March 5th 2023 meeting

About the March 2023 meeting

All are welcome to attend our March meeting this Sunday 5th.

Advance notice There will shortly be a formal call for entries to Sussex Playwrights 2023 script writing competition.

Last time we had 48 entries. As before, this time we’ll be calling for volunteer readers to help review the entries and establish a long list and short list.

The competition will open for entries very soon. More details on the night.

See www.sussexplaywrights.co.uk and our Sussex Playwrights Facebook Page for news about the competitions as it develops.

Play readings We’re inviting you to bring along your short 10 minute two-hander pieces for reading and discussing on the night. Work in progress, performance-ready pieces, stage, audio, film scripts – everything welcome!

Members’ news Congratulations to Robert Cohen whose new novel Architecture for Beginners has just been published. www.waterstones.com/book/architecture-for-beginners/robert-cohen/9781914322143

Robert will be reading from and discussing his new novel at the April meeting.

Congratulations to Judy Upton whose Sussex set mystery thriller ‘Sniff Them Out, Brownlow!’ www.waterstones.com/book/sniff-them-out-brownlow/judy-upton/9781914322136 has a lovely review in the new issue of Ingenue Magazine p68 www.ingenuemagazine.co.uk/

Meeting details

Sunday March 5th 7-9pm

New Venture Theatre
Bedford Place
Brighton
BN1 2PT

In the bar as usual

Free to Sussex Playwrights members

Guests and friends: £3 on the door – includes wine/juice

February meeting

We read and discussed two extracts from plays in progress:

The Big Interview by John Laurenson

and

Shillingworth by Dave Patchett

Sussex Playwrights 2nd October 2022 meeting

October 2022 meeting news
September 2022 meeting report

October meeting – October 2nd 2022 7-9 pm:

All are welcome to attend our October meeting.

We’re inviting you to bring along your short two-hander pieces for reading on the night. Work in progress, performance-ready pieces, stage, audio, film scripts – everything welcome!

Sunday October 2nd 7-9pm

New Venture Theatre
Bedford Place
Brighton
BN1 2PT

In the bar as usual

Free to Sussex Playwrights members

Guests and friends £3 – includes wine/juice/nibbles

September meeting report – Members’ and visitors’ latest

Adrian Jameson of The Other Realm horror Theatre Company, is appearing in A Triptych of Wrath 22/23 October at Horror Fest, [14th to the 23rd of October], based around the Wellington and the Poets. More at https://www.facebook.com/btnhorrorfest

Robert Cohen, actor and writer of solo shows has his first novel Architecture for Beginners published by Hobart books. Robert is appearing in Sussex Playwrights’ friend Christine Foster’s play Lost in the Willows, on the life of Kenneth Grahame, from the 5th of October at the Rialto Theatre then a short tour. He’s also about to appear at the Rialto in Who Is Number One, a new play on the making of The Prisoner by Brian Mitchell and Joseph Nixon [of The Shark is Broken’], happening from mid October – news to come. https://www.rialtotheatre.co.uk/whats-on

John, a writer who has written his first comedy play, a two hander comedy, is looking for a Captain Mainwaring-esque character actor.

Philippa and Thomas have written and presented drama workshops for the New Venture Theatre and Reigate Theatre

Jenny Rowe, writer, actor and improv tutor presenting improvisation classes for actors in the region [also highly recommended for writers]

Honorary vice-president Judy Upton has a new novel out – Sniff Them Out, Brownlow, the adventures of pet detective Sophie Gorridge and sniffer dog Brownlow

Also welcomed Sophie, a writer from the arts magazine Monk and Bernard, film production director painter and actor

Wide ranging conversation covered:

Discussing venues for presenting new work in Brighton [the Poets venue was recommended], the concept of an experimental free fringe, how established venues are attracting an audience, the business of selling tickets for rehearsed readings and works in progress, frustrations around the Brighton Fringe ticket booking system, attracting donations via PayPal, writing workshops, Sussex Playwrights’ publishing plans, Brighton festival podcasts, taking shows to Edinburgh Fringe, Edinburgh venues and accommodation [what should one take?!], the heavyweight impression often given that Edinburgh is a comedy festival – is it even worth doing Theatre there, and is the BBC compliant in this image? How writers get discovered by the BBC, the route to stand-up comedians taking shows to Edinburgh, being ‘discovered’ then going on to write and appear in TV sitcoms … A lot covered in a two hour meeting!

