Tuesday 17 June - stage and audio
11am Introduction and welcome from MA course director Steve Waters
11.10am Broken in Belfast by Gracie Barlow (dir. Annika Nolen)
An extract from dark social comedy stage play.
When a Belfast family's TV is 'murdered' during a drive-by shooting, tensions rise, and secrets unravel against the backdrop of The Troubles. ‘Broken in Belfast’ is a dark social comedy drama blending Martin McDonagh and Derry Girls. It explores the burden of inherited conflict, family loyalty vs. political ideology, and the home both refuge and a war zone.
11.25am Missing, David by Esther Cornforth (dir. Zanna Foley-Davis)
An extract from a stage play with a hollow at its heart.
David is missing. He doesn’t appear at work. He doesn't buy his usual hot chocolate. The people on the periphery of his life question his absence, in doing so revealing themselves to us. Some rejoice in it, and some agonise about it, but love him or hate him, they agree it’s very unlike him to not appear. But he’s probably just ill… right? Missing, David is a stage play about the importance of community, and grief for people you don’t know. It is a love letter to the quiet, unassuming people who leave a chasm in their wake when they vanish.
11.40am …There’s Fire by Tommy Chedumbrum (dir. Tabs Nixon)
An extract from a two-act play. Dramatic, with comedic elements.
Rob plans to rent out his late-mother’s house to help cover debts incurred by his failed business. But, when it catches fire mid-renovation, he must rope in his brother Marc and nephew Sam to help clean off the smoke damage. Initially, they strike up a building-site banter, having a laugh on what proves to be quite a tough job. However, as they work together to wipe away the soot, family secrets are uncovered and tensions surface. Will they come together and make the house back into a home, or will it all come tumbling down?
11.55am Y*CK F*CK by Indigo Douglas (dir. Indigo Douglas)
An extract from a full-length stage play. Black comedy/sex comedy.
Inez and Marv are flatmates, freshly jabbed. While Marv is hyped to get back on the pull, Inez has suffered after being dumped. Inez feels unable to feel new attraction, or even to pleasure herself, so she ventures online and discovers a concept that’s crassly been given the name of “ick flicking”. Inez, to her delight, finds out this works. She heads online and shares her findings there, and pioneers a movement called “YUCK FUCK”. She frames it as female empowerment, even as yuck fucking spirals beyond her control and begins to turn nasty…
12.10pm Chronophage by Sophie Mills (dir. Sophie Mills)
An extract from a play - a surrealist drama about family, memory and dementia.
Chronophage explores how our memories of the past and fears for the future bleed into our experience of the present, questioning our right to make decisions for others, and examining the invisible constraints and dynamics of family.
12.25pm Writers panel 1
12.50 to 2pm Lunch and networking
2.05pm Sing the Wrath by Jay Tamames (dir. Annika Nolen)
An extract from a stage musical reimagining of the Iliad.
When Achilles, an aspiring hero eager to prove himself, hears of a prophecy that promises him both glory and death in the battlefield of Troy, he joins the fray despite the pleas of his companion Patroclus. Meanwhile, star-crossed lovers Helen and Paris flee Sparta, and the former takes up arms to protect her new home of Troy. Only Achilles could defeat her, but when he suddenly abandons the fight, the tides change and Patroclus is pushed to extreme measures. Though fate is what puts the two couples at odds, it is their choices that will ultimately bring their downfall.
2.20pm Mrs Higford Burr and the Frescoes by Jane Stokes (dir. Tabs Nixon)
An extract from a four handed drama about the impact of new technologies on art, set against the background of civil war in Italy in the 1860s.
Mrs Higford Burr and the Frescoes tells the story of the eponymous English painter who created copies of the Giotto frescoes in the Arena Chapel in Padua, Italy while outside the war between the forces of the Risorgimento and the Austrian army raged. Mary thinks that her paintings are the only ways these works will be preserved but it’s a race against time as the war threatens to encroach the walls of the sacred chapel. But she also has a bigger threat to confront when Jean-Luc Corbet brings a new technology which could bring about her defeat or her salvation.
2.35 pm Coals of Juniper by Liv Turner (dir. EJ Walker)
The opening scenes of a coming-of-age audio drama.
Coals of Juniper is a warm-hearted, coming-of-age audio drama set between the viaducts and denes of North-East England. After her mother’s death, 13-year-old Jane travels with her father to his mining hometown steeped in silence; Aunt Esther has unexpectedly gone mute and Jane feels that her own voice is lost, too. She meets Pyper, a trans girl charting her own path into womanhood, challenging every idea of femininity that Jane has battled her whole life. As the family work to bring Esther back to speaking, Jane and Pyper untangle the mystery of womanhood: it’s more than just coal to be burned.
2.50pm Swans are Arseholes by Emma Zadow (dir. Emma Zadow)
An extract from a dark comedy for stage, exploring deep fake porn identity theft.
