Yes; it’s that time again: our twice-yearly celebration of the work produced by the emerging playwrights developing their work through the WriteForTheStage courses, as well as work from local writers and artists.
Development Week is about all things new. In the past we‘ve had rehearsed readings, poetry, stand-up comedy, murder mysteries, script-in-hand performances. We’ve even had industrial leaf-blowers and things so odd that you’ll wonder whether someone’s slipped something in your drink (they haven’t).
We’re passionate about Development Week at Studio Salford WriteForTheStage because it’s where new work gets its first (or an early) outing. It’s about artists trying their work out in front of an audience who give written feedback to help with the development of the work. We welcome work at all stages of its development - from established playwright’s taking on a challenge to write something especially for the week to pieces that are about to go on tour.
Embryo
Studio Salford has been about development right from its inception in the early 2000s. We were early cabaret producers, creating a 6-weekly development night known as Embryo.
Embryo‘s tagline was “The Start of Something New”. We gave the stage to anyone who wanted to try up to 10-minutes of something new. Over the years we had thousands of script-in-hand performances from new writing to performance poetry, from film and burlesque to crazy experimental performance. It was a brilliant night; usually followed by most excellent parties.
Embryo helped with the development of countless pieces of work that went on to national touring, national recognition, and was the springboard for many now very well-known actors.
Development Week
Development Week started by accident, coinciding with the very first WriteForTheStage course, back in 2012.
Like Embryo before it, Development Week is an open-access event for anyone who wants to try some new work in front of an audience. The main difference is that we offer up to 50 minutes rather than just 10. But, the audience feedback thing was directly inherited from Embryo and makes the event really useful for writers.
In the past, we‘ve hosted work that‘s gone onto national touring, ACE-supported Research & Development processes, won competitions, helped established playwrights develop a new piece of work, and offered up the space for hundreds of new writers.
And we use the week to share the work produced by the WriteForTheStage courses.
Our Courses
We’ve been running playwriting courses for new, emerging, and established playwrights since 2012.
Previous participants of the courses have had their work performed at Royal Exchange, Harrogate Theatre, Contact Theatre, Oldham Coliseum, Kings Arms, Hope Mill, The Swan in Dobcross, Bread and Roses Theatre (London), 53Two, and two writers have had their work supported and developed by Graeae Theatre (London).
Work has been included in countless festivals, including 24:7, BAME festivals in London, and work published independently of WFTS.
We offer courses that cater to every level of experience - from never-written-before to established playwrights. And we've helped established artists in other mediums, such as poetry, to develop their first works for the theatre, including Tony Walsh, Jackie Hagan, and Karen Little.
Online
Our courses are now delivered entirely online, using Zoom's video conferencing technology. It means that there's no longer any geographic restrictions to attending our courses. We've welcomed international participants from around Europe and as far afield as Australia and Hong Kong.
The only restriction is time as our online sessions are live. We usually run our sessions in the evening, from 6pm GMT, although different courses have different starting times.
Every session is recorded which means that if you need to miss a session, you can watch it later and catch up. We also share all of the session resources via a shared Dropbox.
Previous Participants
Previous participants of the WFTS Producers course have gone on to create their own production companies - including Richard Douglas‘ Agrippa Productions, who staged Marina and the Clone last year, with a stellar cast, including Nathan Morris, who went on to play Milo Entwistle on Hollyoaks, see video below. Marina and the Clone was developed through the WFTS Advanced course.
Richard Stringer set up Great Expectations Theatre and staged Runaway at Greater Manchester Fringe in 2016, starring Ryan Clayton, who went on to play Josh Tucker on Coronation Street. Richard’s latest piece, The Cycle, was developed through WFTS WritersLAB and is going into full production at The Kings Arms Theatre on 20th-22nd March. Tickets and more info here.
Find out what previous participants have said about their WriteForTheStage experience.
Read more about past participants:
Phil Charles talks about his production of The Black Eye Club at The Bread and Roses in London (play developed in WFTS Advanced)
Intro
Intro is partly about developing the fundamental skills required to tell a story effectively on the stage (with clear differentiation from screen and radio) and partly about developing an idea.
We spend the first sessions "mining the imagination" for ideas. We positively encourage new starters to begin with no fixed ideas about what they want to write (although it's fine if you want to) because we'll explore your passions and obsessions to find themes and characters. We'll discover characters and find out how they express themselves.
We develop the fundamentals of dialogue so that we create action, not chat. And we explore structure to help you find a good starting point; born of the Problem Of The World.
Check out The WFTS Podcast for free tips, lessons, and chat. Series 1 is about structure. Series 2 is about the writing process.
We develop the first ten pages of a script, ensuring that it's unputdownable. The standard practice for playwriting competitions is to read just the first ten pages as an initial sift: if the reader isn't engaged after the first ten pages, they won't read the rest of the play. So, we focus on honing ten pages to ensure that the reader (or the audience) wants to read on.
The Intro course is incredibly comprehensive, containing content that's valuable for writers of all levels of experience.
At the end of the 10-week course, we read your work in front of an audience at Development Week.
Advanced
Advanced is all about developing the ten page script into a piece of up to an hour, working towards sending the work away to competitions or readying it for performance.
Or, if you have a proven track record of writing for the theatre, some writers jump directly to Advanced. Get in touch to find out if you're ready for Advanced.
We explore more complex theatrical concepts and exercises, delving more thoroughly into structure, form, and character arc.
And at the end of the term, we read your work in front of an audience at Development Week.
Progressing
We developed the Progressing course for writers who had completed Advanced or for writers who are already developing a new piece of work.
Each week we read everyone's work in a writers-lab style, discussing the content and fleshing out ideas to help with the next draft.
We also do lots of character exercises to delve into the truthfulness of objective, action, and dialogue.
And at the end of the term, we read your work in front of an audience at Development Week.
Developing
Developing is our one-to-one, dramaturgy-based course.
If you have an existing script but need help with it, Developing is for you. The aim is to maximise the potential of the script in preparation for performance or competition / festival submission.
Producing
Producing is (unsurprisingly) about developing the skills required in lifting a script off the page and onto the stage.
During the process, we put together an Arts Council grant bid, so you'll learn how to write a funding application. While there's absolutely no guarantee that you'll get your funding (it's totally out of our hands), we've had pretty good results, with at least seven successful bids under our belts over the past four years.
The next term of Producing will be running from December.
Greater Manchester Fringe Festival
WriteForTheStage is a partner with the Greater Manchester Fringe Festival. We run the annual WriteForTheStage Prize for New Writing. The first prize is a publication with WFTS Books and is open is to all participants of the GMFringe festival.
WriteForTheStage also supported The Hive - the GMFringe's first ACE-supported curated element of the festival. We mentored Stefanie Moore, along with world-famous playwright, Tim Firth, in the development of her first play, Blue Lines. Read about Stefanie's experiences of mentoring here.
What to know more?
If you have questions about any of our courses, publications, the blog, or anything to do with developing a new script for the theatre, get in touch.
The new term for the WriteForTheStage courses starts in October, just after Development Week.
So, we hope to see you at Development Week - we'll be running a free taster session for the courses, so book onto that once bookings are open.
We'll be releasing the timetable for Development Week 13 in a couple of week. Follow us on Twitter (@Write4TheStage) to be kept up to date.
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