GUEST POST: Down Stage Wright reveal how you can commission your very own play as part of Playwrights For Hire
Following on from our series of Guest Blogs featuring behind-the-scenes insights from some of the fabulous artists bringing shows to this year’s Plymouth Fringe Festival, we asked Jon and Sam from Down Stage Wright to tell us more about Playwrights for Hire.
It started out as a random crazy thought. I’m walking down a road in London in August 2017 and a young guy is sat at a typewriter. The cardboard sign in front of him says: POEMS. £1.
You pay. He types. Hands you a poem.
That couldn’t work with plays though, right? Right?
Fast forward to September 2018 and we’re in Rumpus Cosy for Plymouth Art Weekender. There are four playwrights sat at tables and a queue of people dropping pounds into a tin. We write 44 one page plays that day. A few months later we try it again in TRP with five writers and write 64!
And now we’re back at Plymouth Fringe 2019 but this time with a twist. We’re not just going to write the plays. We’re going to perform them too! It couldn’t work, right? Help us find out all this week!
HOW DOES IT WORK?
STEP ONE:
Find one of our team of Devon and Cornwall based playwrights at Fringe venues throughout the week. Timetable here:
Tuesday
2-4pm BARBICAN THEATRE
4-5pm Theatre Royal Plymouth
Wednesday
1:30-4pm BARBICAN THEATRE
5:30-6:30 The House
Thursday
10:30-11 12-1pm Theatre Royal Plymouth
1:30-4pm The House / TRP
4-5 Theatre Royal Plymouth
Friday
10:30-11 Theatre Royal Plymouth
5-6:30 The Barbican
STEP TWO:
Pay a Pound!
A one page play for a pound! What a bargain! Feel like a big time producer funding the arts!
All the money raised writing the plays will be donated to Plymouth Foodbank
STEP THREE:
Tell us what kind of play you want! Are you after a comedy, a drama, a rom-com etc? Do you want it be be about the current political crisis? A conspiracy theory involving squirrels? Or a touching tribute to friendship set on the Torpoint Ferry?
(Below you can read what happens if you ask for a play where Ainsley Harriot marries a dinosaur…)
STEP FOUR:
Come and see the plays performed on Saturday 1st June at 8pm in The Drum, Theatre Royal Plymouth!
You’ll also get a copy of your play to keep and treasure forever-and check out the plays we make during the week on social media!
AINSLEY HARRIOTT MARRIES A DINOSAUR
by Alex Robins
Commissioned by Jon Nash @ Plymouth Art Weekender 2018
Ainsley Harriott adjusts his bow tie. His heart is pounding.
He looks to his left and stares blissfully into the eyes of his beautiful blushing bride.
She looks back at him, and giggles.
Together they look back at the vicar.
VICAR: We are gathered here today in the sight of God, and in the face
of company, to join together Ainsley Harriott and Yimmtura Leafeat in holy matrimony.
Yimmtura’s big eyes start to tear up. She has never felt more connected to herself and the Earth, having found a true life partner.
VICAR: If anyone can show just cause why they may not be lawfully joined together, let them speak now or forever hold their peace.
The star-crossed couple turn simultaneously to look out over their collected family and friends. On the left, Ainsley has invited every single contestant of Ready Steady Cook – and on the right, Yimmtura has hundreds of wrinkled relatives.
They start to turn back, relieved, when –
JEFF GOLDBLUM: I object!
Sharp intakes of breath as everyone in the church turns to look at the door, which has been kicked open by Jeff Goldblum.
JEFF GOLDBLUM: I object to this wedding!
VICAR: On what grounds Mr Goldblum?
JEFF GOLDBLUM: Please, call me Jeff, everyone else does.
I object because…
Because…
Yimmtura is a Stegosaurus! She always has been.
Can’t you see?!
Your TV chefs were so preoccupied with whether or not they
could marry a dinosaur,
that they didn’t stop to think if they should!
VICAR: They’re in love, Jeff!
JEFF GOLDBLUM: So am I, Vicar! I’m in love with the safety of humanity!
Yimmtura’s Mother stomps over and takes a big chunk out of Jeff Goldblum, even though she is a herbivore.
You can find Down Stage Wright in foyers across Plymouth Fringe Festival throughout the week using the timetable above and, if you’d like to see the commissioned play brought to life by on Saturday evening, then tickets can be booked here.
