Supported by Playwrights' Studio, Scotland
Location: CCA, 350 Sauchiehall St, Glasgow
Date: 26 September 2011, 7pm

Exciting monthly workshops exploring freshly written play scenes with fellow writers, actors and directors.

This is an opportunity to play, create, influence and collaborate with each other. Play scenes will be cast and directed by those in attendance on the night, workshopped, and read for the group. So come along on the night to join in or just observe the process from page to stage!

How to submit:

Playwrights are invited to e-mail 5 – 10 minute scenes they have in development plus a one paragraph synopsis with casting breakdown (age/gender of each character) to info@playwrightsstudio.co.uk by Monday 19th September.

Visit http://www.playwrightsstudio.co.uk/stagetopage.htm for submission guidelines.

We are delighted to announce the Guest for September will be Ann Marie Di Mambro (playwright and screenwriter).

If you would like to be considered for one of the directoral slots, please arrive promptly at the CCA by 6.30pm. Actors and directors are asked to register on the night where they will be split into groups to work on scenes.

Future Stage to Page dates:

Monday 31st October 2011 (Submission deadline: Monday 24th October)

Monday 28th November 2011 (Submission deadline: Monday 21st November)

Stage to Page are grateful for the support of:

Playwrights' Studio, Scotland
Location: Stirling, Scotland
Date: 19 November 2011

Welcome to 360 Narratives, a safe haven for professional writers to explore other forms of writing. Be challenged, collaborate and create new ideas and projects with your peers.

Working in teams, writers from different fields will collaborate to develop ideas and projects reproducible in two or more forms e.g. a book and a film, a game and a comic, a children’s picture book and a play, etc.

Open to established children’s book writers, novelists, playwrights, screen writers, graphic novelists and games developers, the programme aims to broaden networks and find common ground to create characters and worlds. Writers will share practice and experiences, and build new ideas and projects together.

The programme consists of:

• an open weekend collaboration event to meet fellow writers;
• a written application process to attend the residency;
• a deeply immersive week long residency;
• a supported approach to industry in whatever ways are appropriate to your projects.

It all starts on Saturday 19th November in Stirling at our Open Weekend.

Further details will be available on our website soon - www.playwrightsstudio.co.uk/360narratives.htm

Playwrights' Studio, Scotland and The Arches
Location: The Arches, Glasgow
Date: 3 November 2011

The second installment of this Scratch-style event from the Arches and Playwrights’ Studio, in which all kinds of artists perform their version of contemporary texts.

Pushing the boundaries of the theatrical experience, whilst firmly focusing on text, this new performance evening sees artists of any genre taking a piece of contemporary playwriting and illuminating it within a live setting, before moving to the bar for audience feedback and discussion.

We are looking for artists who want to work with text in new and exciting ways. Pieces should be around 10-15 mins long. They don’t have to be finished or polished – it’s more to do with experimentation. We have a list of playwrights who would love for their contemporary playwrighting to be used by artists to experiment with (just drop us an email if you’d like to see it). However, you can use any piece of playwrighting that you like.

The only rule is that the text cannot be changed and must be present in some way – so, work merely inspired by the writing cannot be included

There’ll be an opportunity to get feedback after the event, and some rehearsal space is available for artists subject to availability.

To get involved, please email crossingthelines@hotmail.co.uk

For further details, visit http://www.thearches.co.uk/events/arts/crossing-the-lines

Applications are now open for Partner Project funding for 2011. Organisations can apply for up to £5,000 to deliver activity with playwrights. Applicants must have matching funds (see Criteria below).

The Playwrights’ Studio, Scotland is committed to working in partnership to enable activity for playwrights across Scotland and beyond. A limited number of Partner Projects are available. In selecting which ones to support we will consider;

• The benefit to playwrights
• Originality and ambition
• The organisation’s commitment to developing new playwriting
• Public benefit
• Sustainability of activity

Application Criteria

• Organisations must be formally constituted with a bank account of their own.
• Organisations must be based in Scotland or planning to work with writers who are Scottish or based in Scotland.
• 100% of the funds applied for must be matched by the Organisation. 50% of matching funds can be in kind support

The deadline for Partner Projects is 31 January 2012

To find out more and to apply, visit www.playwrightsstudio.co.uk/partnerprojects.htm

Writers' Course with Playwrights' Studio, Scotland
Location: Perthshire, Scotland
Dates: 17 - 25 February 2011

Join two of Scotland's top playwrights for workshops and the opportunity for peaceful, uninterrupted writing time in the idyllic Perthshire countryside. Playwrights' Studio will shortly be announcing details of a writers' course suitable for those at the start of their playwriting career or those interested in writing a play.

