The Sitcom Trials 2014

Hello!

The Bristol team will be staging a Sitcom Trials show at the Wardrobe Theatre, Bristol, on Friday April 4th, and we're welcoming script submissions. At least THREE scripts from this competition will be performed by the team.

http://thewardrobetheatre.com/#/the-sitcom-trials/4578792935

THE BRIEF for submission to The Bristol Sitcom Trials.

The Sitcom Trials wants situation comedy scripts that a small group of actors can perform in a live environment with minimal stage in front of an audience, who will hopefully laugh. Ideally these sitcoms will be so marvelous that the TV & radio industry representatives in the audience (should there be any) will snap them up immediately.

THE FORMAT:

Your script must have a first 'half' of less than 8 minutes.
This first half should end in a cliffhanger, or something that leaves the audience wanting more.

It must then have a final scene of 2 or 3 minutes long. This will be performed only if your sitcom is the winner on the night

Scripts should come in at around 12 pages.

Your script must have NO MORE THAN 4 CHARACTERS. (We're flexible on this, but it's good to keep it focused on just a few characters)

The sitcoms we are to test out in our regular pub theatre shows with an eye to them being developed for TV must be PERFORMABLE LIVE (ie no filmed or location inserts)
&
ON ONE MINIMAL SET.

Think in terms of a radio script.

Please put your name, email address, and the title of your sitcom on the first page of your script, and send it as a PDF file.

UPLOAD SCRIPTS TO THE FILES:

Upload your entries to the appropriate folder in the files section of the egroup. You will need to join the free egroup to do so:

http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/SitsVac/files

The folder is named "Bristol April 2014"

And you can find a handy VOTE and REVIEW thing on the spangly Sitcom Trials website:

http://sitcomtrials.blogspot.co.uk/

Deadline for entries - midnight Friday 28th February, 2014
Deadline for voting - midnight Sunday 9th March, 2014

The read-through with the Bristol team will be on Saturday 15th March, after which we'll announce which scripts have made it through.

VOTING:

All members of the SitsVac egroup/British Comedy Guide Sitcom Trials thread, you included, will be invited to read, review, and vote on all scripts in contention. Vote YES, MAYBE or NO as to each one's potential and add a short one paragraph review. Your votes will not be counted unless you include a review.

Send reviews to the SitsVac TV group message board, or to the Sitcom Trials thread at the British Comedy Guide Forum.

SitsVac group: http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/SitsVac/conversations/messages

British Comedy Guide Forum: https://www.comedy.co.uk/forums/thread/29634/

Writers are welcome to vote on their own scripts.

Votes are then totalled thus; Yes = 2 points, Maybe = 1 point, No = minus -1 point. This way we draw up a shortlist for a script reading, from which we select the items to go into the stage show.

PERFORMANCE:

The top ten entries (as voted by you) will be read by the team, from which we'll select at least THREE scripts to be performed on Friday April 4th at the Wardrobe Theatre, St Michael's Hill, Bristol. The other two scripts will possibly come from the Bristol team (it might be that we pick five from this batch of entries, if we can't come up with anything as good as the top five scripts).

This will be a rehearsed-reading/script-in-hand/radio-style affair, though we're not averse to using the odd prop or two. These sitcoms will be in competition with each other, the winner to be decided an audience vote.

There is no set theme this time round (such as the Halloween/Eurovision/Sci-Fi Trials) - you're free to come up with absolutely anything you want.

PRIZE:

We're in the process of setting up the Radio Sitcom Trials, and we'll offer the writer of the winning sitcom the chance to have their script recorded as a full-cast audio play (with music and FX) and then hopefully broadcast on BBC local radio sometime this year.

Any questions?

Happy scribbling

Vince Stadon

Reminder, the next Sitcom Trials is on April 4th and you are invited to enter now. Deadline Feb 28th. Details here: http://sitcomtrials.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/sitcom-trials-april-4th-enter-now.html

Entry is, of course, free.