Meetings 2022

Sussex Playwrights has resumed our monthly face to face meetings.

2022

January – no meeting
February 6th
March 6th
April 3rd Fringe Preview
May 1st Fringe time meeting
June 5th
July 3rd Summer Party
August 7th
September 4th
October 2nd Spooky tales for Halloween 
November 6th
December 4th Christmas Party

Meeting November 3rd 2019

For your diary – Our next meeting

Sussex Playwrights November 3rd meeting 2019

Monthly networking and drinks for writers, producers and makers of new drama for stage, screen and audio

We have a special event in December, so our annual winter social and writers’ storytelling event is moving to the November 3rd meeting.

As the nights draw in and Halloween pumpkins are still with us, it will combine short winter ghost stories with our usual competition, drinks, nibbles and writers’ and actors’ get together.

We’re inviting members and visitors to bring their own short stories or short plays [aim at two or three and no more than five minutes] on the subject of winter hauntings. It’s a fun event with spooky stories.

You can read the piece yourself, or bring a piece for a scratch reading on the night.

All welcome
Sussex Playwrights members free
Visitors £3 (£2 Equity card)
Includes wine/juice

Do ‘like’ the Sussex Playwrights Facebook Page for news as it’s posted.

New Venture Theatre Bar
Bedford Place
Brighton
(Note – Sussex Playwrights is not part of the New Venture Theatre group itself)

December advance news

Our Honorary President William Nicholson will be our special guest speaker at our December meeting! Playwright, novelist and screenwriter William Nicholson, author of his latest film Breathe, directed by Andy Serkis, Shadowlands, Les Miserables, Gladiator, First Knight, Elizabeth: The Golden Age www.williamnicholson.com

Future plans

We’re bringing up the volume again on play readings over the winter. We’d welcome works in progress or finished pieces around 10 – 15 minutes long – so if you have a piece in progress and you’d appreciate a scratch reading and discussion on the night, please do bring along some copies!

Later in the year we’ll be featuring longer pieces – 45 minute plays or suitable extracts.

For your diary – our future meeting dates

6 Oct, 3 Nov, 1 Dec, 5 Jan, 2 Feb, 1 Mar, 5 Apr, 3 May, 7 Jun, 5 Jul & 2 Aug

Philippa Hammond – Chair
chair@sussexplaywrights.co.uk

 

June 2nd 2019 Summer party

For your diary – Our next meeting

Our June 2nd summer party meeting is under construction – details soon.

Venue

The New Venture Theatre bar
Bedford Place
Brighton
BN1 2PT

All welcome

Free to Sussex Playwrights members

Visitors welcome – £3 on door / £2 with Equity card [including drinks]

You can join on the night [£15 / £12 with Equity card], which entitles you to free entry to every meeting and event, including drinks, and an entry into our next playwriting competition.

Please note: Sussex Playwrights is a separate organisation from our friends the New Venture Theatre, and does not share membership.

If you’d like to present and discuss an extract from your play at a future meeting, please contact

Philippa Hammond

chair@sussexplaywrights.co.uk.

For your diary

The dates for Sussex Playwrights meetings over the next few months:

2 June 2019 [Summer Party]
7 July 2019
4 August 2019

Sussex Playwrights

Supporting and promoting new drama in the region since 1935

Our meetings

If you’d like a taste of what we do at our meetings … here’s a little run down of the last few events:

 

Our next meeting will be happening during the Brighton Fringe – Check out our April meeting report for details and responses to five of the upcoming shows we previewed at that meeting.

