Hmm, I had a go at this last time around (The Riding Officer) - might give it another go IF I WIN 
Sitcom Trials Manchester 2011 - scripts invited Page 2
Some top tips included in this blog by Academy Award-, WGA-, and BAFTA-nominated A History of Violence screenwriter Josh Olson, explaining why he will never read your script.
http://www.deadline.com/2009/09/why-he-will-not-read-your-f**king-script/
Choice snippets include:
It rarely takes more than a page to recognize that you're in the presence of someone who can write, but it only takes a sentence to know you're dealing with someone who can't.
&
... the ultimate amateur move: sent me an e-mail saying, "If you haven't read it yet, don't! I have a new draft. Read this!" In other words, "The draft I told you was ready for professional input, wasn't actually."
Enjoy, we might all learn something. Meantime, keep those scripts coming.
Kev F
Sitcom Trials
Quote: Kev F @ April 17 2011, 10:34 PM BSTIt rarely takes more than a page to recognize that you're in the presence of someone who can write, but it only takes a sentence to know you're dealing with someone who can't.
Probably someone who quotes someone else.
What file do we upload our scripts to? When can we vote? How many scripts have been submitted so far?
Quote: Mooky @ April 29 2011, 12:28 AM BSTWhat file do we upload our scripts to? When can we vote? How many scripts have been submitted so far?
You go the the Files section here:
http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/SitsVac/files/
and put your script in the folder entitled "- Sitcom Trials entries 2011 " by clicking the "Add File" link at the top roght of the page.
So far two scripts have been uploaded, and I have heard from a number of other writers who will be uploading soon. You have to join the free egroup to be able to upload an entry, and a good few people have done that in the last month.
Bring 'em on
Kev F Sutherland
Sitcom Trials
Hello Kev,
I'm currently finishing my entry and I have a few questions regarding the staging:-
Can characters smoke on stage?
Would it be possible to find a prop syringe? (No drug use--just one character injecting another with a solution that makes his tongue swell!)
Prop handcuffs and small arms (pistol and carbine)?
I'd also like to state for the record how difficult it is to squeeze a half-hour sitcom into 8 minutes. 
But thanks for the opportunity! 
Quote: Kev F @ April 29 2011, 8:41 AM BSTYou go the the Files section here: http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/SitsVac/files/
and put your script in the folder entitled "- Sitcom Trials entries 2011 " by clicking the "Add File" link at the top roght of the page.So far two scripts have been uploaded, and I have heard from a number of other writers who will be uploading soon. You have to join the free egroup to be able to upload an entry, and a good few people have done that in the last month.
Bring 'em on
Kev F Sutherland
Sitcom Trials
Thanks Kev.
I've already joined the group and I'm just finishing off my first draft, should be submitted in a week or two. Cheers
Quote: evan rubivellian @ April 29 2011, 9:52 AM BSTCan characters smoke on stage?
Would it be possible to find a prop syringe? (No drug use--just one character injecting another with a solution that makes his tongue swell!)
Prop handcuffs and small arms (pistol and carbine)?
I'd also like to state for the record how difficult it is to squeeze a half-hour sitcom into 8 minutes.
The Manchester Sitcom Trials will be performed radio-style, with scripts in hand. Because it's a small venue, we can move around quite a bit, but it won't be fully staged, it'll be rehearsed readings. So I wouldn't rely too heavily on the visual or prop gags to provide the laughs, you may need to get round that.
Don't worry, if a script is funny enough, there's always a way to tweak it to give us something performable on the night.
Smoking on stage, you'd need a prop cigarette. But just how vital is it? Could you live with mimed smoking or, if it goes as completely radio style (ie the actors don't make a pretence to any visuals whatsoever) could the smoking be mentioned in the dialogue? Ditto the prop syringe.
Just write what you're writing. If a script is chosen, a way will be found to perform it.
As for squeezing a half hour sitcom into an 8 minute slot, the answer is don't. Give us 8 minutes of comedy starring your characters. Think of it like the first half of a sitcom on American TV. Minus the theme tune and the pre-credits sequence. There you go, 8 minutes on the nose.
Obviously it would be grand to stage 30 minutes of sitcom every time, but the Trials is a stepping stone towards that. Look at it like sitcom's equivalent of an open mike. If you do a good 7 minutes, you might move on to doing 20 minute support slots soon, and eventually be a half hour headliner.
