day in Islington schools. Actors must be available for ALL dates.

Auditions: Tuesday, 20th July, Islington N1  2pm - 6pm
Rehearsals:  9th and 10th September.  Performances 13th - 24th September
Fees: 12 days maximum @ pro rata £15,000; £600 inclusive (rehearsals and performances)
Self-employed tax reference number required.
Please send covering letter and cv to Debra Watson: metaplay@blueyonder.co.uk

Paines Plough Open Casting

Paines Plough, "the National Theatre of new plays," announces the first of four annual Open Casting Sessions in collaboration with The Actors Centre. They have committed to meeting more than 700 actors previously unknown to the company each year.

The first open casting of 2010 will be held on Sunday 25th July, when George Perrin will be joined by a panel of directors and producers from Paines Plough’s core team and its Associate Companies all interested in meeting actors. The panel will see 180 actors (90 pairs).  These slots will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis.

If you would like to be seen, please do the following:

Comedy Sketch Filming - Extras Wanted
 
Comedy Writer Chris Head is seeking volunteer extras for a comedy sketch film filming in Highgate, north London on Sunday July 25th. The extras will form the audience of a talk at the society that goes strangely wrong. Your job will be to provide confused and shocked reactions to this strange turn of events!
 
Ideally seeking extras aged 40+ but a few younger ones will be fine. And over 60s especially welcome!
Come dressed smart casual.
Get to be part of a professional film shoot
Snacks and refreshments provided
Come and see the première of the finished film
And get the heartfelt thanks of two passionate comedy writer/directors

 RSVP to Chris Head: chris.head@yahoo.co.uk
Sunday 25th July 2010
5.30pm - 8.30pm
Highgate Literary and Scientific Institution
11 South Grove
Highgate Village
London N6 6BS

Community Notices

WRiTEON Members in Edinburgh Previews

Lizzy Mace in Crush
 
Lizzy Mace is a long term and much loved WRiTEON actor who left Cambridge to take on the challenge of drama school in London. She has written a new show which she's taking to the Free Fringe at the Edinburgh Festival, with two previews here in Cambridge before she goes. Here's her description of the show:

My new show all about what it's like to have a crush on someone. I've been exploring crushes by contacting people I used to have a secret crush on... and telling them! Yes, it's a secret crush confess-a-thon! Comedy with a side of self-help: you'll laugh, you'll cringe, you'll nod in agreement.

Feedback welcome - join Lizzy for a post-show drink and chat!

Sunday, 25 and Monday, 26 July, 2010 at 7:00pm
Tickets on the door: £6/5(conc).
CB2 Cafe Bistro Basement
5-7 Norfolk St, Cambridge
More info and fun things at: www.crushhh.co.uk

Laughs from Leicestershire, Comedy from Cambridge!

As part of the ADC Theatre's Edinburgh preview series, WRiTEON Writer Keith Large (Carrot Nappers, Two for One) presents his new comedy show, Laughs from Leicestershire, Comedy from Cambridge! The show features a trilogy of comedy shorts by Keith: Prima Donna Island, Whine Fever and The Ticket Collector and stars the lovely Genevieve Cleghorn, who recently did a number of readings for WRiTEON.

Thursday 22nd July 7pm,
ADC Theatre
Tickets £8/£7
Book free online www.adctheatre.com, or call the box office on 01223 300085.

WRiTEON Member at Off Cut Festival 2010

Congratulations to WRiTEON member Julia Bolden, whose play Falling Apart has been selected for performance at the Off Cut Festival this September in London. Falling Apart had its first reading with WRiTEON and will receive four performances as part of the festival, plus a chance for more performances if it gets through the competition stages. Tickets are not on sale yet - watch this space for further updates.

Falling Apart at the Off Cut Festival
Wed 29 Sept 7.45pm, Fri 1 Oct 7.45pm, Sat 2 Oct 2pm, Sun 3 Oct 7.45pm
The Old Red Lion
418 St John Street
London
EC1V 4NJ

The Lab - WRiTEON's Improv Workshop Takes to the Stage

WRiTEON's Improvisation Workshops have been taking place weekly for the past year, most recently under the inspiring guidance of Clare Kerrison. Now the workshop participants are taking to the stage, for a friends and family performance of short form improv exercises. If you are a friend, or just friendly, come along to support our budding improvisors.

1 August 2010, 7.30 pm
CB2 Cafe Bistro Basement
5-7 Norfolk St, Cambridge
Gold coin donation