Members’ news

Protect and Survive

Sussex Playwrights’ writers, actors and producer collaborate on this major online audio drama series. Contributors include Russell Shaw, Sorcha Brooks, Philippa Hammond, Robert Cohen, Simon Jenner and TBC Audio producer Simon Moorhead.

You can hear the whole cycle 7 to 19 May as part of Brighton Fringe, in the Jubilee Library.

Imagine what life would be like in Brighton following a nuclear attack on the UK? The chaos, the anguish, the resilience….

What would you do to survive?

As the UK is hit by 160 nuclear warheads, The Other 1% takes you in and around Brighton from the day before to 1000 years after the attack. Systems at the local council collapse, the hospital can’t cope with the human tide and the postman is conscripted to maintain law and order. What exactly is the farmer feeding her pigs, what struggles will humanity face hundreds of years after a nuclear holocaust and how will language and our relationships evolve?

Brighton-based award-winning producer and director, Simon Moorhead: ‘The entire series is produced, cast and recorded in Brighton and Sussex. We are fortunate to have so much talent on our doorstep.’

Details

May Guests:

A celebration of writing and performance during the 2019 Brighton Fringe showcasing two more upcoming Fringe shows and an award-winning short monologue, featuring performances and conversations with

 

Jenny Rowe

Jenny performs and discusses an extract from her solo play

‘Tiptree: No-one Else’s Damn Secret But My Own’

Details

Most Curious Productions

Tristan Woolf presents an extract from his new play ‘The Hunters of Ghost Hall’, with writer and actors in conversation.

Details

Joshua Plummer

Writer, actor and stage combat tutor Joshua performs and discusses his short solo piece ‘Samaritans’ – one of three winners of London Theatre Podcast’s New Year, Same Me competition. Joshua will also be giving some insights on dramatic combat on the night.

Details

The Harbour Theatre Company

Eddie Alford presents and discusses an extract from his upcoming play ‘Hello Who’s Calling’

 

April 2019 meeting – now over

Brighton Fringe preview, featured extracts and discussions on:

Risqué! by Timothy Coakley

Directed by Murray Hecht

 

Meet the strip club owner who can’t get the staff, the incompetent sex line operator, the lift attendant with a secret, the man who wants a bigger one, Desperate Denise, inappropriate behaviour, the girl who can’t stop, the wife who can’t believe her eyes, the doctor who gets a shock, and the swingers who want to try something new!

Tickets

 

Four Thieves Vinegar by Christine Foster

Directed by Margot Jobbins, FourTails Theatre Company

Four Thieves Vinegar is a black comedy about the black death. Set in the dingy depths of Newgate Prison, 1665: the height of the plague. The play finds its four characters – three prisoners and their jailer – in one of the few places currently untouched by the disease rampaging throughout the land. One prisoner, an alchemist, believes he has found a cure for the plague and implores his fellow inmates to help him make it. But to do that they’ll need gold, and to get that they’ll need to make good use of the only resources at their disposal: sex, wit and lies.

Tickets

 

The Wasp by Morgan Lloyd Malcolm

A twisting, taut psychological drama. Heather has made a success of her life. Carla is out of cash and she is willing to take part in an unusual proposition. The two women meet up for the first time since leaving school and the intrigue and manipulation begins. The Wasp by Morgan Lloyd Malcolm had its original production at the Hampstead Theatre in January 2015.

Tickets

 

Chain Written and directed by Peter Gardiner, Two Bit Productions

From the team that brought you 2018’s “Bully Beef” comes Chain, a contemporary play with audio drama interludes. A group of anti-war activists commit themselves to radical new tactics, when they lead to consequences none of them could of for-seen it pushes their beliefs to the edge and threatens to tear the group apart.

Tickets

 

Further Education by Pete Barrett

Directed by Luke Ofield and Pip O’Neill, Unmasked Theatre

1985: Frank the miner likes doing his job and reading the Sun. Unfortunately, Maggie is after his job and his new housemates definitely don’t like him reading the Sun. In a riotous clash of class, morals and feminism, very traditional Frank finds himself bunking down with three very modern students at the heart of the picketing wars.