Kev F http://sitcomtrials.co.uk
PS: Good examples of Sitcom Trials sitcoms squeezed into 8 minutes can be found by watching the clips from the TV series. So concise you can fit them onto YouTube. Full list: http://www.youtube.com/my_playlists?p=69020E394F073EC2
Jimmy James http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSup307XhM0
Perfect 10 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YpjztU5WVU
Football A Way Of Life http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w66LAFUdZu4
A Producers Tale http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBa0Rcf0_0c
What An Anchor http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qX8730VhZgM
Go Wild In The Country http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj_dIv6UDMU
The Client http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPuHN6q08P0
Many thanks for clarifying things, Kev--and for all the links. Excellent stuff.
Just wondering: how many scripts do you anticipate performing at the staged reading?
At the moment there are 3 scripts... if no one else uploads an entry do we all go through? 
The Manchester Sitcom Trials team, who I really ought to get to introduce themselves, is a small group of actors, writers and comedians, who will be producing and performing the one off show. Last year they performed scripts that they'd found, written or selected themselves. This year they're opening up the floor to more entries.
The plan is to offer them a shortlist of the best scripts that get entered online - the idea being we might get hundreds of entries, so we'd then invite all the online participants to read, review and vote on the scripts entered to help us draw up a shortlist for the Manchester team to choose from.
If we only get 3 entries, then that would be the shortlist. If we only get 10, or even 20 scripts, then frankly the Manchester team (and I'll even join in) will be able to read the lot and select what they like.
The show will be long enough to perform a miniumum of 4 scripts and a maximum of 6 (depends on scripts, format and production choices). If the Manchester team liked everything they read and had brought along nothing better themselves, they could perform 6 online entries. I would like them to perform a minimum of two online entries.
Bring on those entries, and let's give them something they can't resist.
Being old, I've only got about ten friends, also old, that are on the net, so that's probably my whack of votes
Quote: Griff @ May 12 2011, 12:45 PM BST"The sitcoms we are to test out in our regular pub theatre shows with an eye to them being developed for TV"
Could you tell us more about that Kev?
The sitcoms we've always tested out on stage, from Sits Vac through The Sitcom Trials to The Sitcom Mission et al have always been tested out with an eye to them being developed for TV. I see the live testing of a script in from of an audience as a part of a script's development.
I see what you're drawing attention to, ie the fact that some sitcom stage shows make a point of the TV industry members in their audience and that, therefore, they are a more direct showcase to the TV and radio, and that in particular The Sitcom Mission has a sponsorship arrangement with a TV production company with a TV development deal being offered as a prize to the winner. I agree that those factors make entering a script into The Sitcom Mission 2011 a different proposition from entering one to the Manchester Sitcom Trials.
Nonetheless the sitcoms the Manchester team will be presenting will be being tested out with an eye to them being developed for TV. And hopefully, after they have been staged, they will be a step closer to being worth consideration by broadcasters and producers, and their writers will be a step closer to being experienced broadcastable writers. The Sitcom Trials has ten years experience of staging new comedy writing, both in London and Bristol but also at the Edinburgh Fringe and on tour, and all that time we have envisaged this writing we were staging being good enough to be commissioned for the telly (so far The Sitcom Trials ITV series and, less directly, Miranda are our best achievements, along with the many writers & performers who credit the Trials for the boost it's given them).
Coincidentally the venue for the Manchester Sitcom Trials, The Lass O'Gowrie, backs on to the BBC's Oxford Road studios and BBC broadcasters and producers are regular customers and attendees of the shows. It's not quite the same as putting a show on in a basement off the Euston Road in London, but it's not bad.
Thanks, Kev, for explaining about the process. I think I'd actually prefer the team to just pick their favourites! Online voting for writing competitions usually descends into who can get the most friends to vote, which isn't really the spirit of the thing.
So, no more entries please! 
Quote: evan rubivellian @ May 12 2011, 6:23 PM BSTThanks, Kev, for explaining about the process. I think I'd actually prefer the team to just pick their favourites! Online voting for writing competitions usually descends into who can get the most friends to vote, which isn't really the spirit of the thing.
So, no more entries please!
I would have to agree with Evan. What if you have no friends? What if you live in a cave in Holland? Who will vote for a no mates Dutch loner? Who Kev? Who?