Calling Cumbrian sCribes

I don't know how many Cumbrians read this. If you do then Hiya. Anyway there are a couple of competitions coming up that you might be a wee bit interested in. Sorry folks but they are Cumbrian only. Makes a change from "anyone can apply but you'll be expected to move down to London" things. Move to London? But it's flat and has this unhealthy sun stuff and...well...Southerners.

So for those in the Northern climes we have the Theatre of the Lake 10th anniversary this year. This coincides with the 10th anniversary of the writing group I recently joined, North Cumbria Scriptwriters. As a result there are a couple of comps you can go for.

10 Plays for 10 Years. This is being run by the writing group and you can follow the link for more details. A chance to get your work on Radio Cumbria. The deadline is 25th August 2009 so plenty of time to work on a 5min radio play.

And on a shorter timescale there is this. CAN YOU WRITE … AND ARE YOU FUNNY?
WRITERS WANTED FOR THEATRE BY THE LAKE

If you are a writer living in Cumbria, and have a well-developed sense of humour which you can translate into the written word, then here’s a great opportunity to get exposure for your work at the county’s only producing theatre – Theatre by the Lake in Keswick.

As part of the theatre’s 10th anniversary celebrations, Associate Director Stefan Escreet is planning a series of free lunchtime readings the Circle Bar at the end of August – of comic material. The intention is to have 2 different 30 minute shows, each of which will involve 3-4 actors from the resident professional company.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:
Each reading/performance and very short: say, a maximum of 10 minutes but really best to aim at 5 minutes. It also of course needs to be family-friendly, as it’s well before the 9 o’clock watershed and undoubtedly there’ll be kids around!

There’s no theme - just let your imagination run riot – and the readings can be stories or poems (including extracts from longer pieces), but MUST be original work, new material and FUNNY! Think irony, satire, stand-up, farce or subtle … but not short plays.

All work will of course be credited.

Entries should be typed on single sided sheets of A4, double line spaced and either sent as a Word email attachment (preferred) or as hard copies by post, in the first instance to:

Sue Allan sue.allan@edenarts.co.uk
Eden Arts
1 Sandgate
Penrith
CA11 7TP
DEADLINE: 12 JUNE

Stefan Escreet will select pieces for use during July and successful writers will be notified and kept in touch with the date(s) of readings of their pieces.

Useful Links

I've been trawling through my bookmarks and thought I'd add some useful ones to the bar at the side. I may get organised enough to sort them into categories one day but at the moment they are just in alphabetical order.



Hope you find something useful there and please let me know if any of the links don't work.

ABBA and my Waterloo

Well the ABBA results are in, for those of us not on the shortlist. I've been amazed how many daily hits I've had from people looking for the results. It has been going on for weeks.

I found out a little while ago that I hadn't got onto the longlist. Rats, rats, rats. It was hard not to put this news up earlier but I felt I should wait until the formal results were out. I've had my cry and I'm all better now. I did consider recording the play myself and putting it online anyway but the script involves specific lyrics so sorting out copyright would be a nightmare.

A couple in the writing group got onto the longlist so a big well done to them. Did any of you get through?

Working on another play (a short one) for the writing group's 10th anniversary. Got some feedback so onto my next re-write. For those living in Cumbria I will soon be posting about a related competition for you to enter.

And a big Good Luck to all those submitting to the BBC writing colleges.