Tamasha Playwrights- CALL OUT

Tamasha Developing Artists (TDA) is soliciting applications for the fourth year of its Tamasha Playwrights group.

Tamasha Playwrights is a writer-led collective founded in October 2014 by Tamasha’s Artistic Director Fin Kennedy and formed of eight playwrights from a diverse range of backgrounds. The group is refreshed with a new cohort every autumn. A fourth year group is now being recruited.

The group will meet regularly from early November 2017 and will run for 9 months. It will be led by Tamasha’s Artistic Director playwright Fin Kennedy, who taught playwriting on the MA Writing for Performance at Goldsmiths College for almost ten years.

 

The aim of the group is to:

* Be open and responsive to the participants’ interests / needs.

* Invest in the professional skills of a core of writers.

* For each group member to write a full first draft of a new play for the stage.

* Equip writers with the skills to sustain a professional freelance career, including initiating, fundraising and managing their own projects.

* Generate seeds of inspiration for developing new ideas as well as group discussion and peer learning.

* Build relationships with writers who can collaborate with the company on TDA projects, including regionally, and responding to inspiration from young people and community groups.

* Provide some showcase opportunities e.g. response work to Tamasha’s core productions, or a dedicated Scratch night.

* Offer some careers advice and 1 to 1 time.

 

Session content is by request from the participants. Visiting speakers so far have included representatives from the National Theatre, Soho Theatre, Tricycle Theatre and the Royal Court, as well as freelance producers, directors and award-winning playwrights.

 

Additional info:

* This group isn’t aimed at absolute beginners. Applicants will need to have written at least one full length play for the stage, 70 mins+ (though it need not have been produced). Writers with more experience are welcome to apply – though those with established professional careers will not be given priority.

* This group is not about generating new plays for Tamasha to commission and produce in the immediate future. In the interests of managing applicants’ expectations, we would like to stress that Tamasha is a small company which produces 1-2 plays per year. Following the 2017 Arts Council funding round, the company has committed to its professional productions up to 2021.

* Group members will be expected to work towards developing wholly new ideas for the stage, not further developing pre-existing plays. Plays submitted during the application process are writing samples only. Taking part in Tamasha Playwrights does not guarantee your work being showcased.

* Writers who applied unsuccessfully for Year 1, 2, and/or 3 are welcome to reapply, but we would request that they submit a different (ideally new) full-length writing sample.

* All play submissions are read by at least two readers, at least one of which will be a diverse writer from a previous Tamasha Playwrights cohort. We usually get about 80 submissions, from which we shortlist around 20. From the shortlist 10-12 will be invited to interview with up to 8 writers recruited for the final group.

 

Deadline: Noon, Monday 25 Sept 2017

 

Timeline

Tamasha Playwrights remains a pilot project so the precise structure and content will be worked out in collaboration with the group.

Sessions will take place on Tuesday evenings 6.30-8.30pm at Tamasha’s offices at Rich Mix in Shoreditch, East London. The sessions are fully subsidised and offered free of charge. Tamasha regret that they cannot pay travel expenses.

Sessions are from November 2017 – July 2018.

 

How to submit

Please go to http://www.tamasha.org.uk/t-playwrights-year-4/ to submit one full length play for stage or radio, with full CV and covering letter

All applicants will be contacted after the deadline and those shortlisted will be invited for an informal meeting with Tamasha during the week commencing 16 October.

 

Published on:
4 Sep 2017

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