The Script Sessions Spring Writing Competition at The Courtyard Theatre – £50 prize

The Script Sessions 15 minute Showcase for stage
4 scripts selected and performed
1 winning script as voted by the audience
£50 and a bottle of Prosecco for the winning writer

Deadline for script submissions by close of play on Wednesday 20th February

Selected scripts will be announced by 23rd February

Attention Writers!

The Script Sessions is delighted to announce our latest writing competition at The Courtyard Theatre, Hoxton.

We are looking for 4 original 15 minute stage plays. The script must take inspiration from the following quotation:

“those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
(George Santayana – Life of reason)

The play must also be written with the following structure:

Multiple timescales – stories from different time periods, cultures, worlds, places, spaces are told in parallel. By writing stories in parallel, multi-layered within the same script, they inevitably comment on each other and open up the potential complexity of the work.

We hope this will challenge writers to create interesting contemporary theatre and think about how structure informs writing.  

For inspiration:

Arcadia - Tom Stoppard; Hawksmoor - Peter Ackroyd; Possession - A.S Byatt; Nervous Women - Sarah Wood; Nothing Compares to you Bryony Lavery; Essex Girls - Rebecca Pritchard; Under the Blue Sky - David Eldridge; Examples of multiple narrative - Martin Crimp - Attempt on her life and Simon Stephens Pornography.

So…What you need to do is:

• Write a 15 minute script for stage with a multiple timescale structure.
• Use the quote for inspiration
• You can have as many characters as you like but only 4 actors are allocated per company
• It must also be a self-contained story
• Email the script to us by 5pm on Wednesday 20th Feb.
• The selected writers will be announced on Saturday 23rd February

Once selected, the script will have a Script Sessions development workshop and the writers will then have a week to re-write and develop the work before it is handed over to the director and actors. Each  play will be rehearsed and performed by professional actors who will perform off book and have 2 x 3 hour rehearsals to take the script from page to stage.

The scripts will be performed at the Courtyard Theatre, Hoxton on Friday 29th of March @ 8pm.

The audience will vote for the winning script.

The winning writer will be awarded £50 and a bottle of Prosecco!

ALL WRITERS MUST BE AVAILABLE FOR THE FOLLOWING DATES:

The Script Session script development: Weds 27th Feb or Thursday 28th Feb 7-10pm
Rehearsals wk beginning 11th March and wk beginning 18th March (TBC)

Performance: Friday 29th March 2013

Please send entries to thescriptsessions@gmail.com. Please include a contact telephone number with your submission.

Due to the number of entries we receive we will not be able to offer feedback if your script is not selected, but we can offer development sessions at a later date.

For more information about The Courtyard Theatre: www.thecourtyard.org..uk

Best of luck,

The Script Sessions Team
Judging Criteria

The scripts will be judged by a panel of The Script Session facilitators:

1. The writer must be available for the stated dates
2. Is the script the correct length and format?
3. Is the script viable to stage within the timescale and resources of the project?
4. Is the script suitable for performance at The Courtyard Theatre venue
5. Is the script responding to the criteria of the brief
6. Is the script self contained?
7. Artistic merit of the script

About Us

The Script Sessions is facilitated by three experienced professionals in the fields of writing, directing and acting. It is a regular workshop, run every 2 weeks, for writers who wish to develop an idea.

Script Sessions is a 2 hour meeting where plays are read by professional actors and discussed, using our developmental process. We run from the upstairs room at The Britannia Pub; a generous space with a quiet and homely atmosphere. The space also offers the opportunity for staging developed pieces and will also be where we hold our scratch nights of work in progress to an outside audience.

The Script Sessions is also a place for actors to practice sight reading and to be involved in the writing process, potentially from start to finish. We welcome writers, actors, dramaturges and directors and hope that everyone can contribute and benefit from this creative process and form lasting collaborations.