Village Pub Theatre recruits new writers
VPT Firsts to showcase different talent
By Thom Dibdin
Edinburgh’s low-fi new writing company, the Village Pub Theatre, is introducing a sextet of new writers to this month’s show.
All of the new writers, like the Village Pub regulars, were members of last year’s Traverse Fifty group of writers.
This Friday’s event, titled VPT Firsts, comes as the regular company of VPT writers prepare for a week-long residency at the Traverse theatre at the end of March.
Speaking about VPT Firsts, producer and writer Sophie Good told Æ: “The pieces all just really different so there isn’t a theme – and as such is a fantastic variety. It should be a great entertaining night – with home baking as usual.
“We see this as an opportunity to hear some fresh writing from a group who might be new to VPT regulars.”
Details of the new plays and six new playwrights who will be making their VPT debuts on Friday 14 March, at the Village Pub
Mr Doom by Sam Siggs
Steven drank far too much last night. Now he must prepare for a visit from an oddly familiar stranger, one with a haunting message, and a rather silly hat.
Sam Siggs has been writing plays and stuff since 2010. He does it for your validation. If you meet him in the bar tell him you liked his play and that you thought it was edgy and nuanced.
Pussywhipped by Tim Primrose
Lorna has never been the best of best-friends to Jenny. But Jenny has a surprise for Lorna that may put their relationship into some perspective.
Tim Primrose has written over twenty plays for youth theatre; Porcelain Dolls has been translated into Norwegian and is currently running at the Rogaland Teater in Stavanger as #Sweet. His directing credits include the 2011 Fringe sell-out Hex, co-written with Sam Siggs. Tim is currently working with the Traverse Theatre to develop one of his short plays into a larger piece.
Santa Cruz by Giles Conisbee
When the last remaining long-toed salamander goes missing, the friendship between two zoo keepers is tested to the limit.
Giles Conisbee lives in Pitlochry but is often found lingering in the sound of the sea. He has written, a lot. Poems mostly. They’ve been published in a variety of magazines and anthologies including New Writing Scotland, Brittle Star, Weyfarers, Chanticleer, Fire, Monkey Kettle, Inclement, The Eildon Tree, Jednodniowka Literacka and Rebel Inc. Thanks to a year-long attachment to The Traverse in 2013, where he had 6 short scripts aired and shared, plays have become – the thing. Giles also wrote and directed The Washing Stone (Birnam Arts Centre) in 2010.
Then I met you by Mikey Burnett
The extract for VPT is from Then I met you. A play about a woman delivering divorce papers to her estranged husband on the night after the Independence referendum.
Mikey Burnett is a 29 year old writer who was a member of The Traverse Fifty. He writes both comedy and drama.
Taboo by J. A. Sutherland
In this Brecht-meets-Bechdel sketch, Alice and Celia each have a dark secret. But will they ever share it?
J. A. Sutherland writes poetry, stories, sketches and plays that muck around with the imagination. A frequent spoken-word performer, Sutherland writes about the Edinburgh spoken word scene on Æ All Edinburgh Theatre, and also writes a blog, called Through the Turret Window.
Mass Obs by Helen Shutt
Imagining a Caste System for the digital age, Helen Shutt’s new piece Mass Obs follows a seemingly innocuous encounter between two very different individuals in a not too distant dystopic future.
Helen Shutt was one of fifty playwrights selected to work on attachment with the Traverse Theatre in 2013. As part of the Scratch the Fifty evening her short piece Birdwatching was staged in Traverse 2, directed by VPT’s Caitlin Skinner.
She has recently graduated with distinction from the MA Text and Performance programme at RADA/Birkbeck College, London, during which time her full length play Appledore received a rehearsed reading at the Wolfson Studios, RADA and her devised piece Partners in Crime was performed as part of the University of London’s Arts Week.
Village Pub Theatre – VPT Firsts
Friday 14 March 2014, 7.30pm (doors) for 8pm.
Entry £3. Home baking available.
The Village Pub, 16 South Fort Street, Leith, EH6 4DN
Village Pub Theatre facebook site: www.facebook.com/PubTheatre
ENDS