Full details will be announced shortly but you can register your interest by
e-mailing emma@playwrightsstudio.co.uk

Please note, this is a fee paying course, which will include accommodation and meals.

If you are an organisation planning an event/competition/opportunity which would be of interest to playwrights, please send details to the above e-mail address for inclusion in the e-bulletin.

Please note, details must be received before the 15th of each month.

• To write in a working environment
• Meetings with other writers, press and producers
• Round the table script development
• Reading Room with access to our well stocked Plays Library

Use of the space is subject to availability. To book a time to use the space, please call 0141 332 4403 or e-mail info@playwrightsstudio.co.uk

MSc Programme in Writing for Performance with Nicola McCartney
The University of Edinburgh
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland
Dates: Applications open this autumn

A unique practical playwriting course that will appeal to aspiring playwrights, performance artists, directors, dramaturgs and critics alike. It will focus not only on the craft of writing for performance but also on how a script plays out in real space and time, and infont of an audience. The course culminates in a rehearsed reading of students works in progress by professional actors at the Edinburgh Fringe.

Click here for further details, and to register your interest, please contact Nicola McCartney nmccartn@staffmail.ed.ac.uk

A new mentoring and development programme for emerging playwrights. Edinburgh-based theatre production company Siege Perilous is introducing the scheme in conjunction with its inaugural Writer-in-Residence Caroline Dunford.

Up to six playwrights will be chosen for the programme. Playwrights will be invited to submit a single script or work-in-progress which will be used to determine the final selections. At the end of the programme, the developed work will be workshopped with the production company and a team of professional actors. There is the further possibility that a script will go into a full production.

Full details of the programme can be found at  http://www.siegeperilous.co.uk/initiatives/playwright-development-programme/

Ankur Productions are looking for storytellers from Glasgow's Black and Asian communities to take part in two rounds of an X Factor, Hip-Hop style face off with other storytellers in Glasgow. You will be in with the chance of winning this £1000 commission to develop a piece that will be shown beforeTawona Sithole's Mwanawashe, at the Tron Theatre in February 2012.

To celebrate Black History Month during October, Ankur Productions are inviting you to tell a 1-3 minute story based on the theme Glasgow and Me.

For further information, please contact steve.collins@ankurproductions.org.uk call 07531 033696, or visit http://www.ankurproductions.org.uk/

New Writing Scotland publishes works by writers resident in Scotland or Scots by birth, upbringing or inclination. The work must be neither previously published nor accepted for publication and may be in any of the languages of Scotland.

New Writing Scotland are accepting submissions for New Writing Scotland 30, publishing in 2012.

For further details visit http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/ScotLit/ASLS/NWSsubs.html

The Scottish Book Trust Mentoring Scheme supports established and emergent writers, playwrights, screenwriters and author/illustrators who have a specific project on which they would like some dedicated support. Mentoring creates an intimate, sharing environment in which the mentee grows in confidence and unlocks their potential, allowing them to move forward in their writing careers. 

Successful applicants will be matched with another writer or industry professional with appropriate experience, and The Scottish Book Trust will support them as they work together over an intensive period of nine months. 


For further information, please contact caitrin.armstrong@scottishbooktrust.com or visit http://www.scottishbooktrust.com/mentoring

The Tom McGrath Trust is set up to honour the life and legacy of Tom McGrath, poet, playwright and creative maverick, who died in 2009. The Trust aims to be a source of inspiration, stimulation and support for artists seeking to develop their craft.

Small Grants Award
Small Grants Awards will be given towards expenditure which makes writing for stage possible and able to be heard, examples may include travel and research; equipment; costs of staging performed readings of new work; general living costs to support artists development.  Small grants awards will range from £300-£500.

For details of how to apply, visit http://tommcgrathtrust.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/small-grants-awards-application-guidelines-doc.pdf or email tommcgrathtrust@gmail.com

Writer and Translator Residencies
The long term aim of the Trust is to provide time and space for writers and translators to work.  This will be done through the establishment of a creative and supportive residential environment, based in and around the home of the late Tom McGrath in Fife.

Scottish and international playwrights and translators will have opportunities to be in residence and can work together or independently to develop new plays, new translations and new working relationships.  It is anticipated that residencies will commence in summer 2011.

