Have you got a play or a story or a collection of poems that you want to try out in front of an audience? Maybe you started a piece but never finished it? Or maybe you finished it and it's just sitting there - dormant - on your hard drive.
Well, this is what Studio Salford Development Week is all about: trying out new work in front of an audience. The audience gives written feedback which goes directly to the writer and that feedback can help elevate the next draft of the piece.
Studio Salford Development Week 14 at The Kings Arms Theatre, and we're ready to start programming. If you have a piece that you'd like to try out in front of a live audience, read on to find out how.
Studio Salford has always been about development
Studio Salford started in 2002 with a production of The Weir, by Conor McPherson at what was once an empty, undeveloped space, upstairs at The Kings Arms pub in Salford.
Once the founding members (James Foster, Julia Nelson, et al) realised this space had potential, there was very little to stop them from transforming the beautiful Victorian space into a theatre to try out new work from local writers, actors, directors, and producers.
And, just like that, Studio Salford was born.
Over the years, many of Greater Manchester's finest artists have performed in the space and it has become one of the most popular venues at The Greater Manchester Fringe Festival.
TV shows, such as Channel 4's Fresh Meat, have used the pub as a location for the series, as well as welcoming The Hairy Bikers during The Hairy Bikers' Pubs That Built Britain series.
As well as offering plays, comedy nights, spoken word events, conferences, development meetings, workshops, launch nights, parties, and practically every type of performance under the sun, the pub has featured in The Guardian as "Britain's most bohemian back-street boozer" and been featured in the Good Beer Guide for the past decade, with 5-stars in Time Out.
So, it's a pretty cool venue.
And you can bring your work here.
What Is Development Week?
Development Week is a week-long event full of rehearsed readings, open rehearsals, script-in-hand performances, workshops, comedy, drama, film, music... Basically, you name it, we'll host it.
Development Week started as a way to perform the work developed through the WriteForTheStage courses. Throughout the week we provide a stage for our Intro, Progressing and Advanced students to try their new work out in front of an audience.
But there's always plenty of slots available for other artists to bring their work as well.
The Greater Manchester Fringe Festival
WriteForTheStage is an official partner of the Greater Manchester Fringe Festival which runs every year throughout the entirety of July.
The GMFringe is an open-access arts festival, providing artists from around the world the opportunity to perform their work to an audience from Greater Manchester and beyond.
We welcome anyone considering bringing a piece to the GMFringe 2020 to come and try their work out at Development Week. Come and get feedback that will help with the development of the piece so that you can be sure which parts of the script work and which parts need a bit of focus.
Get Involved
If you have a piece that you'd like to try out at Development Week 14, we'd love to hear from you.
Make sure you read our guidelines, and get in touch with us, using the link at the bottom of our Development Week page.
It's free to get involved, and all we ask is that you encourage people to come along as audience - the whole point is feedback, after all.
Development Week - Where New Things Happen
In our experience, getting involved in Development Week is the best way to get that script lying dormant on your hard drive to finally come to life. Previous work at Development Week has gone onto national tours, Arts Council-funded productions, inclusion in GMFringe, Edinburgh Fringe, Camden Fringe, Buxton Fringe, and Brighton Fringe, and into development for the BBC.
You don't need any prior experience - we just want some enthusiasm and a can-do approach.
Anyone can get involved, so waste no time and find out more here.
Check out The WriteForTheStage Podcast for hints, tips, and chat about everything theatre.