WriteForTheStage

“The WriteForTheStage courses were my very first experience of writing for theatre.  Previously my creative writing was limited to blogging and a few failed attempts at putting together short stories and poems.
 
The playwriting courses taught me how to structure my writing for best effect and how to really develop robust and believable characters.  Once established the characters practically wrote their own lines and the story came to life.
 
The tutoring style was relaxed, supportive and really allowed for creativity to flow in an environment which nurtured new ideas without ever making me feel that my ideas were wrong or silly.   Particularly useful when writing such a far-fetched comedy!
 
Without the WriteForTheStage courses Barbara the Zoo Keeper would never have made it.”

Richard Douglas
Events & Training Manager

“I signed up to do the WriteForTheStage Advanced course because I wanted to write a longer piece of theatre and one of the aims of the course was to write a 60 minute play. Up to then I had only written “shorts” of up to fifteen minutes but had some success, winning several local competitions and having work performed at Oldham Coliseum’s First Break Festival 2013 and Hebden Bridge Arts Festival in June 2013.

In the first few weeks of the course, Mike did a lot of exercises to generate ideas and encourage us to get something down on the page without censoring ourselves. We did a lot of work around structure, and I think this work really paid off when it came to the feedback I received.

Mike was so supportive and generous with his time, giving individual feedback via one-to-ones outside the weekly classes and writing detailed notes on numerous drafts. It was fantastic (and a bit scary) to have our work read by professional actors and hear their feedback, plus get the audience’s perspective at Development week.

I feel I have become a more skilled and confident playwright!”

Naomi Sumner
Playwright/screenrwriter