It’s almost that time of year again, when the Jack becomes a hub for the best of local new writing, there is already a buzz in the air as we have just released the full line up of plays and workshops happening this May.
Tickets are now on sale via our website so it’s time to book and guarantee your seat for one of the most exciting new writing festivals in London!
Here are the full details:
To launch this year’s Write Now Festival we have a selection of short plays to whet your appetite.
Chosen from submissions to the Jack, these plays explore different aspects of our chosen theme: Lead Us. We’re giving playwrights the chance to show the world what a real leader looks like (or failing that, to show us where we’re going wrong).
What defines a leader? Do they command or defer?
Do we pick them, or do they pick themselves?
Heart warming, thought-provoking and humorous, these short plays are drawn from UK and international submissions.
We are pleased to announce this year’s shorts are:
Footprints by Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson
Four Interrogations by Maximillian Singh Gill
Queens of the Realm by Ian August
Roleplay by Nick Myles
The Catch by Tom Harvey
The Soldier by Chris Paxton
True Grit by Judy Upton
Saturday May 9 at 5pm and 730pm
Talking to Alice by Lucinda Burnett
Write Now 6 Winner
directed by Tanith Lindon
Adam takes photographs, lots of photographs, and has a tendency to share too much. After a spectacular bust up at a nightclub, Adam finds himself in the care of trainee social worker Harriet. As their relationship develops Harriet finds herself struggling to cope, and both are pushed to breaking point. A warm and poignant new drama about friendship, mental health and the costs of caring.
‘You ever go somewhere and you think, yeah, I belong here? But you’re not happy because here is a hospital bed and here is lumpy?’
Lucinda Burnett graduated with distinction from the Advanced Theatre Practice MA at Central School of Speech and Drama. Theatre credits include: Come to Where I’m From (Royal Exchange Theatre, Paines Plough), Organised (Unicorn Theatre), Some Of Us (Oval House Theatre) and George’s Dad (Rose Theatre). Lucinda was part of the Future Perfect attachment at Paines Plough Theatre Company and is a member of the Old Vic New Voices company. Lucinda lives in West Norwood.
Staged Reading performances: Tuesday 12, Thursday 14 at 7.45pm & Saturday 16 May at 4pm
There will be a post show conversation on Thursday 14 May with members of the creative team. This is open to all who have bought a ticket for that night’s performance.
Dog Country by Joseph Wilde
Write Now 6 Winner
directed by Mark Leipacher
Hotspur loves Germ, Germ loves Pigeon, and Pigeon loves himself. It’s 2001 and these teenagers have the world at their feet. In 2011, Trish and Mike have changed beyond recognition since they last met. They rekindle a long dead attraction, though the elephant in the room is threatening to trample them both. Dog Country is about a generation of kids who tried to become adults at the worst possible time.
‘You’re a meteorite. You’re a meteorite and I’m a dinosaur. You’re a spaceship and I’m a…Caveman.’
Joseph Wilde is a graduate of the Royal Court and Chichester Festival Theatre Young Writers Programmes, and of HighTide Festival Theatre’s Escalator Playwright attachment. Cuddles, Joseph’s first play, opened at the Ovalhouse Theatre in 2013. In May it will tour nationally before transferring to New York. Other theatre includes The Pier (Oxford Playhouse/Marlowe Theatre) and The Van Dyck Vanishments (Marine Studios/Milo Wladek Co). Joseph also writes for TV and radio. In 2014 his play The Loving Ballad of Captain Bateman won the BBC Drama Imison Award. Joseph lives in Camberwell.
Staged Reading performances: Wednesday 13, Friday 15 and Saturday 16 May at 7.45pm
There will be a post show conversation with the creative team on Friday 15 May. This is open to all who have bought a ticket for that night’s performance.
rock paper scissors by Olga Nikora
Write Now 6 Winner (full production)
directed by Kate Bannister
Roma and Mihai are brothers sharing a tiny south London flat. They fight about everything. Food. Girlfriends. Drinking. Parents. The only thing they don’t fight about is that neither wants to be known as a Romanian gypsy. rock paper scissors explores kinship and identity, and asks when do we stop being children and when do we stop playing games.
‘I’m not a nobody. I been here ten years. This is my home. I’m a local. Everyone back in Romania is real proud of me…I’m a legend there, I am.’
