I'm really proud of Development Week. It's something that came out of problem - a show cancelled at Studio Salford leaving an empty week - and has grown into something that loads of local artists are using to try out their work. It has also become a great test-bed for the work developed through the various stages of the WriteForTheStage courses.
The Intro course is all about writing the first 10 pages of a new script to be shared at the Intro Showcase at Development Week. This is how Development Week started - as a way to share the work produced by the Intro course. But then we developed Advanced, where the participants of the course write a piece of up to an hour - and Development Week, as we know it, emerged. We started to fill up the Studio at the Kings Arms for a whole week, and this format has become very popular.
Now, we've also got the Developing course, which is a one-to-one process of meetings designed to bring real clarity to an existing script; readying it for performance. I'm very excited to say that there have been some really big productions of shows that have come through Developing, including Runaway (at Greater Manchester Fringe Festival last year) and Monopoleyes (at Kings Arms and Hope Mill Theatre).
There were two pieces at Development Week 9 from writers who have been through the Developing course. The first was Michael Campbell, with his script, Sacha's Song. It's been a real privilege to work on this script with Mike. It's been through many incarnations over the past couple of years - starting as a 10 page script through Intro, then to a 60minute piece through Advanced. Mike has continued to work on the script through the Developing course and the piece he presented at Development Week 9 was really outstanding. He'd gathered a team together for himself which was another first for him. He'd found a great director who worked with a very high calibre acting team to bring warmth and humour to the script. It now feels ready to go into production - watch this space. I'll certainly keep you up to date about the future of this brilliant piece of work.
The other piece by a writer who's worked with us through Intro, Advanced, Developing and Producing is Richard Stringer, who bought the first half of his new play, The Cycle to us for Development Week 9. Again, with a great cast of actors he presented a really strong script. I'm particularly excited that Richard is now producing work for himself, independently of WFTS - he worked on the script for The Cycle on his own and has written a script that is both compelling and relevant.
And this is the ultimate goal of WriteForTheStage and Development Week - for writers to continue to work on their craft after the courses have finished and after their involvement in DevWk and to bring new work to the table.
There are lots of writers who started with us on the Intro or Advanced courses who are now making new work and producing it, independently; contributing to the artistic scene of Manchester and beyond. This has always been the goal of WriteForTheStage and I'm very excited that it's starting to pay off. All of this has been possible thanks to continued support from Arts Council England.
And keep an eye out for the next full production of a piece of work that start off life in development with WriteForTheStage - Marina and the Clone. Debuting at The Kings Arms Theatre, March 15-18th.
The new term of WriteForTheStage courses starts wc March 20th.
Photographs 3, 4 and 5 taken by Shay Rowan.
