This is the twenty-fifth edition of the monthly newsletter from Short Attention Span Theatre. It features news about our shows, opportunities for writers and creatives that we've seen, plus plugs for other shows and anything else of interest. If you have anything appropriate you'd like us to include for future drop us a line at info@shortattentionspantheatre.co.uk. |
|
Thanks to everyone who came along to our fundraiser show at the Rum Shack on 27th February. We really appreciate everyone coming out to support what we do. We're also very grateful to those folk who didn't attend but donated money through our Go Fund Me page.
We'd also like to thank everyone who donated to our raffle. Nick Hern Books, Orenda Books, The Rotunda Comedy Club, Gilded Balloon, Mark Westbrook, The Rum Shack, Turnstyle 13, Things By Rosana, Atelier 2.5 Portrait Studio, Good Spirits Co, Catriona Clark, Jamie Graham, David F. Ross, Claire Wingfield, Jill Miekle, Carol Westbury, and Whodunnit Events.
Thanks, of course, go to our acts on the night - Eddy MacKenzie, Gracey Flair, Adam McNelis, David Bratchpiece, Chris McQueer, Sarah McCardie, David F. Ross, and Elaine Malcolmson.
All the photographs above were taken by Bold Frank Photography. |
|
|
10 Things Worth Sharing
Here are ten links we've seen that are worth sharing.
In the Yorkshire Post poet Ian McMillan writes about how coming up with ideas for writing has parallels with postal delivery. In another of his regular columns, he writes about finding ideas for short stories.
On Why Did the Chicken they have an interview with comedy writer Gemma Arrowsmith. She offers a lot of good advice on writing comedy. 'Keep it short. Sketches tend to be about one single thing - if you have several threads in your sketch, consider separating them out into different sketches. If your script is nudging over 3 pages, edit it down. Economise and streamline until every line in your sketch is working extremely hard for you; either setting something up or paying something off.'
The Masterclass website has a number of articles based on their video lessons. There's 8 authors rules for writers, How to write a spy thriller and How to use short paragraphs to strengthen your writing.
Jonathan Harvey spoke to the Liverpool Echo about writing for Coronation Street.
In The Guardian's How I Wrote series, James Ellroy talks about how he wrote The Black Dahlia. "I knew pretty quickly that I was on to something, and about halfway through writing the book I had an astonishing moment where the entirety of my later novel LA Confidential came to me in a flash: the breadth of LA in the 1950s, the murders in a meat locker, scandal rag journalism, all of it."
There's a lengthy interview with Janice Galloway discussing the short story form on the Common Breath website. 'I’d always written short stories because they seemed … it’s quite a girly answer, this: I thought I’d be more capable of a short story, and I’d come a cropper if I tried a novel, coz it was the family ethos to say “Dont hink yer good at hings” – which goes quite deep [laughs]. So I carried that for a wee while, and it was writing a novel that stopped it. These days, I’ve got half a novel that I don’t know if I will ever finish. The actual writing part seems to be such an ordeal these days that I tend not to do it very often, and I’m writing kind of micro-stories – would be categorized as micro-stories if anybody wanted to categorize such a thing. I don’t think the length of the story is necessarily in the control of the author. I think there’s a kind of author who knows they want to write books – one story, one book. Coz if you write sixteen stories and put them all in the one book, financially you’ll lose out to some extent [laughs]. But that’s me all over! I just wanted to do that, there’s something about the impact of the short story that really excites me, I enjoy it.'
The actor, academic and writer, James Lipton, best known for interview show, Inside The Actors Studio, has died at 93. The New York Times pays tribute.
The Guardian has tips and advice for creating disgustingly gory special effects for theatre. “There is a scene when a cat gets shot and a man’s head is pushed into the cat basket. He comes up with blood all over his face.” They used gas to create a splatter effect and “to get it just right, I rehearsed it on myself first. Cobbold’s team also assessed how best to replicate the effect of a cat’s brain falling to the floor. “We needed a thump sound to be made, so we used prunes in the original staging and then jelly mixed with blood and a hard base in 2018, so that it would both thud and dribble on the stage floor.”
In Coronavirus News, a youth production of The Marxist In Heaven, had to be cancelled in Kent. With the Guildhall also having a case, this may be set to increase during March.
In a fascinating study, researchers at the University of Lancaster and the University of Texas have been using computational language analysis on the works of Edgar Allan Poe, to understand the author’s mental state in each year of his writing life. 'For the Poe study, the researchers focused on five measures that had, in previous studies, been found most consistently to be diagnostic of depression and/or suicidality: “first person pronouns (e.g. words like I, me, and my), negative emotion words (bad, sad, angry), cognitive processing words (think, understand, know), positive emotion words (happy, good, terrific), and first person plural pronouns (we, us, our).” (The last two of which would be expected to be lower than average.) They discovered that despite Poe’s image as a writer of dark tales, he in fact appeared to be more positive than average, as shown by an “exceedingly high use of positive emotion words, and notably low use of negative emotion words,” |
|
|
We began February at Waterstones in Argyle Street to see authors David Keenan and Wayne Holloway discuss their latest books and read from works in progress. The conversation branched out to writing in general, working-class voices in literature and a number of other subjects.
At The Kings, Glasgow, we saw a touring production of The King And I. This version premiered in New York and still has some of its original cast. The music is, of course, beautiful, and it was great to see that its story of clashing cultures, both ancient and modern, hasn't lost any of its vitality.
We were at Oran Mor to see Catriona Duggan's When The Penny Drops as part of Play, Pie and a Pint. Although, we're obviously biased it really was excellent, with a fantastic Jo Freer in the lead role. There are some four-star reviews from The Herald and The Scotsman. There's an interview with Catriona from the Evening Times. (You can, of course, see Catriona's latest play with us this month. Details later in the newsletter.)
