In Your Image by Rob Benson selected by our judges for development
I know all the writers whose work was performed found the event a rewarding experience.
Thank you to the audience for your thoughtful and considered feedback, which enhanced the whole event allowing the pilot of Dialogue to blossm in its exploration of new writing from the South West region.
We welcome and look forward to receiving furthur comments/opinions about the work presented and the event as a whole. Please leave your comments below this article.
We aspire to develop Dialogue into a permanent fixture in the new writing porfolio in the South West. Your input and comments will help develop this into a robust and valued event.
Once again a huge thank you to all those involved in bringing alive the Dialogue.
TheatreWorks and Salisbury Playhouse are pleased to announce the scripts selected for Dialogue.
We received a great deal of exciting scripts and would like to thank all those who entered for adding to the enjoyable experience of engaging with so many new ideas, voices and stories from writers from across the South West.
All scripts were read blind by at least 2 readers and when the final selection was made, we just as curious as anyone else to see who the successful writers were.
So here are the chosen scripts and their writers:
In Your Image – Rob Benson
Cleave – Richard Conlon
If You Touch Me, I’ll Leave – Steve Lambert
The Interview – Ralph Saunderson
All pieces will be directed by Mark Powell
Ticket £5
Salisbury Playhouse Box office: 01722 320333
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I thoroughly enjoyed the four new works last night. Congratulations to the authors and to the actors and director for their work. I’m a bit surprised by the judges’ choice…I was hoping for Cleave to win as it seemed to me to be the most original of the pieces and had a poetry to the dialogue. A New York playwright once taught me to push the boundaries of the stage and the theatre needs that now more than ever. But it seems difficult to convince the people who choose plays for production whether in the West End or on Broadway.
I agree Cleave was theatrically interesting with potential for development. I appreciated the lack of exposition in If You Touch Me. I loved the event, a great venue and opportunity for new writing. Let’s do more. I was, however, puzzled by the gender imbalance of the event: all four writers were men, the director was a man, two of the judges were men. I know the plays were selected anonymously (by men?) but of the plays chosen two were male fantasies and one about male identity… ooooerrr
Hi guys,
In response to both of these comments as a writer this was the first time I have done a conventially ‘straight’ script as it were, so although not a risk theatrically it was for me personally as a Playwright. If you would like to see my other work by all means come and see Borderline my one-man show looking at mental health and performed in Verse at the Alma Tavern 28 July-1st Aug, maybe that will be more to your taste.
As for the ‘male’ comments, one of the judges was female. I have written plenty of plays with strong women roles but that would be a very different story and not what the play was about. I thank you for your comments and will take them on board.
I felt the need to respond to the previous comment about the gender imbalance within the Dialogue event.
As somebody who for many years worked delivering diversity and inclusion training in the business and academic world, it is an issue I am passionate about. It is an issue that goes way beyond gender difference and strives to deliver equal opportunity to people regardless of differences they hold that others may deliver prejudice upon.
The process of selection for the work in Dialogue was a blind one removing any information in regards to the writer, so quality and potential could shine through. For many years there has been a legislative need to deal with discrimination within our working lives; there have been quotas, aspirations and initiatives to bring back balance to discriminated groups within our work society.
I would be the first to say we are still far from an equal society that does not prejudice or discriminate. I also feel that if we are truly to meet the aspiration of inclusive opportunity then the individual is selected on merit. To enter the realms of positive discrimination can lead to tensions and resentment and play into the schemers of those who would like to act of their prejudiced views.
Nobody has commented about the other diverse factors that make up the contributors to Dialogue. Indeed assumptions might have been made about sexuality, race, disability or other diverse factors that might be overt or not overt.
All the judges were selected on merit and as key partners to the event. Phillip and Andrew are directors of the two partner venues that have helped Dialogue to come alive. Sarah was engaged because of her connection and expertise with new writing across the South West. The Director of the work was selected because he is an excellent director and was able to offer his time in kind to support the event, along with helping facilitate the Playhouse’s commitment to the event.
Lastly you see two of the selected works as male fantasies and interestingly I see work that explores the power and control between the genders within the work. Our own assumptions and prejudices will feed into what we want to see and sometimes that might turn out to be accurate and enforce our prejudices and at other times we can be wrong. If we hold on to our assumptions instead of questioning them and challenging our own stereotypes then we may be guilty of creating the discrimination that we aspire to remove.
I do welcome the open debate that the comments have prompted and they must be held in prominence to improve the quality of our project delivery. I would hope however after such a positive event that the artist work is given the acknowledgement it deserves.
I too thoroughly enjoyed the event and would be very pleased to see it become a more regular occurrence. I, unfortunately, had to leave early so was unable to see Cleave but for me, of the three pieces I saw performed, found If You Touch Me I’ll Leave the most dramatically interesting and challenging of the pieces. Some of the members of the audience and I think perhaps even the writer himself if memory serves, suggested that it would be interesting to see how the characters had arrived at the point in their lives they were at in the extract shown. However, on reflection, I felt that the extract could be (possibly was?) a powerful and arresting opening of a play and that it might be even more interesting/dramatically satisfying to chart in the play how the relationship progresses/degenerates from that point.
I found The Interview to be amusing (and also well acted) but agreed with the comment made that it would be more interesting to explore why the characters feel the need to enact these role-plays; I think more ‘deeper delving’ perhaps needed to be done by the writer and if this were done, there would be increased potential for the piece.
I enjoyed In Your Image and thought there was a lot of potential in the piece and a clear set up of conflict between the two brothers. However, I felt the piece was quite ‘safe’ and that there was a familiarity about it, I felt that maybe I had seen this type of story being told on stage before. I preferred the sense of danger/edginess/sense of unease of Steve Lambert’s piece and felt that it posed more questions for me.
What a great event and well done to all those involved, writers, directors and actors all! I agree with comments above re: ’Let’s Do More’, I don’t agree with the ‘gender imbalance’ comment however, mainly due to the simple fact that the pieces were chosen anonymously.