WACtheatre (The Writers & Actors Collaboration theatre Company)

New Blog

2010-10-23T02:24:00.000-07:00

This blog is a wee bit out of date now as we're using our WordPress page (http://wactheatre.wordpress.com) to update folks on WAC activities. At some point the new blog will replace this one on the News page. Watch this space.

Website Probs

2010-05-31T11:57:00.001-07:00

Been a few glitches with the website lately, so it's been difficult to keep things updated. In the meantime, WAC Wednesdays are running as usual at HMT (Wednesday eves 7.00pm-9.00pm), our playwriting competition has brought in some interesting work and we're on line with performances and workshops from September.

Big Love at the Lemon Tree

2010-04-15T02:34:00.000-07:00

Rehearsals for Love Song in Sixteen Bars have been getting a bit hectic. Not enough time, too many lines blah blah blah. First performance is on Sunday 18th at the Lemon Tree and we hope to follow it up with a tour of the Shire.

Love Song at the WACfest

2010-02-28T06:45:00.000-08:00

Colin's new play is a comedy called Love Song in Sixteen Bars and will be performed as part of the WACfest Writers Weekend events (April 17/18). Check out our website for performance info. We had also planned to produce another play Dead Dogs and Strange Issue but technical difficulties got in the way. Meanwhile, WACfest, our first short writing festival, also features writers workshops and rehearsed readings. See the website for details.

New Workers

2009-11-25T09:35:00.001-08:00

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

2009-10-17T13:23:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-03T00:26:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-28T11:52:00.001-07:00

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

2009-08-30T13:25:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-28T01:04:00.001-07:00

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!

2009-07-17T02:56:00.001-07:00

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

2009-07-13T04:49:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-20T04:53:00.001-07:00

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

2009-05-15T00:58:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-03T03:38:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-16T08:07:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-03-09T04:45:00.001-07:00

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!

2009-01-10T10:38:00.000-08:00

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!

3 weeks in!

2008-12-04T09:25:00.001-08:00

It's been some time since my last post - things have been a bit hectic what with one thing and another. We've just had the third week of shows with Drew Young's 2 short plays: 2001 (Almost) & Abduction of the Innocents along with Deborah Leslie's Clock Oan the Waa'. All well received and good feedback from the Lounge audience at the Lemon Tree.

The next scheduled play (Catriona Yule's Birdhouse) has unfortunately been postponed as we've had a few probs with actors dropping out at the last minute. But hey - ho! The next one up is Gavin Cunningham's WLTM (December 16/17.

Auditions

2008-09-28T03:22:00.000-07:00

With auditions approaching, we should be casting for all the plays and appointing directors. We've booked the Beach Ballroom in Aberdeen for Saturday 4th and the Thistle Hotel (Union Terrace) for the Sunday the 5th.

Col

Pre-launch Event

2008-09-19T06:50:00.001-07:00

The pre-launch event at the Lemon Tree in ABerdeen went really well - loads of folk came along to find out what is happening. Our sign-up lists for actors, directors etc are looking very healthy and we hae a huge amount of contact details to add to our records. Auditions are scheduled for October 4th & 5th - don't know where yet! Woo-hoo...

Colin

Re-Writes

2008-09-08T09:13:00.000-07:00

It's getting close - that time when all the plays have to be in! Posters and brochure are well under way and writers and getting excited. Tuesday 16th at the Lemon Tree in Aberdeen is our pre-launch evening for actors, directors and anyone else who wants to lend a hand. woo-hoo!

Col

The Plays

2008-07-01T02:43:00.001-07:00

Hurrah! We've selected the plays WAC are going to produce and identified those that need a little development work to get them to professional standard. All together, there are 13 plays including a couple of shorts. When we've informed all the writers, we'll be getting them in for a meeting to go through the "ifs" and "buts" of the festival as well as looking for ideas for "blurbs" and posters.

Writers

2008-06-17T02:40:00.000-07:00

The WAC meeting last week was highly entertaining for all involved. Two writers came along (both had submitted scripts to the playwriting competition) and both plays were well written and provoked several discussions.

Money!

2008-05-20T04:29:00.001-07:00

Last week we heard we've been succesful in our bid for funding (Hoorah!) so of course the reality of having to do what we said we'd do is now kicking in. The plan is to produce ten new plays in as many weeks. As yet we are still waiting for the final entries in the second round of the playwriting competition we launched in an effort to discover new talent and find these ten plays. The closing date for final entires is June 5, so the next step will be to meet the winning writers and look at casting - actors, directors technicians etc.

I've just started putting together ideas for publicity, including the first leaflet advertising all ten plays. This will be superseded by a wee booklet further down the line.

Colin B-)