In a country seeking to eradicate his livelihood, Frank must decide how he would like to be remembered once the line is inevitably drawn.

Award-winning Brighton company Unmasked Theatre returns with a winner from the highly successful Brighton Scratch Night.

Tickets

 

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Sunday March 3rd 2019 19.00 – 21.00 pm

It’s approaching that time of year again – the Sussex Playwrights AGM is here.

Please could all current paid members come to the meeting. Come along and have your say!

You will be very welcome to attend, speak, propose and second, and all current members are eligible for election to the 2019 – 2020 posts.

Could you let us know if you would like to stand in the election?

Posts and current holders are:

Chair – Philippa Hammond

Vice Chair – Robert Cohen

Secretary – Thomas Everchild

Treasurer – Keith Holman [Keith is an accountant and the son of long-serving Sussex Playwright the late Olive Holman. He is looking after this role in her memory].

Committee members

Please could you send any items for the agenda, and any motions you’d like to propose?

Non members are welcome too – although you won’t be able to vote or stand, you can get a feel for what Sussex Playwrights is all about, enjoy a glass of wine and networking conversation – all for just £3 / £2 with Equity card.

You would of course be welcome to join on the night!

Membership is £15 / £12 with Equity card.

Contact: Philippa Hammond chair@sussexplaywrights.co.uk

Venue

The New Venture Theatre bar
Bedford Place
Brighton
BN1 2PT

All welcome

Free to Sussex Playwrights members

Visitors welcome – £3 on door / £2 with Equity card [including drinks]

You can join on the night [£15 / £12 with Equity card], which entitles you to free entry to every meeting and event, including drinks, and an entry into our next playwriting competition.

Please note: Sussex Playwrights is a separate organisation from our friends the New Venture Theatre, and does not share membership.

Our March guests

Lena Richardson Hill presents

an extract from and discussion on

The Thrill of Love

by Amanda Whittington

We’ll also be hearing from Christine Foster about the new production of her play

Four Thieves Vinegar

which will feature in 2019 Brighton Fringe.

Writer / actor Joshua Plummer in conversation.

Joshua was one of the winners in the London Theatre Podcast’s “New Year, New Me” Writing Competition.

Play readings at future meetings

If you have a short play or excerpt, work in progress or finished piece [up to 10 minutes long] and would like to present it at a future meeting for discussion and feedback, or you would like to read on the night, please email us in advance at chair@sussexplaywrights.co.uk

Next meeting date

3 March 2019

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February 3rd meetup – finished

Networking and conversation for writers, actors, creators and lovers of stage, screen, audio and online drama

This month:

An extract from a new play in progress, Requiem for a Ratcatcher’s Daughter by Jules Craig, featuring Jenny Rowe and Sian Webber, followed by discussion with Jules Craig and the actors.

Jules Craig trained as an actor at Rose Bruford College, and as a voice coach at Central School of Speech and Drama. Recent credits include Marjorie in ‘Sisterhood’ (Kriah Arts) and Mustardseed/Snout in ‘Midsummer Nights Dream’ (BSC at BOAT). She teaches Voice at ‘ACT’, Brighton and ‘Identity’ Drama School, London. Writing work includes: short stories for ‘White Rabbit’s’ ‘Are You Sitting Comfortably’ (Basement, Brighton), contributions to ‘Brighton, A Graphic Novel’, and ‘Backstage Brighton’ (QueenSpark Books), and ‘Edith, Elizabeth and I’, (One woman show), which she produced, performed and toured nationally in 2016.

Sian Webber has worked extensively in theatre and on screen. Recent TV work includes Gunpowder, Silent Witness, Black Earth Rising, Midsommer Murders and Holby City and for ten years she has played the recurring role of Ritchie Scott in Eastenders.

Jenny Rowe is an actor / improviser & writer who performs with Brighton improv group The Maydays (***** Fringe Guru) and Impromptu Shakespeare. She has also guest performed with Whirled News Tonight at the iO Theatre in Chicago. She has toured with Fluxx and runs improv for creative writing workshops. (‘Jenny Rowe excels at the one liners that bring a sketch to a satisfying conclusion.’ Fringe Review, Argus the Musical).