All Sarah wants is to be normal, especially now with her boyfriend Mark. But when an AI sex tape of her with a swan goes viral, things get weird... Sarah investigates the origins of the swan-sex-video. Amid this chaos, her dark past resurfaces when her ex-partner and drug dealer, Taz, reappears, taunting her by calling her “Saffie”, a name tied to her days of heavy drug use and blackouts. Taz urges Sarah to try and remember what she did during her blackouts years ago. Sarah has just broken up with Mark and DCI Harris has told her it’s a dead end in the case to finding out who did it, in the previous scene. She can’t answer it in confidence. In the stage production, the view count is projected and increases throughout the show.
3.05pm Social Creatures by Dan Dendy (dir. EJ Walker)
An extract from a 3 x 30-minute radio play.
After losing her dad in a very lonely COVID-19 lockdown, Esmé plans to pay her boyfriend a surprise visit now restrictions have lifted. But as her train journey takes a turn for the worst, Esmé finds herself more stranded than ever. Finding an unlikely ally in bitter vagabond Lenny looking to reconnect with his estranged family, the two must forge a path out into the sticks and negotiate reunions that will shake their world.
3.30pm to 3.45pm Writers panel 2
Wednesday 18 June - small and big screen
11am – Introduction and welcome from MA course director Steve Waters
11.10am Apricot Land by Henrique Aguiar (dir. Theresa Stafford)
An extract from a comedy feature film.
Apricot Land is a comedy feature film that follows Mateo, a film extra who used to be a child actor for a popular kids show, and Eve, an ex-child star turned into a problematic B-tier celebrity. With similar pasts and widely different presents, they somehow feel the same way in this moment of their lives – stuck.
11.25am Moth-stronauts by Toby Call (dir. Toby Call)
An extract from an animated TV show pilot.
Moth-stronauts is a witty animated sci-fi show about a young Moth-folk named Mint and their dysfunctional family. Together they embark on a road trip through space to reach a beautiful resort known as the Sun spot. While on this trip the family encounter a robot dog named Hunter, who is revealed to be a highly sought after asset which results in the family being chased across space by an enigmatic galactic federation.
11.40am Crowded by Tias Comber (dir. Tias Comber)
An extract from a drama feature film.
Zofia, a Polish immigrant who has recently moved to the UK with ambitions to become a teacher, engages as a third member of a married couple’s sex life. The upper middle class couple, Julia and Adam, allow her the chance to ascend from her social situation, but only as part of the rigid terms of the deal of their relationship. Since engaging with Julia and Adam, Zofia has been given more autonomy through better jobs and a prospect of leaving her situation behind. This has fractured her relationship with those from her home country, who are more sceptical of her arrangement.
11.55am The Long Crawl Home by Lew Dominey (dir. Emma Zadow)
An extract from an action comedy feature film.
Life-long friends Arthur and Raphael meet up for the first time in 3 months to celebrate a mutual friend's birthday. When they leave the pub, they find London in the middle of a revolution. A symbolic sports loss has empowered the country’s worst to “take back what’s theirs,” leaving the streets rampant with violence. Left with only their drunken wits, each other and a mythical unbreakable bottle, they must fight their way through the city to get the last tube home.
12.10pm Kings of the Hill by Pétur Gauti Eggertsson (dir. Pétur Gauti Eggertsson)
Four 4th grade boys are preparing for war against the 5th graders to capture the hill in the playground during the lunch break. They strategise their attack plan in class and round up the rest of the 4th grade boys to get them ready for battle. An epic battle between the two grades ensues on the hill, waiting to see who becomes the next King of the Hill.
12.25pm Writers panel 1
12.55pm to 2pm – Lunch and networking
2pm Check-Out Time by Sharon Hak (dir. Sharon Hak)
An extract from a murder mystery feature film.
Valentina and Sonny are step siblings-to-be, and Valentina's father will make it official by proposing to Sonny's mother during their weekend trip to San Francisco. Sonny is supportive of the relationship and wants to get closer to Valentina, who's not so eager for things to change.
2.15pm Mai Stato by Zoe Molloy (dir. Zoe Molloy)
An elongated extract from feature film script Mai Stato, a dramatic tragedy.
1964, Italy, Tuscany. Carmen and Beau have been commissioned by Carmen's uncle Lorenzo to renovate and restore an old plot of land in countryside Italy. They are having to forge a marriage in order to satisfy social satisfaction, but this puts pressure on them and their true feelings for each other.
2.30pm Thine Own Self by Madison Townsend (dir. Theresa Stafford)
An extract from a feature-length thriller film.
William Sutton, a young actor playing ‘ensemble’ in Hamlet, believes he is destined for more. When the lead quits unexpectedly and the understudy is found dead, William steps up and takes the role of Hamlet. He begins a relationship with the female lead and finds his place as a cast member. When the skull of composer Tchaikowsky is brought to be used onstage, William becomes enchanted by it, frequently holding one-sided conversations; director Tim notices this, and becomes suspicious of William. As opening night nears, William delves deeper into his own madness, and after a confrontation with Tim, makes a dramatic debut.
2.45pm Code of Silence by Charbel Tony Touma (dir. Toby Call)
An extract from an action-political-drama short serial.
3.10pm to 3.25pm Writers panel 2