Here are ten links we've seen that are worth sharing.
Like, we imagine all of you, we've been horrified by much of what's went on in America in the last couple of weeks. We're not going to pretend we've got our fingers on the pulse of the many issues raised in America and at home recently. We've been listening and trying to learn and will go on doing so. We've started with a few links from people who know an awful lot more than us.
More than 300 artists
released a statement directed at the white theatre community in America. They set up the website
We See You White American Theater. The Guardian selects
four plays that resonate amid the protests. Gary Younge writes in
The New Statesman on state violence against black people and the struggles of BAME coronavirus patients.
The playwright
David Hansen started The Short Play Project where he's written 150 short plays then put the scripts out for anyone to film them. There are currently 64 plays, all under five minutes, in his
YouTube Playlist.
We've been listening to a lot of podcasts from
Writer's Routine recently. They have tons of great conversations with writers like
Val McDermid,
Stuart MacBride, and
David Baldacci. Lots of good chat about writing, as well as some nuggets of writing advice.
Playwright and activist
Larry Kramer passed away in May. This is his obituary from
Vulture. Playwright David Drake talks about Kramer's
influence on him.
The
Central Works Script Club is an online book group, only with plays. On the first Tuesday of the month, they choose a play, which you can download. Then you're invited to send in a question for the playwright. Finally, there's a filmed Q & A with the writer. It's free, but they will accept donations.
If you're missing book festivals and book talks then
MyVLF is the site for you. It's a virtual book festival featuring talks by writers such as Robert Webb, Kate Mosse, Adele Parks, and Neil Gaiman.
How do you get published? Author
Mhairi McFarlane has nine tips on her website.
An interesting article from the
Yorkshire Post about writer
Lenka Janiurek. A teenage playwright she was a contemporary of Andrea Dunbar. After her initial success, she stopped writing in her early twenties. Now at 61, she's written her memoir.
Toby Litt showcases
the seven deadly sins of writing.
'A thousand words a day is, in itself, no achievement. There are millions of 80,000 word novels that are no better than the previous 80,000 word novels their writer wrote. Everyone on twitter cheering one another on for mere productivity is misguided. Sorry. Most of them would be better stopping the novel and writing a short story. Most of them would be even better writing a decent sonnet.'
The
Traverse Theatre has some free workshops online, and
this one with Douglas Maxwell is great. He's brutally honest about his own journey from hopeful to a professional playwright. You're bound to get something out of it, and Douglas is an always entertaining speaker.
