Four new writing projects for screen, theatre, publishing, and poetry see regional development support.
New Writing North in collaboration with Live Theatre and Tyneside Cinema have selected four Creative Associates to develop writing projects over the next six months, funded by the North East Mayoral Strategic Combined Authority’s Create Talent programme.
Deeply rooted in place, the writing projects include: a celebration of the region’s radical underground free party movement; the struggle of a fictional Iranian immigrant in the North East in the wake of the 1979 Islamic Revolution; the development a new way of producing artist books in collaboration with writers: and a poetry dialogue with the writer Julia Darling (1956-2005).
Christina Berriman Dawson has been selected as the Live Theatre writer-in-residence. Christina is an actor and writer whose career spans 20 years. Her project ‘RAW’ will explore a real and radical underground free party movement based in Newcastle/Northumberland and draw from their unique political energy. It will use the language and form of rave culture to explore characters striving for a sense of community, freedom, identity and what it means to be political today. It will give voice to an arts movement that refuses to play by the rules. It will explore the Criminal Justice bill 94, which targeted underground rave culture and people in pursuit of repetitive beats.
Christina said: “Bringing this production to Live Theatre will be a leap in the dark for both of us. It will push at the walls of the venue. Live Theatre and I have been building a creative relationship for several years and have both been looking for the right project to cement a partnership. We believe this opportunity is perfect in its timing and how the residencies brief suit this adventurous creative proposal.”
Jack McNamara, Artistic Director, Live Theatre said: “We can’t wait to welcome Christina and her talent into Live Theatre. She is a creative force who - through her work as a performer- understands writing from the inside. She has a special project brewing that will be unlike anything Live Theatre has done before. I am looking forward to our whole organisation being challenged and stretched! Thank you to New Writing North for supporting such a crucial opportunity."
Johnny Massahi has been selected as Tyneside Cinema screenwriter-in-residence. Johnny is British Iranian writer-director from Newcastle upon Tyne. His project is to finish writing his debut feature film currently titled ‘Iranian Pornographer.’ The film follows the asylum struggle of an Iranian immigrant in the North East of England in the wake of the 1979 Islamic Revolution as he is pushed into underground employment as a pornographer wherein his grip on reality begins to ever-so-slowly slip.
Johnny said: “Tyneside Cinema has been a staple in my life for as long as I can remember, it has been a sanctuary, a film school and everything in between. It is here I was first exposed to the wider, weirder world of cinema that would go on to define my style as a writer-director — Holy Mountain, Salo, David Lynch. To be able to work here as a screenwriter is honestly a dream come true, a real full circle moment.”
Nic Greenan, CEO, Tyneside Cinema said: "Johnny represents the exceptional creative talent emerging from the North East. We're proud to support him as he develops this powerful new project and to be part of his next chapter as a writer and filmmaker.”
Ilisha Thiru Purcell has been selected as a New Writing North writer-in-residence. Ilisha is an award-winning poet from Newcastle upon Tyne. This year marks 70 years since the birth of the writer Julia Darling and just over 20 years since her death. During Ilisha’s residency, she will write a sequence of poems and facilitate writing workshops in response to and in conversation with Darling’s work.
Ilisha said: “Like Darling, ‘the city of Newcastle is like a person who (I) feel very emotional about” and this residency will be a poetic exploration of what it means to be a person living and writing in this city now, with health, queerness, and belonging inseparable from this. Darling's work has great personal importance to me and getting the opportunity to immerse myself in her writing is something that I am very grateful and excited about.”
Anna Disley, Executive Director (Programme & Impact), New Writing North, said: “Ilisha's project celebrates a North East literary hero, it is pleasing that Ilisha is so inspired by Julia Darling's work twenty years after her early death. Ilisha is very talented young poet and is inspired by Julia's fierce love for the city of Newcastle, her embrace of the role of poetry in everyday life and as a pioneer of creative writing in health. We were impressed with Ilisha's energy and ambitions for the work she wants to create, and the impact it will have on the people of Julia's beloved city.”
Stevie Ronnie has been selected as a New Writing North writer-in-residence. Stevie is a writer and artist based in Northumberland. Working across sculpture, painting, poetry, and installation, he explores the materiality of language. Stevie will develop and pilot a new writer-centric model for publishing artist book editions of short form fiction. Challenging the idea of design and production as things that happen after the writing is complete, he will invite writers to collaborate directly in the making process. The books produced will experiment with how physical form and materials can both be shaped by, and shape, the writing they contain.
Stevie said: “This residency is an amazing opportunity to take a risk and realise a project that has been gestating for many years. The publishing landscape for writers is evolving and consequently finding new ways of funding, making, and distributing books feels vitally important. My hope is to contribute to the ways that we, as writers, can evolve our approach in order to sustain a living doing what we love: sharing our imaginations through the intimate magic of reading.”
Anna Disley, Executive Director (Programme & Impact), New Writing North, said: “Stevie's proposal is exactly the sort of project we were keen to invest in through this scheme, it's an opportunity for him to experiment and if all goes well establish a new artist book publishing enterprise in the region. This will help him to further develop his own career and profile whilst also supporting others to do the same.”
The Creative Associates programme has been made possible thanks to the North East Mayoral Strategic Combined Authority’s Create Talent programme.
Sarra Scougall, Skills Project Manager, North East Mayoral Strategic Authority, said: “We are proud to fund New Writing North’s Creative Associates programme as part of our Create Talent programme, helping talented writers across the North East develop their creative practice, bring new ideas to life and contribute to our thriving creative sector.
Anna Disley, Executive Director (Programme & Impact), New Writing North, said: The Creative Associates programme is so important to us because it is about investing in writers' ideas. The opportunity for writers and artists to have the time to develop their ideas and projects is becoming rarer, and through this investment in our skills programme North East Mayoral Strategic Authority has recognised that R&D and investing in innovation is a vital element of a thriving Creative Industries sector in our region. It is important to us that we work with other cultural organisations who are well-placed to support those projects to take flight. We are looking forward to seeing what comes from this early investment.
