Watford Palace Theatre

WRITING WORKSHOPS

Please note, the workshops do not run as a course, you can choose to attend as many or as few sessions as you wish.

19th November 7pm - 9.30pm Watford Central Library

Michelene Wandor - Dialogue: From Page to Stage to Page Again

A workshop exploring the fundamentals of writing dramatic dialogue, and tests writing against the demands of performance. Scenes will be written and performed during the workshop.

20th November 7.30pm - 9.30pm Watford Central Library

Holly McBride - Writers & Directors

Director Holly McBride looks at how a director interprets a new script. The workshop will explore how a writer can influence the way the director works with a script, and specific devices that a writer can use when writing for the stage.

3rd December 7pm - 9.30pm Watford Palace Theatre

Brigid Larmour - Opening your Play

How do you write an opening which grabs your audience? This workshop will look at what makes a good opening, different styles of writing your all-important first scene, and how to approach your first page. Bring an idea to work with!

4th December 7pm - 9.30pm Watford Palace Theatre

Gbolahan Obisesan - Now, Then, Tomorrow

Writers can write from experiences of the past, observations on the present or their perceptions and predictions of the future. Using the focus of character-driven stories, this workshop will explore the writer’s imagination and how it can be used when writing your play.

Each workshop costs £10 (£7 concession) and will take a practical look at developing your writing skills, suitable for beginner and more advanced writers.

About our workshop leaders...

Michelene Wandor is a playwright, poet, fiction writer and musician. She is the first woman playwright to have had a drama on one of the National Theatre's main stages - The Wandering Jew, in 1987, the same year her adaptation of The Belle of Amherst won an International Emmy (the first of a number of awards for her writing.) Her radio plays include Orlando and Friends and Corridors of Light and Shadow (Radio 3) and her dramatisations for Radio 4 include novels by Dostoyevsky, Jane Austen, George Eliot, Kipling, H.G. Wells, Sara Paretsky and Margaret Drabble. Michelene has taught creative writing in prose fiction, poetry and drama for the past three decades, and is a Royal Literary Fund Fellow. She is currently working closely with Watford Palace Theatre on other writing projects.

Holly McBride is currently working on a number of projects at Watford Palace Theatre. She worked as Assistant Director on Absent Friends (October 2008) with Artistic Director Brigid Larmour. She is currently working on our pantomime, Dick Whittington and his Cat and our upcoming touring production Lysistrata. She is a director and workshop leader in her own right, and has worked at Royal & Derngate Theatre in Northampton, as well as numerous other venues directing community and youth work. She is currently completing a Masters programme with Birkbeck College, part of the University of London.

Brigid Larmour has been Artistic Director and Chief Executive of Watford Palace Theatre since August 2006. She launched her first season in February with Alan Bennett’s Enjoy. We That Are Left, a play she commissioned and developed with Gary Owen, was the first play she directed here, in April 2007. From 1998 to 2006 she was Artistic Director of Act Productions, a leading West End production company. Between 1989 and 1994 Brigid was Artistic Director of Contact Theatre in Manchester. Here she produced the English premieres of work by writers like Caryl Churchill, Harvey Fierstein, Liz Lochead as well as directing a number of performances.

Gbolahan Obisesan is a Writer, Director and Facilitator. Gbolahan was born in Ibadan in Nigeria, but he’s spent most of his life growing up in South east London. He is the Bulldog Princep Directors Bursary Recipient 2008 - 2009 at the National Theatre Studio and the recipient of the 2009 Jerwood Award at the Young Vic Theatre in London. Writing credits include: Frog March, Outside Cool, 100 Word Plays, Legs, Home, Hold it up and Roadside. He has also worked extensively as director, assistant director and facilitator with companies including The Royal Court Theatre, National Theatre Studio, Hampstead Theatre, Lyric Hammersmith Studio, Soho Theatre and National Youth Theatre.