New Workers

Now WAC stalwart and co-founder Liz Lees has upped sticks to wend her way southwards, Artistic Directors Colin and Suzy are pleased to welcome new workers Louise and Jessica to the fold. The pair will be taking on developmental roles, looking at new projects, expanding our audiences and sharing WAC Wednesday sessions with Colin. Both women have backgrounds as theatre professionals and will no doubt be appearing in future shows as WACtheatre continues to create new and innovative work.

Catastrophe

Colin's latest play (Towards the Inevitability of Catastrophe) is a one-woman show (except - not really, cos he's in it too!) written especially for Suzy. The piece explores the relationship between a writer and an actor and how they manipulate each other to get what they each want. Rehearsals are going well, but as usual, there's never enough time...

Rehearsals

Rehearsals for No Phones on Planet Pluto are under way, with 11 actors playing a variety of roles inspired by the stories and experiences of mental health service users. Colin and Suzy are directing the show which will be performed on Tuesday, October 20 at the Lemon Tree in Aberdeen.

Insch Workshops

Suzy and Colin had a wee jaunt out to Insch to run a drama workshop with Iain Mitchell's Dunnydeer Drama Group. We focused on levels of intention, voice projection and confidence and the group worked really hard, leaving us with the feeling that we had spread a little happiness.

Play Development

Liz and Colin started the next stage in developing new plays for performance with the first of several meetings with writers. Craig Sandeman (winner of our playwriting competition) discussed his play Memoria and we explored how to take the piece forward, looking at staging, style, music and script format. Meetings with writers Eleanor Hayes, Paul Foy, Eduardo McKenna and Iain Mitchell will follow soon.

RealiTV

Aberdeen Arts Centre was the venue for Suzanne Enoch's new play RealiTV on 1 August. The show was performed as a Fringe Preview before wending its way to Edinburgh's Royal Mile and the Fringe Festival. Shows are at the Radisson (Venue 30), 7-29 August, 1.35 (ends 14.20) not Sun £6 (£5). Fringe Box Office: 0131 226 0000 Venue Box Office: 0845 508 8316.

Winner!

The winner of WACtheatre's recent playwriting competition is Craig Sandeman with his new play Memoria - a story of life, death and memory. Memoria will be produce by WAC at the Lemon Tree, Aberdeen, on 17 & 18 November 2009. Some of the other writers who entered plays in the competition are being offered the chance to develop their work with the WAC team for productions in our proposed New Play Season in the Spring.

Competition

Our playwriting competition is hotting up and a decision will be made soon. The WAC team were impressed with the variety of plays submitted to the competition and we hope to produce some of these in our second New Play Season in the Spring of 2010. Watch this space...

Writing for Mums

WAC are planning a series of writing and devising workshops with a group of parents in partnership with the Family Learning team in Aberdeen. The sessions will start in late July and explore creating a new piece of theatre. Family Learning worker Louise Foreman has been working with the Education Department at His Majesty's Theatre to encourage mums to visit HMT and the Lemon Tree and get ideas of how plays are created. Louise is also looking into funding for a longer-term project with WAC Directors.

Next Round

The WACtheatre Playwriting Competition is well into its second round, with eight folks going through to the next stage. Funding constraints have forced WAC to make the decision that there will be only one overall winner. The chosen play will have two performances in November at the Lemon Tree in Aberdeen. Watch this space!

Competition

The current WACtheatre Playwriting Competition is now closed with over a dozen entries up for consideration. Writers going through to the next round will be informed within the next two weeks and WAC directors will be working with them to ensure a high standard of writing. We're still pursuing funding for the New Season so watch this space for news.

WAC in Torry

Suzy and Colin recently started working with a group of ex-offenders in Torry, Aberdeen. The pair are facilitating writing sessions aimed at creating a new piece of theatre about drug culture and its long-term effects, with a group of guys who know only too well how substance misuse can ruin lives and relationships. We're hoping the finished play will be performed in and around Aberdeen with local actors.

The New Season is dead - long live the New Season!

So our first New Play Season is over and with barely time to heave a sigh of relief, we're off again, looking for plays for the next Season (October-November this year). With another playwriting competition launched, the search is on for six new plays on the theme of "Here's to Scotland" which very nicely fits in the the Scottish Homecoming year. More soon...

Happy New Year!

So here we are in 2009 and barely halfway through the New Play Season. Seven plays still to come including Agent 160, The Body in the Bag and Birdhouse. Our first eNewsletter went out at the end of December with info about all the plays, feedback from audiences and news of forthcoming events. We'll be launching our next playwriting competition soon and we're already negotiating dates for the next Season. Hey ho!