Requiem for a Rat Catcher’s Daughter is a dark comedy exploring ageing, identity, and the pleasures and pitfalls of living alone. EVIE has found her own inventive means of controlling the plague of rats in her garden, creating her own homemade traps. When an unfortunate accident draws the attention of the local authorities, she is plagued with visitors: community police, social workers, and a rat catcher. When REBEKAH arrives, EVIE assumes she is yet another official and hides the bigger better trap that she is building. However REBEKAH is not what she seems, or what EVIE assumes her to be, and EVIE’S independence is consequently challenged.

 

If you’re working on a new script, perhaps in preparation for Brighton Fringe, and would be interested in presenting a work in progress extract or having a scratch reading on the night, please do let us know!

 

For your diary

The dates for Sussex Playwrights meetings over the next few months:

7 April 2019 [Brighton Fringe Preview]
5 May 2019 [Brighton Festival / Fringe meeting]
2 June 2019
[Summer Party]
4 August 2019

Sussex Playwrights

Supporting and promoting new drama in the region since 1935


Previous meetings

Sussex Playwrights January 6th 2019 – finished

Happy New Year!

All about Sussex Playwrights’ January meeting for writers, actors, producers – anyone interested in new drama and all media.

Special guests:

Brighton’s TBC Audio producer / director Simon Moorhead brings all the latest news of his current work – the huge online audio drama project The Other 1%, recently mentioned in the BBC Sounds’ Drama Podcast Report. Essential networking for writers and actors in the region!

Writers, actors, crew, post production work – this series is almost entirely Sussex-created and made.

Fascinating insights and essential networking opportunity for any writer or actor interested in connecting with a commissioning producer working in the city.

Philippa Hammond gives a live performance of Delicacy, a brand new monologue by Grant Gillespie and Laura Lockington, which will also shortly be recorded for the series.

And personal commitments permitting, writer-actor-producer Robert Cohen will be performing a preview extract from his solo show ‘Hi Vis’, which will be running at Sweet Venues in February, followed by discussion on the practicalities of writing, performing and producing solo work.

 

———-

 

Christmas party

Drama, comedy, stories, wine, nibbles, great conversation …

Come and join us for our annual Christmas event!

Take part: If you have a Christmas / winter / ghost themed short story, sketch, short play and you’d like to perform or share them on the night, please email

chair@sussexplaywrights.co.uk


November meeting – finished.

A monthly writers’ and actors’ meetup

Different Theatre’s writer/director Sam Chittenden will present and discuss an extract from her latest drama Sary, shortly to feature in Horrorfest, followed by discussion about her experiences around creating new drama, writing for production and performance, and marketing writers’ work.

Featuring Sharon Drain and Rebecca Jones.


We’ll also welcome Luke Ofield and Pip O’Neill – as the Rialto Theatre’s resident company, the award-winning Unmasked Theatre, they run the highly successful The Brighton Scratch Night. A development programme for new writing, the Scratch has seen five plays go on to full Fringe runs, and this year will see a whole lot more.

Ben Baeza and John Black perform an extract from Naked Kittens by Max Wilkinson, directed by Luke & Pip.

Unmasked Theatre are a producing company based in Brighton, with four years’ experience of critically acclaimed productions, with a focus on new writing and adapting classical literature for the modern stage.

 

October 2017 meeting

Meeting October 1st: Rehearsed and recorded reading of ‘The Teaswell Incident’ by John Dutton

Sussex Playwrights Meeting: Sunday 1st October 7:00pm

New Venture Theatre
Bedford Place
Brighton
East Sussex

This meeting hosted a rehearsed and recorded reading of

‘The Teaswell Incident’ by John Dutton

The winner of the 2016-17 Constance Cox playwriting competition

In the Theatre upstairs

Followed by discussion and audience Q and A with the cast and the writer

 