The Sitcom Trials
The Wardrobe Theatre
Bristol
April 4th

Quote: Tim Azure @ 5th February 2014, 9:17 AM GMT

Saturday Night Live and Live At the Palladium sitcoms?

Shome mistake surely?

View original

It's not as easy as it looks (making the classic Have We Found..? triplets, which I've been doing in the Sitcom Trials for a dozen years now, and as animations for the last half dozen) and occasionally I bend the rules.

I actually thought there'd be heaps of sitcoms with days of the week in their name and, guess what, I could only find Friday Night Dinner. Anybody know any others?

is this one without theme again?

Quote: blahblah @ 5th February 2014, 9:26 PM GMT

is this one without theme again?

View original

Yes it's theme free. And, oh look, I made another one.

uploaded

TIME TO VOTE (Everyone welcome)

Right everyone. There are 37 scripts at the Sitcom Trials egroup which are in contention for the Bristol show at the Wardrobe Theatre on Friday 4th April(tickets on sale now).

You can find them all here:

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/SitsVac/files/Bristol%20April%202014/

I'd like you all to read, review and vote on them now. You post your votes here in this forum, or over in the other forum, choice is yours.

http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/SitsVac/

https://www.comedy.co.uk/forums/thread/29634/

Vote YES, MAYBE or NO to every script you read, and give a brief review of each to prove you've read it, and to provide valuable feedback.

Please be honest yet tactful ("Didn't find the characters interesting, and the gags fell flat" is preferable to "This was shit and made my eyes bleed"). It would be very helpful if you could list your reviews in alphabetical order, and post them all together.

Deadline for voting - midnight Sunday 9th March, 2014

Don't worry if you don't get to read them all, but it would be splendid if you possibly can.

Your votes are counted Yes=2, MAYBE=1, NO= minus 1. So anything you don't vote on doesn't affect the figures.

The top ten scoring scripts will be read by the team and FOUR will be performed at the Wardrobe Theatre on Friday April 4th (unless deemed unstageable - we're unlikely to have the resources to properly do justice to a sitcom set directly after the Tet Offensive and featuring a flotilla of helicopter gunships dropping napalm on villages... with hilarious consequences).

The scripts are (in alphabetical order):

A Civil Defence Matter

XXX (Episode One)

Best of luck to everyone who's entered, and have fun reviewing and voting!

Do we rate both Black Cab entries? One vote or two?

Hi, the two black cab entries are separate. 'Black cab detectives - blow my fuses' is a group submission by three writers, including me. 'Black cab detectives - the eye test' is a solo experiment by me only.

Please treat as separate. Sorry for any confusion, Laura.

Thanks

Didn't want to be first, but days are ticking by so here are my votes. As always nothing personal intended by comments

A Civil Defence Matter
Takes a while to get going. Light on jokes. NO

A Power Struggle (Rodeway)
Hard to differentiate between characters. A lot of on the nose dialogue. NO

A Swiss Connection
Jokes didn't really hit home for me. It's very misogynistic right off the bat. I think it was meant to be lads humour but it just came across as overly mean. In my opinion I would cut the entire toilet scene and just lead with the offer to go on the holiday. Also if Colin was scared of Danny he wouldn't smart mouth him. NO

Amen Coke Break
The characters of a strict nun and a former sex addict nun seems a bit old hat to me. Not too keen on the name Sister Magdalen, butthat's personal taste and others like a nice joke-y character name. I'm sure the police would believe an entire convent that they just found the drugs. NO

And The Lord Said
Good Characters. Some good lines. Have a YES

Anything For The Weekend
Dialogue seems to be on the nose. I would also say it's over written: the planning of the wrong birthday is a decent joke but it seems to take about two pages to set it up and get to the punch line. NO

Bankers
Difficult to tell the difference between characters. Light on jokes. NO

Becky The Squirrel
Nice premise and some good lines. YES

Black Cabs An Eye Test
It took a while to get started, not sure we need to see the eye test we could just see her dealing with not working straight away. Lot of on the nose dialogue. NO

