Guide to our free resources

During our submission window, we are going to be releasing lots of new resources to support you to get your play ready to submit for the 6th June deadline.  To see all our archive of learning resources- please click the ‘Inspiration’ button on the header menu

We are so delighted to be able to return with the 2022 Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting.  The Bruntwood Prize is about so much more than the competition – we want to support people to try writing for the first time, explore their creativity, to not give up when things get tough – to keep going and submit their play for the 6th June deadline.

 

We recognise that the last two years has been an incredibly difficult time for everyone.  When theatres closed and we could no longer enjoy the inspiring experience of sharing stories together, many writers found it hard to be creative.  Would theatre ever come back?  What would it look like when it did?  Can I still be theatrical and creative if I can’t share stories live with an audience of friends and strangers?

 

There are so many huge questions to ask before you bring yourself to writing.  But maybe this makes writing even more important.  Humanity, in many ways, has been through a visceral experience of crisis.  We need art and stories and shared experiences to help us make sense of what we have been through and our place in the world.

 

So we want to find ways to support you to get those ideas out, tell us those stories, find those characters voices and build the theatrical world of your work.  We are so excited to be able to bring back two distinct series of work to support you –

 

From 9th February, we will be launching the Dramatists Toolkit with Series 3 – the first two series have proved really popular so we are excited to return with a series of blogs, workshops, provocations and other written content to support you on your journey to writing a play for the Bruntwood Prize.  We are delighted to have contributions from past Bruntwood winners Kendall Feaver (THE ALMIGHTY SOMETIMES) and James Fritz (PARLIAMENT SQUARE) whose contributions have been so popular in the past as well as Bruntwood Prize shortlisted playwrights such as Eve Leigh and Sami Ibrahim.  We are also excited to have new contributions from artists such as Tabby Lamb and Luke Barnes.  These will be released every week on a Wednesday so pop them in your diary now and check them out!  We hope they will inspire creativity and spark your imagination.

 

Our live-stream workshops will be back with some amazing practitioners offering their insights and experience.  We are thrilled to be able to kick the series off with a workshop with the phenomenal Morgan Lloyd Malcolm, whose play EMILIA took the West End by storm (before COVID) and whose other work includes TYPICAL GIRLS (Sheffield Crucible) and MUM (Plymouth Theatre Royal and Soho Theatre).

 

This will be followed by a workshop with the wonderful playwright, director and dramaturg Nicola McCartney who has supported the journey of so many of the country’s most respected playwrights. Nicola was Artistic Director of lookout Theatre Company, Glasgow from 1992-2002, and has twice been an Associate Playwright of Playwrights Studio Scotland. She has worked for a host of organisations as a dramaturg including Vanishing Point and Stellar Quines/ Edinburgh International Festival. Her plays include: EASY, HERITAGE, HOME, STANDING WAVE: DELIA DERBYSHIRE IN THE 60S, RACHEL’S HOUSE, CAVE DWELLERS and LIFEBOAT.  In 2018 she was a recipient of a Writers’ Guild of Great Britain Olwen Wymark award for encouraging theatre in the UK. Nicola is currently Reader in Writing for Performance at University of Edinburgh where she leads the Masters programme in Playwriting

 

We will also feature live-stream workshops with Ola Animashawun, National Theatre Associate and Connections Dramaturg and the co-founder and Creative Director of the playwriting consultancy, Euphoric Ink. He is also a former Associate Director of the Royal Court Theatre.

 

Our live-stream workshop series will culminate in a workshop with the Jasmine Lee-Jones, whose phenomenal SEVEN METHODS OF KILLING KYLIE JENNER took the theatre world by storm.

 

All these resources are free and will remain on our website for you to experience in your own time.

 

We will be announcing more details of all these resources – and more – through the submission window period and hope that you will take advantage of as much as possible to explore your writing.  We sincerely hope that you will find them useful and supportive – let us know!

 

Not sure where to start? 

Writeaplay.co.uk is a free resource for anyone interested in writing. Whether you are totally new to writing for the stage, or an established playwright we hope that the guidance of the brilliant writers who have contributed to this site will support your own writing.

 

Toolkit Series #1

The sessions cover character, story, dialogue, structure, theatricality and re-drafting. They also point you in the direction of some of the other amazing content on the website which will support you to undertake exercises, and try out new ways of getting your ideas down and shaping them into something that can come to life on the stage.

Writers write in completely different ways, for very different reasons. There is nothing you SHOULD do when starting or developing a play – there is no RIGHT and WRONG – only what works for you and how you convey your ideas, your ambition, your stories and your theatrical intention for the work.

Maybe you’ve written some poetry, or a short story, or a novella, or some song lyrics, or a film script – or none of the above and are just curious to explore what it might be like to write a script. Writing is a brave act – to commit to getting ideas down on paper, creating characters, taking them on a journey, and having them change the world around them, thinking about imagery and theatricality. We’re here to help with all of that.

The toolkit includes…

 

Series #2

This second toolkit addressing writing for now, offering expert advice from professional writers who will share their experiences including writing for the digital space, creating audio drama and ways to find inspiration in the everyday.

The toolkit includes…

Introduction by Dramaturg Suzanne Bell
Chinonyerem Odimba on Not Writing
James Fritz on how to write an audio drama (sort of)
Sonia Jalaly on Devising
Amanda Dalton on Adaptation
SWAMP MOTEL Co-Founders and Creative Directors Clem Garritty & Ollie Jones
Eve Leigh on writing interactive writing
Toolkit Extra- Hannah Nicklin- Narrative design choices and ‘multiple middles’ 
Sharon Clark on writing with creative technologies
Nickie Miles-Wilden and Testament in Conversation
Kieran Knowles- Now, where were we?
Where Does It Come From? by kimber lee
Anthony Simpson Pike- A Ritual 

 

Published on:
24 Jan 2022

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