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503Studio: Advanced Playwriting
Five weekly Thursday sessions from Thursday 9 February to Thursday 9 March. The sessions will take place over Zoom.
This five-week class is suitable for writers with some experience, who have already written several scripts or had productions. You should come with a script in progress that you want to work on. Andrew Thompson will take you through exercises re-examining structure, story and redrafting designed to develop your own work. You will be challenged to push your style and ideas and experiment with new theatrical forms. You’ll also receive feedback on your work from Andrew and the other writers. Andrew will tailor the course content around the needs of the participants.
Please note we cannot commit to an ongoing dramaturgical relationship with any pieces that may develop on this course, or commit to a production. However we will offer an open and honest discussion with all participants about possible next steps for their work, recommendations of other development opportunities that might be of benefit, and guidance to where their work may best be suited in terms of future engagement.
Thanks to our Share The Drama scheme, we want to make sure those of you who are struggling in the current climate can still take part in our Writers Programme. While we prioritise anyone who is long term unemployed and/or claiming benefits, we’re also offering subsidies if you’re in financial difficulty as a result of the Covid-19 crisis.
To express interest in a bursary place through our Share The Drama scheme, please sign up here. If you would prefer to speak directly to a member of our team about your circumstance or to ask for more information about this scheme, please contact us.
If you have any access requirements, you can let us know here. If you would rather discuss any access requirements and how we can accommodate them prior to booking, please get in touch with us here.
Maximum class sizes are 14. A portion of spaces have been reserved for Share the Drama places.
To sign up for advanced booking for future iterations of the 503Studio: Writers Programme, please join the waiting list here.
Dates/Times: Thursday 9 Feb (7-9.30pm); Thursday 16 Feb (7-9.30pm); Thursday 23 Feb (7-9.30pm); Thursday 2 March (7-9.30pm); Thursday 9 March (7-9.30pm).
Andrew Thompson trained as an actor at the Webber Douglas Academy and worked for companies including; Sheffield Theatres, Birmingham Stage Company, NT, ITV and Channel 4.
He began writing and twice submitted and took part in Theatre503’s Rapid Write Response. He attended an ‘Introduction to Playwriting’ course at Live Theatre, Newcastle and an Arvon Course led by Laura Wade and Simon Stephens. Andrew was selected for an Arvon/Jerwood Fellowship, receiving mentorship from the playwright David Eldridge. His Play ‘In Event of Moone Disaster’ won the 2016 Theatre503 International Playwriting Award and was produced at the theatre, directed by Lisa Spirling, also winning the Stage Debut Award – Best Writer 2018. Andrew has had attachment schemes with Paines Plough and championed the creation of Writer’s Hothouse with the RSC. Andrew is the recipient of a Playwrights’ Studio, Scotland New Writers Award, an Arthur P. Sloan Foundation Grant, and was chosen for the Scottish Playwright’s Residency in Japan in conjunction with the Traverse Theatre/British Council, for whom he wrote the digital commission ‘I ❤🍦’ directed by Debbie Hannan. Other work includes: ‘Promises’, Bridewell Theatre/Big Picnic Productions – winner of Sell A Door’s Branching Out Festival; ‘The Allotment’, Vaults Festival/Poleroid Theatre; ‘Spear Carriers’, Vaults Festival/Alphabetti Theatre – optioned by Hartswood Films; ‘Le Marchand de Merde’ – Shortlisted for the Kenneth Brannagh Award.
Andrew was runner up in the Alpine Prize 2021 and is currently on attachment to the Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh as part of their L20 development scheme. He recently won the Arch468 Theatre Hope Prize and is under commission to write a play for the company inspired by the theme of ‘Hope’. He is currently developing stage work with David Adkins Productions and ETT and lectures in Playwriting at Newcastle University.
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