For further information, visit http://tommcgrathtrust.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/residency-guidelines.pdf or email tommcgrathtrust@gmail.com

Naked Stage 2011 is a series of staged rehearsed readings of new scripts up to 50 minutes in length to be presented in Cambridge.

Naked Stage are looking for previously unperformed scripts for stage or radio, maximum length 50 minutes, and maximum number of five characters.

For full submission guidelines, visit http://www.writeon.org.uk/newsitems/newsitem1.html

Blacklight Theatre run a new writing event called TaleBlazers, and are currently looking for new plays no longer than ten minutes. 

All submissions must be original unsolicited plays, and cannot have been previously produced.

For further details, contact Nicholas Ruben at nicholasruben@gmail.com

IdeasTap, the online arts and funding organisation, has teamed up with Sky Arts to launch a new bursary for young artists. The Sky Arts Ignition: Futures Fund will offer five young artists £30,000 each to fund their work for a full year. The fund is open to artists aged 18-30 living in the UK and Ireland, and is designed to bridge the gap between formal education and becoming a working artist.

The Sky Arts Ignition: Futures Fund is open to individual artists working in visual art, theatre, performance art, film, music, dance or literature. The scheme will also provide each artist with a mentor from Sky, who will help develop their skills and knowledge in the arts and commercial sector. The artists will also have the opportunity to showcase their work on Sky Arts – be it on TV, online or on demand.

The deadline for applicants is 19 September 2011. Two winners will be selected during this round of funding. The next round will open in early 2012 from which three further winners will be chosen.

For more information, and to apply for the Sky Arts Ignition: Futures Fund, please visit www.ideastap.com/skyartsfuturesfund

The Board of Directors is now accepting nominations for the 34th Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. The Prize is given annually to a woman who deserves recognition for having written a work of outstanding quality for the English-speaking theatre.

Plays must be full-length, and are eligible whether or not they have been produced, but any professional premiere production must have occurred within the preceding year.

For further details, visit www.blackburnprize.org

Liverpool’s Write Now One-Act Play Festival has begun the search for a
third batch of brand new, previously unperformed scripts for Write Now 3.

Each piece should be between 45 – 60 minutes in length and be festival
friendly – small cast, limited props / costumes / scene changes.

For further details, visit www.writenowfestival.co.uk

Wild Orchid Theatre is seeking new scripts for its forthcoming production Yuletide Cheer and Festive Tales. Winning entries will be performed script in hand at two historic venues in Derbyshire - The Gothic Warehouse in Cromford and Sharpe's Pottery Museum in Swadlincote.

The competition is open to anyone aged 18 or over. Entrants must live or work in the Midlands. Scripts should have a festive theme, be no longer than fifteen minutes and require no more than 4 actors.

For further details, visit http://www.wildorchidtheatre.co.uk/page5.htm

Spread the Word is offering the chance for writers on a low income to receive valuable feedback on their work from the Literary Consultancy for free.

The Literary Consultancy is the UK’s leading manuscript assessment and editorial service and their team of editors, authors and industry professionals provide expert market-aware appraisals. If successful, you will receive detailed and honest feedback on your work, as well as advice on marketability and where to go next.
 
You can be a writer of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama, screenplays or treatments but, to be eligible for the scheme, you must be on a low income. This could mean you are a full-time student or over 60 or on income support, or in receipt of Working Tax Credit, on Job Seekers' Allowance or disability benefits. But if none of the above applies to you, they will also consider other financial factors.

To apply, you will need to send a sample of some of your creative work along with an application form.
 
For further details, visit http://www.spreadtheword.org.uk/index.php?id=miscellaneous&text=3445

The aim of Next Best Page is to produce a highly collaborative and innovative piece of theatre by uniting 52 voices to tell one story over 2011.

The award winning playwright James Graham has written the opening to the play 'Power Lines'. Each week throughout 2011, you can send in your Next Best Page. At the end of each week, the team will read all the pages they receive and decide which page will join The Script. Then the process will begin again, and again and again until the end of 2011.

Each writer will take their inspiration from the previous pages and be the inspiration for the next page. The Play will then be staged in 2012 at venues to be confirmed.

To find out more, visit http://www.nextbestpage.co.uk/home

Three Chord Theatre at The Flying Duck - Showcase New Writing
Three Chord Theatre
Location: The Flying Duck, Glasgow, UK
Dates: Every Sunday

Do you think you might have a gift for writing, acting, stand-up comedy or anything else: if only you had somewhere to perform and grow? The Flying Duck has just the thing for you!

