The Spirit of my Dream

The fabulous second Rochester literature festival continues with a night at the theatre. Three of Medway's finest playwrights share with you an evening to remember

Image credit: 17%

Inspired by Byron’s poem ‘The Dream’, Maggie Drury, Sam Fentiman-Hall and Sarah Hehir, have collaborated to create an evening of new plays with a somewhat fantastical theme.

More information about the plays, the writers and the venue are available on the Rochester litfest website here

Date:Saturday, 04 October at 7pm
Venue: Chatham grammar school for boys
Tickets: available on eventbrite

Roundabout nights - ME4

Fasten your seat belts - the ME4Writers are ready to spin your head clean off!  Not content with assembling some Judicious Heritics- Medway's answer to the Avengers, they have set up the Roundabout nights @the Alexandra pub in Chatham

Roundabout nights is an ambitious live literary night, with an ever-revolving series of events. Once a week, every week on a Monday night. 7pm-10pm, the ME4Writers will host an event highlighting the spoken word. Here is a line-up of the next few meetings:

~ 1 September: She Writes – short plays about holidays

~ 8 September: Type’n’gripe at ME4-rum

~ 15 September: Spoken word

~ 22 September: Guest slot: Politics, plays and policies. Plays inspired by political themes

~ 29 September: She Writes – plays on a Byronic theme

~ 6 October: Type’n’gripe at ME4-rum

The roundabout nights are hosted upstairs at the Alex pub, unfortunately this is not yet wheelchair accessible.

Stagetime 2015 - East 15 Playwriting Competition

East 15 Acting School is looking to produce a new writing play as part of their series of BA Acting final year performances in May/June next year. This play will be performed a minimum of two times at a London theatre during the summer 2015 term by a company of final year BA Acting students.

Credit: M Connors

For more details see their website here: http://www.ideastap.com/Opportunities/Brief/Stagetime-2015-East-15-Playwriting-Competition-300414#Overview

Best of luck!

Playella - Jam Tomorrow

Can you tell a story through 12 lines of dialogue?

The Descent theatre think you can - they are showcasing playellas - 12 lines of dialogue each - on their blog

Credit: Gregoria Gregoriou Crowe fine art and creative photography.

 My piece - Jam Tomorrow - was published 8th December and can be found on their blog here http://descenttheatre.co.uk/2013/12/08/playella-jam-tomorrow-by-sm-jenkin/

 Let me know what you think....

17% - Bad Signal

So, the next piece I produced for 17% was called Bad Signal.

The theme for the month was International, and what triggered the story was the TV. The box opens up to different worlds, so that you don't even have to leave your sofa... so how many of us are trapped on the sofa letting life pass us by?

It got me to thinking, how do we decide to fly? What stops us, if the world is more accessible than ever before. Does travel always broaden the mind - if you have decided your opinions before your journey do you have the capacity to let what you see change your mind?

And I dare anyone to make sense of the instructions that come with any new piece of equipment (ever), they are invented to make honest fools of us all... if life came with an instruction book, who would have written it, I wonder....

Bad Signal can be viewed on youtube here

Playella - a play in 12 lines

There's an interesting opportunity coming up from Descent theatre. They are offering people the chance to write a play in 12 lines, or less, of dialogue.

Is this possible? There are some examples on the Descent Blog

My favourite so far is I'd Rather You Didn't by Emma Franieczek. It reflects a common enough experience, and it's good to see the story told.

What do you think - how much do you need to tell a story? Can a story really be this simple, without being oversimplified?

The next submissions window for shorts is 4-17 November, and their submission guidelines are available online here: http://descenttheatre.co.uk/get-involved/submission-guidelines/