Another month, another new Play Club announcement!
We received some fantastic entries for the first Play Club window which were incredible responses to Far Away by Caryl Churchill some vibrant and unique voices, so it was a difficult task to choose a piece for the reading. However, we managed to make our selection and the chosen play for the first ever Play Club is…
Mannequin by Rupert Mallin
An intro to Rupert, from Rupert:
I live and work in Norwich. From 1975 to around 2005 I had over 400 poems published in magazines (Ambit, Tribune, Poetry Review, etc.) and two plays of mine were broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in the 1990s but I then largely gave up writing to concentrate on producing art. Over the last two years, the Creative Working Lives group, has brought me back to playwriting with a production of ‘From Flowers to Punk,’ celebrating the other side of Norwich, which was staged last year. I’ve survived working life through various jobs in factories and then teaching in FE, together with community arts projects and residencies in East Anglia. Now in my sixties, my life-long ambition to bring art, writing and performance together is taking shape.
We’re delighted to be taking Rupert’s play for a reading by actors at the final members meet-up of the year, where we can discuss the piece and have conversations surrounding the work! And if you want a bit of the action, there’s still 3 changes to submit your work! Read on below to find out about out what we’re reading this month…
Trestle by Stewart Pringle
Stewart Pringle’s Trestle won the Papatango new writing prize in 2017, with its inaugural production running at the Southwark Playhouse in November of the same year. It’s a play that centres around the connection between two older characters who are leading their later lives incredibly differently. The play is structured in a tightly knit way, with weekly interactions at the local Village Hall serving as the tying bond between the two protagonists.
You can nab the play for just £3 over on Papatango’s website:
https://papatango.co.uk/product/trestle-by-stewart-pringle/
Submissions
As we mentioned previously, we challenge you to write a short, 10 page play (12 font size, please!) in direct response to what you’ve read.
Our submission window in response to Trestle will be open from
Monday 20th May – Sunday 16th June so please don’t send us scripts before then!
An email will be sent your way once the window is open with full details of how to submit, including; where to send it, our format guidelines and some top tips.
But until then, happy reading for this month!
You’re also more than welcome to just read the plays and join in some discussion with us about them on the members Facebook group! We’ll open up a discussion forum on there at the same time we open for submissions, so don’t feel you have to write a play, you’re absolutely fine to just read too.
Image source: Nick Hern Books/Papatango (Trestle Cover)