Three Chord Theatre is a new night, hugely accessible for budding writers, directors, actors, musicians, lighting technicians, filmmakers and any other kind of performer.

The ultimate aim is to create a brilliant night and create a community who will grow and help each other.

For further details, visit www.sonicboomtheatre.com/3ct

Peter Arnott is The Traverse Playwright in Residence at the Genomics Forum at the University of Edinburgh.

Join the Traverse in a series of discussion workshops with Peter, where he'll be talking about source material and quotations he is discovering at the Forum.

You'll have the opportunity to talk to Peter about his work, and will be invited to contribute to the Human Genre Project website, which Peter is managing as part of his residency.

For further details, visit http://www.traverse.co.uk/whats-on/human-genre-workshops-translating-the-genome/

The next Staging the Nation event is a rehearsed reading of Gregory Burke's favourite play, The Cut by Mike Cullen. After the reading, Gregory (the multi-award-winning writer of Black Watch) will talk about why the play is important to him and what impact it has had on his writing.  The discussion will be opened out to the audience with a Q&A with Gregory and the cast.

For further details, visit http://www.tron.co.uk/event/staging_the_nation_the_cut/

Tracky is a teenage heavy metal fan with an alcoholic mother, a taxi driver father and a best friend who's after the loanshark who's after her father. The father has started a new business as a tour-guide, and his crazy optimism deeply antagonizes his daughter. All day long she sets about sabotaging him - furious that he is unable to solve the fundamental problem in their lives - his alcoholic wife and her alcoholic mother. Throughout the mayhem of the day she grabs onto his coat-tail and will not be shaken.

The result is a chaotic comic odyssey through the streets of a modern city which concludes in a violent epiphany.

First produced at the Bush Theatre, London, on 30th August 1990, it won a Time Out Award, a Plays and Players' Critics Award, and that year's Charrington London Fringe Award for Best Play.

The Visitors is a not for profit collective of professional writers and actors based in Scotland

This is a Free event and not ticketed

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=246983635339396

A workshop examining where to look and how to search for the notions, images and stories that will help you create your play. As a follow-up to Futureproof, her festival show at the Traverse, Lynda shares some thoughts on how to get started and where to find the precious grains of inspiration that can grow into the glowing pearls of plays.

To book a place, visit http://www.traverse.co.uk/whats-on/lynda-radley-playwriting-workshop-finding-inspiration/

Informal and sociable afternoon play-reading sessions at the Citizens Theatre, for the young at heart and mature in years.

These sessions are all about giving voice to the characters from the comfort of your seat, talking about the story and sharing your opinion of it.

This season the reading will be from the epic ‘Our Country’s Good’ by Timberlake Wertenbaker.  Set in 1789, a young lieutenant is directing the first play ever to be staged in Australia – with only two copies of the text, a cast of convicts and a leading lady who may be about to be hanged.  Winner of the Laurence Olivier Play of the Year Award 1988, it premiered at the Royal Court in London in 1988 and opened on Broadway in 1991.

The play does not need to be read in advance –find out what happens as the group reads together each week.

The group meets weekly for four sessions on Wednesdays from 2-4pm. 

For booking information, visit http://citz.co.uk/whatson/info/off_the_page/

Peter Arnott's work has often been based on historical and documentary sources. In this workshop, he will be exploring ways to find the drama, 'the little story hiding in the big story', in found sources, including his own recent research findings as ESRC Genomics Forum/Traverse Theatre Resident Playwright.

This workshop will run from 10.30am-4.30pm.

To book a place, visit http://www.traverse.co.uk/whats-on/peter-arnott-playwriting-workshopdocuments-and-drama/

What's the Big Idea? The answer is we don't always know. We find out as we journey into the play we are writing. This is an invitation to help us journey together. Bring the seed of a story you want to tell. Jo Clifford, whose new play The Tree of Knowledge dramatises some of the ideas of Adam Smith and David Hume, leads a playful workshop on the intellect in theatre.

To book a place, visit http://www.traverse.co.uk/whats-on/jo-clifford-playwriting-workshop-dramatising-philosophy-whats-the-big-idea/

To listen, visit

http://soundcloud.com/traverse-theatre or

http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/traverse-theatre/id460345357?ign-mpt=uo%3D4

Writing for Screen

Opportunities and events for screenwriters can now be found through a direct link to The Writers’ Factory monthly e-bulletin.

