Goldnutmeg
Saturday 5th September 2009 10:21pm [Edited]
155 posts
Alfred J Kipper wrote: This is all sounds good but I can't see anything on your links about what's actually in it for the writer, Goldnutmeg. I like the idea, I like the criteria you've set out for submissions, but I'm not sure about doing all this just to have the thing read out, as we can do that ourselves. There seems to be no competition element to it, or have I missed something. You'll read out the ones you like but then what? Do you work as a production company that will take the scripts on or are you agents or are you performers looking for new material to stage (in the theatre)? I haven't caught on to what your role in this is or to what the purpose of it all is, and ofcourse the potential rewards. Perhaps you could fill us in please. Ta.
Mr Kipper
Dolly Dagger wrote: Having your work performed in front of an impartial audience (i.e not your mum and your deaf granny) is a great way to see what works and what doesn't - especially if you're interested in writing studio based sitcom.
Of course you could arrange something yourself to get a group of punters in to hear a reading of your work, but it's a lot easy for someone else do it for you. 
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Hi Mr Kipper and Dolly,
All that Dolly has said applies (thanks, Dolly! ) and more ... We're more like a new writing group thrown open to a public audience than a judged competition, although we obviously have to choose scripts. What does a writer gain from this? For some writers, it is their first taste of working with a director and it is a relaxed environment for this introduction. And of course it's a script development tool. It's also a social event - a chance for the audience, writers, directors and actors to mingle on the library floor. Everyone involved can also keep in touch after the event and link up with possible collaborators afterwards across all sitcoms. As it's in a library and a free event, we also get an interesting audience cross section.
Marc P wrote: Does this clash with the Sitcom Trials or is it like an old fashioned accounting system?
Our next dates were fixed immediately after the last May Sitcom Saturday event so our proximity is wholly coincidental and before we knew Sitcom Trials (ST) would be holding another event this year. For our first event, with very little notice of the event and a short time window for scripts, we received over 60 scripts and chose six scripts, all different from ST finalists. Interestingly, during Sitcom Saturday's career, while we have had one writer who overlapped with ST (a past finalist), so far we seem to have covered another complementary writing constituency.
