PlayDays
New writing is central to Cloud Nine's work, and we are always keen to become involved in new initiatives. The Company runs a regular series of PlayDays, where we take promising new plays, workshop them for a full day in the presence of the writers, then put them on their feet, script-in-hand for a public performance in the evening.
Cloud Nine's playwriting workshop on Sunday 26th September 2010 saw the process set in motion once again. Eleven writers and Cloud Nine's artistic Peter Mortimer were locked away for six hours in the Community Room of the Customs House. Each writer brought a play-in-progress, and an extract from each was given a live reading, then discussed. Subject matters ranged far and wide, from the stark realism of crime on a modern-day sink estate, to ghosts in a graveyard, Cullercoats willick girls, a man haunted by images of the first world war, the perils of taking gran on a package holiday, and corrupt coppers.
All writers now have several weeks to complete their one-act plays and submit them to the company, where they will be considered for a future PlayDay event. Two plays are chosen and workshopped for a full day by our actors and a director, then put on their feet before a live audience in the evening. Several previous PlayDay offerings have eventually been taken on to full production by Cloud Nine.
Top marks go to Bishop Auckland writer Alison Carr who had to leave the house before 7 am to make the complicated Sunday public transport journey to South Shields!
We are grateful to Ray Spencer of the Customs House for agreeing to fund the next PlayDay, after the Arts Council's decision not to fund Cloud Nine Theatre Group in 2010. Thanks Ray, for your valued support at this time!
Our previous PlayDays project culminated on February 7th 2010, at Bishop Auckland Town Hall: for this PlayDay we presented two brand new 30 minute plays from Northern writers, both directed by Jackie Fielding:
- KISS ME QUICK
by Mark Robberts - A comedy set on a holiday beach. Ruth is spitting feathers after a row with her boyfriend. On the beach she meets the older woman Georgina, a meeting which throws up some unlikely results.
Mark Robberts is a writer from Trimdon. - FELL
by Sean Burn - Almost 3,000 feet up on a windy Northern peak, Dee and Mol look back at the turbulent events that have led them to this time and place.
An unusual experimental play from a poet and playwright who lives in Byker, Newcastle.
Other writers interested in submitting short - 30 minute - scripts should contact our artistic director, Peter Mortimer, on cloudninetheatre@blueyonder.co.uk who would also be pleased to have your comments and ideas.