Spring Board 2008
Springboard was a new event this year, which showcased the work in progress of young, emerging and experienced writers from Wales.
With the help of talented directors, musicians and performers, the SpringBoard programme had over 15 short, sharp theatrical shocks from our emerging writers.
Back in January 2008, five themes were created as a starting point for the writers, directors and musicians involved.
After six emerging writers took part in our Lock In weekend workshops with experineced writers, an array of stories were produced in English and Welsh. Seumas Lorretto gave us teenage kicks and kisses in Lush, Ceri Elen Morris took us down a street of secrets in Min Nos Fan Hyn, Owen Thomas brought a chill to Coldstone Station, Rhiannon Boyle gets her messages mixed in Duw a Wyr, Emily Steel has a unique all-female take on one of the Mabinogi`s most cruel tales in Six and Nic Ros finds sexual politics aplenty during a ghostly overnight vigil in Prawf.
Although some projects were created from scratch for SpringBoard, two experienced writer took issue with a past writer and wrote a short play in response as part of the Muse On projects. Aled Jones Williams paid homage to Beckett in Merched Eira and Alan Osbourne found that little had changed in the valleys since Crawshay in Ebeneser and the Fair Country.
Young people had the opportunity to develop their ideas as part of the Knockabout projects and two experienced authors investigated topical events in Wales as part of Hearing Voices. Meredydd Barker delved into genetic modification in GM and Alan Harris travelled from Treorchy to China in his search for the truth behind the Rhondda factory`s closure in Burberry: A Welsh Campaign.
As well as writers and directors, in our Pitch In pieces we added musicians to explore the effect music and words have on each other. Gary Owen`s words met Rhodri Davies’s music in Sound is to Speech as Speech is to Sound, Eddie Ladd and Steffan Cravos found common ground in Radio Llibertat, Kit Lambert & Paul Jones worked together to create An Epic Portrayal of Mundane Love and Indie band Gindrinker and writer Tracey Harris created The Push and the Pull.
Milgi’s Dirty Protest visited Sherman for the first time with their Three Dirty Plays and Alun Saunders won the ScriptSlam Final 2008.
As well as work in progress there were talks, discussions and heated debates around certain themes of theatre, such as writing for a Welsh audience and Verbatim Theatre.
Throughout Springboard a selected group of writers created pieces of work from scratch though various workshops and activties in our coursework project.
If you missed this year’s Springboard and want to find out more about new writing and script development, please contact our Literary Team, Sian Summers or Branwen Davies