Then we were at Weegie Wednesday, a Glasgow writers institution where we were treated to a talk from Lin Anderson about her long and varied career.
We took a trip through to Edinburgh's Stockbridge to attend Listen Softly, a monthly spoken word night held at Golden Hare Books. The line-up featured Theresa Munoz, Briana Pegado and Gray Crosbie, with a high standard of open mic performances in the middle. It's a regular event well worth popping along to.
The Old Hairdressers was the setting for The Bingo Hall Gets Torn Down by Daniel Gee Husson. A work in progress in told the story of a Maryhill bingo hall on its last day. The cast Elaine MacKenzie-Ellis, James Keenan and Angus Fleck did a great job creating the community environment of the bingo hall in its final day. A nice touch was the opening game of bingo admirably conducted by James. |
|
Things to Read
Tastes of Honey
by Selina Todd
A brilliant cultural history of Shelagh Delaney, the 'working-class teenager who stormed theatreland'. Growing up on a bleak council estate of 'bombsites and scrubland', with a sharp mind, a sense of dislocation and a desire not to be ground down by the unpaid hard work of marriage, she was determined to make something of her life. She sent her first play to Theatre Workshop where it was directed by Joan Littlewood. It caused a sensation and a scandal. She faced an overwhelming amount of hostility from a status quo that objected to a young Northern woman telling the unvarnished, and sardonic, truth about life as she experienced it. In her vision, being working-class meant that people had very little control of their lives in the face of illness or officialdom, but with benevolence and toughness, they pulled through. Her later career was sporadic, but her impact and legacy is far reaching. |
|
Things Coming Up We Recommend
|
|
|
The following are jobs and creative opportunities we've noticed over the last few weeks.
Our pals at InMotion have a new initiative. It's called Write Lines. Write Lines is an opportunity for writers to attend workshops with producer and playwright Lisa Nicoll in Edinburgh at over the course of four sessions in April and June 2020 to create a new 10 minute play or the beginning of a larger piece of work inspired by a newspaper or media headline.
Irish or resident in Ireland? Then RTE wants your short stories.
National Theatre of Scotland are looking for a Stage Management Assistant (Part Time).
Peely Wally Theatre, a new theatre company based in Ayrshire, has put out an open call for actors and theatre-makers. (Opens in Facebook.)
The Kenneth Branagh Award for New Drama Writing has a deadline of 5th March. It also has a reading fee of £10.
Glasgow Film Festival’s Talent Mentorship Scheme for emerging professionals working in film from underrepresented backgrounds. Applications are now open.
The Nick Darke Award 2020 is open for submissions from UK and European scriptwriters to submit a full stage play script. Deadline is 4th May.
Fairlight Books is open to literary submissions of short stories, novellas (between 25,000 and 50,000 words) and novels.
The Writers’ Cafe Magazine is open for submissions to poetry and prose responding to the theme 'Can you dig it?'
Scottish Pen are looking for submissions until the end of the month.
The Scots Language Publication Grant 2020 is open for submissions. Applications close Wednesday 15 April at 12 noon.
Renfrewshire Mental Health Arts Festival has an open call for submissions to a Poetry Exhibition which will be displayed across station platforms in Renfrewshire and Inverclyde as part of the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival (SMHAF). Find out more. (Opens in Facebook.) |
|
|
Third-party opportunities disclaimer
Please note that third-party listings and links to third-party websites listed on this website are provided solely for your convenience and not as an endorsement by Short Attention Span Theatre. We are not responsible for the content of linked third-party sites and make no representations regarding the content or accuracy of materials on such third-party websites. Additionally, Short Attention Span Theatre does not provide or make any representation as to the quality or nature of any of the third-party opportunities or services published on this website, or any other representation, warranty or guaranty. Any such undertaking, representation, warranty or guaranty would be furnished solely by the provider of such third-party opportunity or services, under the terms agreed to by such provider.
|
|
Our next show is later this month with four new plays from Chris McQueer, Catriona Duggan, Lorenzo Novani & William MacDonald, and Karen Barclay.
We have a preview at Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh on Wednesday 11th March where support will come from Joanne Bell before our two Glasgow International Comedy Festival shows on Friday 13th and Saturday 14th at the CCA on Sauchiehall Street. On Friday 13th our opening act is Ciara MacLaverty. Saturday 14th support comes from Gracey Flair.
Last year both nights at the CCA sold out. Tickets have been selling for the past few weeks, if you do want to come along best to get your tickets in advance. |
|
What Our Previous Writers Are Doing Now
Here you'll find what some of the writers of our previous shows have been doing and what they have coming up in the next month or so.
Elissa Soave - Elissa was announced as the winner of the inaugural Primadonna Prize.
Julie Rea - Julie was one of the runner ups in the Primadonna Prize. She also has a story in the latest issue of Gutter magazine.
Chris McQueer - Chris's weekly column is in the Evening Times. His latest short story collection HWFG is available from all good bookshops and publishers 404 Ink.
David F. Ross - David's latest novel Welcome to the Heady Heights can be bought, along with his other books from his website or from Amazon. He also has a piece in the latest issue of Nutmeg magazine.
Tom Brogan - Tom's podcast Shoot! The Breeze, a football nostalgia show, is now up to eleven episodes. It can be found on various podcast platforms.
Julie McDowall - Julie's popular podcast on how we prepared for nuclear war is called The Atomic Hobo.
|
|
|
Thanks for reading. If you believe this newsletter might interest others, we'd love for you to tell your friends or share it with them. Our next newsletter is scheduled to hit your inbox in early April.
|
|
|
|
|
