Last week Studio Salford WriteForTheStage hosted the eleventh Development Week. Over the years, we’ve hosted over 150 new pieces of writing. We’ve hosted the work of countless writers over the past six years, many of whom have used the opportunity to get feedback from our audiences before they take their work into production.
This time we hosted work from the WFTS Advanced courses from Maureen O’Neill, Len Evans, Fiona Finch, Andrew Seedall, and David Holmes; as well as work from WFTS Intro student, Johnny Temple.
Alongside the programme of new writing from WriteForTheStage, we hosted new work-in-development from Lewis Charlesworth, Andy Pilkington, Aisling Caffrey, Jayne Marshall, Robert Elkin, and David Chriscole.
The standard of work has been amazing - real promise and such a wide variety of subject areas and themes. It was a real pleasure to see the work, and we had amazing audience feedback.
Thank you to everyone who took part as writer, actor, and audience alike. We’re nothing without our audiences who so generously provide feedback to help shape the work of the future.
So, after a brilliant five days of new work, we launched the inaugural WFTS GMFringe Development Conference.
WriteForTheStage GMFringe Development Conference
WriteForTheStage teamed up with the Greater Manchester Fringe Festival 4 years ago to help celebrate the great new writing that was appearing at the festival. We introduced the WriteForTheStage Prize for New Writing in 2015, and have been publishing the winning pieces for the last 3 years.
There was a big conversation about a need to drive quality that took place after this year's GMFringe festival. We decided to introduce the Development Conference as a way to help participants in the festival (and in the fringe in general) get help and support from experienced professionals making their living as writers, actors, producers and performers to share skills and experiences as a means of raising quality.
I don’t like to say the words “I feel proud”. I find it a bit cringe - but on this occasion, I feel really proud of what we achieved over the weekend.
We had workshops for writers: I ran workshops about Finding Starting Points, The Functions of Dialogue and the 3-Act Structure; Stephen M Hornby (writer-in-resident for LGBT History Month, PhD student, Salford University lecturer, and AD of Inkbrew Productions, GMFringe award winner, 24:7 veteran) ran a session on writing from archive; Naomi Sumner (Brush Stroke Order, reader for National Theatre, Papatango, Royal Exchange, 24:7 veteran, multi award winner) delivered a session about the first 10 pages.
Actors were treated to a talk from Alice Brockway about her PhD, exploring mental health for those in the acting profession and her new company dedicated to the cause, Playing Sane; one-to-one Skype sessions with Pilly Bowles - a West-End acting agent; a session with multi-MTA winning writer / performer Rob Ward, who shared his secrets in delivering story in a one-person show; one-to-ones with Colin Conner and Nathan from Bolton Octagon sharing bespoke tips for audition technique.
For producers we delivered sessions on setting up a theatre company with WFTS veteran, Richard Douglas; and a session on applying for Arts Council funding; and a production surgery with GMFringe organisers, Zena Barrie and Lisa Connor. Zena founded the Camden Fringe festival and has years and years of experience as a producer, venue manager, and performer at the Edinburgh fringe. Lisa is a multi-MTA winning producer for Rising Moon Productions and the manager of AD of The Kings Arms Theatre.
For spoken word artists, Adam Farrer (published poet, publisher, musician, spoken word artist) and Rosa Wright (GMFringe award winner) delivered an amazing 2-day workshop on developing spoken word material and a relationship with the audience.
Debbie Manley (multi-award winning journalist, PR guru, and Salford University lecturer) gave a masterclass on marketing and PR for the fringe - sharing tips and ideas to help your message stand out amongst all the noise of social media.
Mark Simpson (tech manager of Kings Arms Theatre) gave a masterclass in programming a lighting desk, operating tech for a show, and clarity on tech requirements for the GMFringe festival.
It was a really amazing weekend - and the participants got a lot from the session. Thank you to all the great speakers who took part, sharing their expertise, experience, and for making it such a friendly, open, approachable atmosphere.
Some feedback we received:
This video from Maureen O’Neill from @Viaduct_Theatre, where she explains why she came to the Conference and what she got out of it.
Susan Kerr talks about how the workshops and talks helped her to focus her own work and how she feels about the prospect of bringing her work to the GMFringe.
And Marie Greenhalgh talks about how the Conference has helped her reconnect with her writing and what she got from being a participant.
Other GMFringe news
In other news, we’re offering 8 free registrations for the GMFringe Festival 2019 - encouraging people with low incomes to get involved.
And The Hive - the ACE-support curated element of the GMFringe 2019 - is open for submissions, with mentoring opportunity from high-profile multi-award winning artists, including playwright, Tim Firth; TV’s Justin Moorhouse; and a spoken word artist tbc.
The GMFringe 2019 promises to be an amazing festival. Get involved. Registrations for the 2019 festival open on 1st December.
