Studio Salford, based at The Kings Arms Theatre, has been around for a long time. The first production was Conor McPherson's The Weir, starring Josh Moran, Ian Curley, Neil Bell, Joe O'Byrne and Sue Jaynes back in November 2003. Since then, Studio Salford have grown and supported the work of new writers and theatre makers from all levels of experience - from first-timers, to established writers, actors and directors.
Studio Salford WriteForTheStage courses started up in 2012 as an extension to this support for first-time and mid-career writers. Since then, we've helped well over 100 writers draw their ideas out of their heads and onto the page, which we've then taken onto the stage, in front of an audience who provide feedback. We've produced 4 full productions of plays developed through the course, curated and produced eight Development Weeks offering local talent the opportunity to try their work out in front of an audience, and published 10 books of new plays from both the WriteForTheStage courses and Greater Manchester Fringe Festival as part of the WriteForTheStage Prize for New Writing. Writers from the courses have gone on to flourishing careers as playwrights, authors and theatre-makers - with subsequent work produced at Contact Theatre, 24:7 Theatre Festival, Greater Manchester Fringe Festival, Page to Stage festival, developed by Royal Exchange, and around the country in full production. We're really proud that we've helped lots of new writers get a head-start.
Development Week is a great opportunity for writers to try out their work in front of an audience. It's a festival of new work in its embryonic stage; work that you'll see in its full glory later on down the line. It's an opportunity for you, the audience, to get involved in the creative process - to offer feedback and direction for the work before it goes into full production; to give an audience's perspective to the writer. We've often invited established writers a slot to be filled with a new piece of writing written especially to be debuted at the festival, and that has been a successful venture for them. Laura Lindsay wrote Parallel (then entitled "Looking For Light") as a Development Week Challenge and that went on to be picked up by Harrogate Theatre and supported by Arts Council England for a North West tour.
So, we've got a reputation for helping with the development of writers.
This time, we're opening up the Writer's Challenge (Sat 25th Feb). This time it's going to be open not just to established writers, but to everyone, regardless of prior experience. We'll start the day with a load of exercises that will help to generate material that you'll take away for the rest of the day and transform into something to be performed later on that evening. There will be support from some established writers throughout the day to help steer your ideas in a coherent direction and will be read later on that evening as a rehearsed reading by our professional company of actors in a group sharing of the work. We're especially keen to get people on-board who've never written for the stage, but everyone is welcome. Writers often need a challenge - well, here's one for the taking.
To get on-board, you need to book a place. It's completely free to be involved but we can only accommodate reasonably low numbers, so pre-booking is essential. It won't cost you a penny. All the work you produce will be your own and we hope that you'll take it with you at the end of the opportunity and develop it into something that we'll see at a theatre soon!
