Development Week 8 was a great success. Every performance was really well attended and there was a brilliant buzz around The Kings Arms all week. Over the space of 7 days we hosted over 26 World Premieres of brand new work never before been performed in front of an audience. It was an exciting roller-coaster of new creative writing.
We presented all of the work from the WriteForTheStage courses, both the Advanced and Intro levels, and the audience generously gave feedback which will all be soon forwarded onto the writers to help them to understand their piece of work from the audience's perspective. It's a great opportunity to try out new work, knowing that the audience will accept that it's a work-in-progress. One of the visiting participants said that -
"Being part of an established 'event' made it much easier to get an audience to actually see the work - and they've all given very in depth feedback, which is all *very* useful for figuring out what bits worked and what didn't. It's good to be able to do this in an environment without pressure either financially or in terms of 'reviewers' who are only interested in ripping your work apart. It felt like a really supportive atmosphere. It allows you to put work out there that you *know* needs development, with less fear of failure than might otherwise exist."
The work ranged from the traditional to the frankly rather wild. One of the most memorable moments was during one particular piece where the performer pulled some (kind of) willing audience members up onto the stage, forced them to dress them as a vicar, a cardinal and (a female) Jesus, then proceeded to blow an industrial leaf blower in the faces of the remaining audience. That is one moment that will stay with me for a long time!
We had two Development Week Challenges - to write a brand new piece of theatre especially for reading in front of an audience during Development Week. I wrote a new piece called Avoidance and Ian Winterton wrote a new inception of a short play he'd written a number of years before, called Cracking The Feathers. I'm so glad I gave myself the challenge - a deadline is always a good creative driver, I always find. Ian's piece was really beautiful and he said that it was great to be writing for the stage again, after writing for the screen. Fingers crossed that both our new pieces of work will go into production soon!
The week was topped off with the welcome return of Embryo, Studio Salford's eclectic cabaret of all things new. It was great to have this varied development night back - a mix of live music, new drama, poetry, comedy and film. The audience really did feel the love and give it back to the performers. A great night was had by all.
So, after a very lively, buzzy week, it's all about gathering together feedback, getting it all sent off to the artists, and having another look at my new script.
Thanks to everyone who attended and participated, with a special mention for our wonderful company of actors who read the WriteForTheStage pieces (Leni Murphy, Amy Drake, Nathan Morris and Stephen Hornby). Development Week is only a success if people get involved - and I think we had a really successful, creative week!
The next Development Week will be at the end of February 2017. For more info, click here.