The Writers Factory is invested in by Creative Scotland and is coordinated by the Playwrights’ Studio, Scotland. For more information about The Writers' Factory, please visit the website www.writersfactory.co.uk

The monthly bulletins contain information about future Writers' Factory courses as well as information relevant to screen writers across the UK and internationally. The Writers' Factory E-Bulletin is divided into three sections:

Factory News: For upcoming Writers' Factory events

Opportunities: Screen writing competitions and other opportunities

Events: Screen writing events and classes

To view the full e-bulletin, please click here

My Romantic History by DC Jackson
Borderline Theatre Company @ Tron Theatre, Glasgow
Fri 9 - Sat 24 September 2011
Click here

Kes by Barry Hines, adapted by Rob Evans
Catherine Wheels Theatre Company on tour
Thurs 15 September - Thurs 3 November 2011
Click here

The Invincible Sum by Lynsey Murdoch
Tinydoor @ Tron Theatre, Glasgow
Fri 16 September 2011
Click here

Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off
The Lyceum and Dundee Rep Ensemble @ The Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh
Fri 16 September - Sat 15th October 2011
Click here

Men Should Weep by Ena Lamont Stewart
National Theatre of Scotland on tour
Fri 16 September - Sat 26 November 2011
Click here

Supply by Cathy Forde
A Play, A Pie, and A Pint @ Oran Mor, Glasgow
Mon 19 - Sat 24 September 2011
Click here

Beats by Kieran Hurley
Arches LIVE @ The Arches, Glasgow
Tues 20 - Weds 21 September 2011
Click here

Putting Words in My Mouth by Philippa Mannion
Makeshift Broadcast @ Arches LIVE, The Arches, Glasgow
Fri 23 - Sat 24 September 2011
Click here

Calum's Road by Roger Hutchinson, adapted by David Harrower
National Theatre of Scotland on tour
Sat 24th September - Fri 25th November
Click here

Jamais Vu by Stef Smith
Arches LIVE @ The Arches, Glasgow
Sat 24 September 2011
Click here

Watching the Detective by Paddy Cunneen
A Play, A Pie, and A Pint @ Oran Mor, Glasgow
Mon 26 September- Sat 1 October 2011
Click here

Staging the Nation - The Cut by Mike Cullen
National Theatre of Scotland @ Tron Theatre, Glasgow
Tues 27 September 2011
Click here

The Evil doers by Chris Hannan
The Visitors, supported Playwrights Studio Scotland @ The Old Hairdressers, Glasgow
Weds 28 September 2011
Click here

Dig by Katie Douglas
A Play, A Pie, and A Pint @ Oran Mor, Glasgow
Mon 3 - Sat 8 October 2011
Click here

Two Hours, Nine Minutes, Thirty Seven Seconds by Kris Haddow
Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival @ Wallace Arnold Theatre, Greenock
Thurs 6 October 2011
Click here

You Cannot Go Forward From Where You Are Right Now by David Watson
A Play, A Pie, and A Pint @ Oran Mor, Glasgow
Mon 10 - Sat 15 October 2011
Click here

A Rehearsed Reading of Union by Tim Barrow
The Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh
Sat 15 October 2011
Click here

Love Hurts by Johnny McKnight
Random Accomplice @ Tron Theatre, Glasgow
Tues 18 - Sat 22 October 2011
Click here

Spain by James Ley
Glasgay! @ The Citizens Theatre, Glasgow
Tues 25 October - Sat 12 November 2011
Click here

Staging the Nation - The Scottish Play
National Theatre of Scotland with David Greig and Paul Henderson Scott @ the Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh
Fri 28 October 2011
Click here

Home Run by Lisa Nicoll
Lisa Nicoll @ The Arches, Glasgow
Tue 1 - Wed 2 November 2011
Click here

Edwin Morgan's Dreams and Other Nightmares by Liz Lochhead
Glasgay @ The Tron, Glasgow
Weds 2 - Sat 5 November 2011
Click here

The Tree of Knowledge by Jo Clifford
Traverse Theatre Company @ Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh
Thurs 8 - Sat 24 December 2011
Click here

The Playwrights Network

The Playwrights Network links regional organisations which work to develop playwrights (and sometimes writers working in other media too) across the UK.
Click here to find an organisation in your area.

The Scottish Society of Playwrights (SSP)

A professional members' organisation that represents, develops and promotes the interests and craft of professional Scottish playwrights working within the theatre sector. To become a member or for more information about the Society, please see their website www.scottishsocietyofplaywrights.co.uk
or email scottishsocietyofplaywrights@gmail.com

Note: Could any member who has recently changed address or contact details please send in their most up to date information?  Thank you.