Black Cabs Blow My Fuses
By the title, I was expecting the script to be about solving a case. Not much of a story. NO

Bulldog Rusholme
Characters sound the same. Jokes fell flat for me. NO

CEO The Interview
My first thought was it seems over written, a lot of stage directions could be left out. The story seems low risk. NO

Cloud Nine
Sallys first speech was very expositional, especially as she was talking to a stranger. Light on jokes. NO

DAVE
Jokes didn't really land for me. NO

Divorce Private People
Difficult to tell characters apart. Jokes fall flat for me. NO

First Position
I like the idea of the dance duo, one in a wheelchair, who also teach children. But I don't think the script fully realised that potential. For me the humour would be mainly visual, very difficult for this kind of competition I know, but my two cents for future episodes. As it stands. NO

Fletcher Mallard
Light on jokes. Not a strong enough story. NO

Game of Shops
Characters sound the same and jokes don't land for me. NO

Gems Kitchen
I think French material has been done a lot so it's very difficult not to illicit groans with any French jokes. Characters have own identity but light on jokes. NO

Good Grief
Some good jokes. Like the fact a doctors first thought is to compare ages. But some other jokes don't land for me. Also the story seemed low risk. NO

Hurricane Virginia
Slow to get going and light on jokes. NO

Ivory Towers.
Introduces the story fairly quickly but light on jokes. NO

Jungle Fury
Liked the premise, but it is light on jokes. Maybe

Living With Paul
You are thrown straight into the action, which is good, but then it tails off and has dialogue which goes nowhere. It's a good story but the dialogue is too fast and inconsequential. NO

Nat The Worms
Some lines seem over expositional. Light on jokes. NO

Open Mic Night
Characters feel samey. Light on jokes and story. The character Alan isn't very likeable and he is crude, which turned me off. NO

PS I Hate You
Slow to get going, and the French thing didn't really hit home for me. NO

Real True Spiritual Shop
Nicks dialogue seems to go against his description as a slacker. On the nose and crude dialogue. I like the idea of it being set in that sort of shop, but for me NO

School Of Hard Knocks
My script. After a lot of soul searching I'm going with. YES

SEEN
Difficult to tell difference between characters. Seems to be low stakes. NO

The Fundamentals
Nice bit of dialogue at beginning. Some good jokes. But it seems very light on story, at the moment it's just back and fourth dialogue which goes nowhere for the majority of the script. MAYBE

The London Bucket List
Very short and no story. NO

The Sirens Coming
1st comment best email address ever! I know it's difficult for what is essentially a radio script but I think show-not-tell is important to mention here. You could cut a couple of pages by simply having a stage direction "They remove the sheet and we see a pig wearing a mask" I believe they read out stage directions on the night it is performed. It's an interesting story, but I don't think it comes across here. NO

The Terror Merchants
Jokes didn't really land for me. Not much of a story. NO

Ticking Over.
I think the need to get the baby checked out at the hospital after a crash is more important than hiding it from his wife. I think there's a lot of humour in new parents, but the script didn't fully embrace that for me. NO

Tragedy
Some decent lines, but seems a bit all over the place at the moment in terms of character and story. NO

XXX
I get that calling people "dude" is a character trait, but it began to get on my nerves - others may like it though. Lot of the dialogue is on the nose and not much of a story. NO

By the way, if anybody wants a reasonably-priced feedback on any of their scripts, just click the link below.

(Testimonials on there too, if you want references.)

Ta

Dan

Quote: swerytd @ 5th March 2014, 11:00 AM GMT

By the way, if anybody wants a reasonably-priced feedback on any of their scripts, just click the link below.

View original

I think blahblah's feedback was very reasonably-priced.

You haven't got my bill yet

For those interested; I've voted on all submitted scripts for Apr-2014 and posted it here:

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/SitsVac/conversations/messages/11292

Regardless of my voting & preferences; respect to everyone that stepped up, tippy-tapped, and submitted a script. Gah x