Live Writes
Live Writes
“A North East that writes its own story and fights for a more creative future” - Live Theatre vision
What is Live Writes? …it’s a Scratch Night, with a twist.
Live Theatre’s brand new writing showcase and development event with all creative positions filled from Open Calls for North East based Writers, Directors and Actors. A whole host of opportunities for theatre creatives of all experiences to flourish in a safe and supportive space, with live feedback, networking and championing of the amazing artists of our region.
Live Writes is all about the words on the page, for writers to experience their work in progress up on its feet and have a panel of theatre experts share their thoughts to help develop their script and future craft going forwards.
Each Live Writes event will see a handful of writers chosen from an open submission window to have their work performed in a scratch setting in our main theatre space in front of a panel of industry experts and a full house audience. Rehearsals, tech and performances all happen over one wild day, with no set and minimal props and tech.
Directors and Actors for each piece will also be selected from open windows, getting to choose which script they would like to be considered for from the synopses and character breakdowns of the four pieces.
Not only that, our open calls take place 4 times a year, and are only open to artists based in the North East.
These are all paid opportunities with every creative receiving the same day fee of £150. For writers, this is intended as a rights fee to perform your work and not a commission fee.
We can’t wait to see your creativity hit our stage!
Writer opportunities
Open to all North East writers of any level of experience. We are inviting you to submit 10 minutes of your work to be performed at our brand new writing showcase and feedback event on our main stage.
Whether you have a short play, a section of a larger piece you might be currently working on or something you wrote years ago, sat on a hard drive collecting digital dust that you’d like to go back to, this is your opportunity to see it on it’s feet in a nurturing, nourishing and supportive space.
You can also receive bespoke feedback from an invited panel of Theatre professionals of whom you can request the precise feedback you wish to receive.
This opportunity is only open to scripts that have had no previous performances or stagings.
Script Submissions are now closed and the four chosen writers for Monday 11 November are below.
Director opportunities
Open to North East based Directors of all experience, from seasoned theatrical conductors to budding first timers who’ve always wanted to try their hand but never had the opportunity. We need you to direct all of the exciting work being staged.
Applications are now open!
Deadline to apply: 10am on Friday 11 October 2024
Actor opportunities
We need you, our amazingly talented performers of the North East to take to Live Theatre's main stage and perform the new work, under the direction of those selected form our Director open call.
We will be holding open auditions for the roles in each of the pieces open to all actors and performers in the region.
Applications are now open!
Deadline to apply: 10am on Friday 11 October 2024
Our Dougie
Matthew Mclane
@MatthewMclane
I’m a writer and comedian from Sunderland. I began scriptwriting when I was around seven- or eight-years-old, dreaming up my own episodes of Doctor Who and Only Fools and Horses (of which the quality was admittedly varied) before I realised I might have to graduate to creating my own characters and stories at some point. Live Writes will be my first time having my work performed professionally, and I can’t wait to see it on stage and develop my writing from there.
Supernova
Molly Barnes-Tate
__molly.jayne__ Molly Barnes-Tate
Molly Barnes-Tate was born in Hartlepool and raised in Horden. A ‘writer’ of some description from an early age, she began with stories scrawled in notebooks with brightly-coloured biros and has since progressed to writing plays on an occasionally-temperamental laptop. Molly is also a biology student at Durham University, where she spends her days writing laboratory reports and her evenings failing to stop improv comedy workshops from flying off the rails. Supernova is her first play.
Medusa
Andrew Thompson
@AndrewTwrites
Born in Sunderland Andrew trained as an actor at the Webber Douglas Academy in London and worked for companies including the National Theatre, Sheffield Theatres, Birmingham Stage Company, ITV and Channel 4/National Geographic, before receiving an Arvon/Jerwood Fellowship for playwriting. His play 'In Event of Moone Disaster' won the Theatre503 International Playwriting Award and The Stage Debut Award - Best Writer. Other work includes; ’The Sex Life & Death of Communication’ & ‘If We Don’t Grow Old Together We Can Only Grow Apart’ (both Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh), 'I ❤️🍦’ (Traverse Theatre), ‘Promises’ (Bridewell Theatre), ’The Allotment’ (Poleroid Theatre/Vaults Festival), ’Spear-Carriers’ (Alphabetti Theatre).
Andrew has been the recipient of an Arthur P. Sloan Foundation Grant in conjunction with Manhattan Theatre Club, the Hope Theatre Prize in conjunction with Arch468/Theatre Clywd/Hightide, and has been on attachment to the Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, Paines Plough and the RSC. Andrew is a lecturer in playwriting at Newcastle University.
Zuzu's Petals
Jamie McLeish
Jamie began writing comedy sketches in 2010 and after taking part in BBC Radio Newcastle’s ‘Jesting About’ in 2011, he became a core writer for Radio Newcastle’s weekly sketch show ‘Grin Up North’ from 2018 – 2020.
As well as writing for further radio stations, Jamie has written for numerous comedy-sketch podcasts and also co-wrote short online sitcom ‘The Backbenchers’, which won an award at the 2015 LA Web-fest.
Jamie has also written several plays, which have been performed around the North East, as well as further afield, including London, Suffolk, Ireland and the U.S.
He recently reached the top 1% of submissions for The Richard Jenkinson Commission. As a result of this, his show 'Doomgate' (co-written as a part of writing collective 'Carpet Time Productions') was programmed at Laurels Theatre for six performances during Halloween week.
Jamie has written several full-length plays and is actively looking to connect with other creatives and theatres to bring original writing to life.