Thank you

Ian Black, Sam Chittenden and all at the New Venture Theatre

Sarah Johnson and all at the Duke Box Theatre at the Southern Belle


Cast

Justin Hayward

Tom Dussek

Amy Sutton

John Dutton

Murray Simon

Russell Shaw

Joshua Crisp

Host Philippa Hammond

Producer Simon Moorhead TBC Audio

Director Thomas Everchild Studio 1919

The play is currently in post production – we’ll bring you news of how you can buy a CD or download of the finished productions in due course


Next meeting dates

The dates for Sussex Playwrights meetings over the next year are:

2017: 1 Oct; 5 Nov; 3 Dec

2018: 7 Jan; 4 Feb; 4 Mar; 8 Apr; 6 May; 3 Jun; 1 Jul; 5 Aug

A monthly playwrights’ meetup night – writers of film, theatre, TV, radio, online drama, plus actors, directors, crew and their friends are welcome to come along for networking, sharing writing, reading and discussing their work

Free to Sussex Playwrights members
£2 to visitors and friends, including drinks

The next few months will see some exciting events in preparation.

 

 

2017: August review September news

About our September meeting

September meeting preview

Sussex Playwrights Next Meeting: Sunday 3rd September 7:00pm

New Venture Theatre
Bedford Place
Brighton
East Sussex

A monthly playwrights’ meetup night – writers of film, theatre, TV, radio, online drama, plus actors, directors, crew and their friends are welcome to come along for networking, sharing writing, reading and discussing their work.

Writers’ night: Please bring your short pieces for reading and discussion on the night [10 minutes or so].

Our special guest this month is Kelly Mikulla of the Sussex Film Office.

Kelly is the main point of contact for all potential projects in the region, including feature films, television, commercials, music videos or photoshoots.

Come and meet Kelly and find out how writers, actors, crew etc can benefit!

www.sussexfilmoffice.co.uk

Free to Sussex Playwrights members
£2 to visitors and friends, including drinks

Diary

Writers are often actors, directors, theatre and film makers etc too. We’re joining the dots in the city, getting everyone talking and collaborating together. Some dates for your diary:

For Actors: Brighton Actors Networking Summer Meetup 10.00am Revival Cafe, George Street, Hove. All welcome. Free – just buy your coffee and cake [your hot drink refill is half price].

For Film Makers: Shooters in the Pub Brighton film makers meetup 7.30pm Dukes at Komedia bar. All welcome. Free – buy a drink if you like.

August meeting review

Our special guest Howard J Ford

Brighton & Hove’s award-winning independent film writer and director Howard J Ford spoke about his work, his inspirations and his latest film ‘Never Let Go’, followed by an enthusiastic audience Q and A.

Howard is known for The Dead (2010), The Dead 2: India (2013) and Never Let Go (2015), and is also an award-winning commercials director.

More about his work here: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0285683/

About ‘Never Let Go’

Written and directed by Howard J Ford, starring Angela Dixon

Winner: Best Independent Feature [The National Film Awards 2016]

Winner: Best Director, Best Actress and Best Film [Artemis Women In Film Festival Los Angeles 2016]

Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8bWiGn9liU

www.neverletgomovie.com


Next meeting dates

The dates for Sussex Playwrights meetings over the next year are:

2017: 1 Oct; 5 Nov; 3 Dec

2018: 7 Jan; 4 Feb; 4 Mar; 8 Apr; 6 May; 3 Jun; 1 Jul; 5 Aug

The next few months will see some exciting events in preparation.

News of the 2017-18 Constance Cox competition is imminent

Starting October 1st, we’ll be hosting rehearsed readings of the top three 2016-17 Constance Cox Competition plays and the four runners up, featuring actors from the Brighton Actors Networking Group, with audience, author and actor discussion. The three winners will also be recorded for future podcast.

First Sunday of the month [unless otherwise indicated] 7pm – 9pm
New Venture Theatre
Bedford Place
Brighton
East Sussex

All welcome.
All meetings are free to members [including drinks].
Visitors £2 on door [including drinks]

Keep an eye on the website and Facebook Page for latest news, as details and dates are confirmed.