Olga Nikora was born in Eastern Europe and moved to New Zealand when she was a child. Olga began writing while studying for her law degree. Her first play Tightrope Bonnie was shortlisted for the Verity Bargate Award. Theatre credits: In the Company of Strangers (Soho Theatre, staged reading), Then they came for me (Greenwich Theatre). Olga lives in south east London and is currently working on a short film about the diverse and multicultural nature of London.
Tuesday 19 – Saturday 30 May at 7.45pm (Tues -Sat only)
There will be a post show conversation with members of the creative team on Friday 22 May. This is open to all who have bought a ticket for that nights’ performance.
Take Part in Write Now 6
Join us for our writing workshops if you want to try out something new or if you have an idea you want to develop. We have three new workshops for you this year, with exciting guest speakers. All workshops are just £5! Numbers are limited to twelve per workshop, so please book online to guarantee your place. Workshops are suitable for all experiences.
Big Adventures in Small Worlds (Saturday 16 May 1-3pm)
In this workshop we use automatic writing exercises, drawing on our past experiences to create authentic familiar worlds for our characters to inhabit. This ‘small world’ is then a safe place to explore a ‘big adventure’, allowing us to investigate challenging, scary and unwieldy themes and events.
Led by Anna Jordan.
Anna won the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting in 2013 with her play Yen, which had a sell out run at the Royal Exchange Theatre. Other writing credits include Freak (Assembly Fest Edinburgh / Theatre503), Chicken Shop (Park Theatre, Winner of West End Frame Fringe Production of the Year 2014), The Freedom Light (Company of Angels), The Ivory Year (LAMDA), Stay Happy Keep Smiling (Soho Theatre), Coming Home (Bush Theatre). Staunch (Arcola), Fragments (Riverside). She is Artistic Director of Without a Paddle Theatre and has taught acting and playwriting at RADA, LAMDA, Arts Ed, Italia Conti and Identity. She is currently on the BBC Drama Production Writers’ Scheme.
Synopsis Surgery (Saturday 23 May 1-3pm)
Get it right before you write! This workshop is about honing a workable blueprint for your play. Pitch and kick ideas around and get feedback from group discussion to move your play forward.
Led by David Bottomley.
David is Literary Manager of the Jack Studio Theatre, a playwright and workshop leader. He has run workshops for Spread the Word, Goldsmiths, IDEO and IdeasTap. He founded the London Playwrights’ Collective and the Jack Writers’ Workshop. He took Message in a Bottle, his one man show to Edinburgh Festival 2012 and his play, The Peacock and the Nightingale had it’s world premiere at the San Diego International Fringe Festival in 2014.
Inventing In/credible! Characters (Saturday 30 May 1-3pm)
A practical look at how to craft truthful and believable characters with real potential to inspire great drama. Come with a character in mind or create one on the spot. Through exercises and discussion the workshop will look at how to build a character, and by exploring their public, private and inner worlds, how you can discover the potent relationships, needs and wants that will form the foundations of a character’s journey.
Led by Suzanne Gorman.
Suzanne is a Director, Dramaturg and Producer whose work has focused on giving a platform to the voices, stories and creativity of BAME and diverse communities. She is Artistic Director of Maya Productions, a company that makes theatre that reflects and celebrates diversity. She is also Artistic Associate at Soho Theatre, where she previously led the creative learning department and directed over fifteen new writing productions, managed the unique young writers programmes and pioneered the company’s groundbreaking site specific and digital work with communities. She has worked and directed for New Perspectives Theatre Company, Derby LIVE, Shared Experience, Immediate Theatre, Sheffield Theatres, Leicester Haymarket, Kali Theatre Company and Theatre Royal Stratford East.
The Write Now 6 Festival is supported by the London Borough of Lewisham and Arts Council England funding through Grants for the Arts.
To launch the 
Howard Colyer’s family comes from south east London. His father and mother were both born in Peckham and they met at the New Cross Palais in 1943, which is now The Venue. Howard Colyer was born in 1961 near Brixton Hill. He went to school in Streatham and left when he was sixteen. But later he took his A Levels in Croydon and then studied history at university, Keele and Illinois State.
The Jack Studio Theatre 