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!
Plays to be performed on Thu 30 Jan 2025, 7.30pm
Our Dougie
Written by Matthew Mclane
Directed by Charlie Prothero
Performed by Phil Corbitt & Helen Coverdale
Recently-widowed Carol comes up to the North-East to meet Jerry, a friend of her husband's with whom he lost touch 50 years ago. Jerry didn't think he'd get this opportunity to reconnect with his past, so wants to learn as much about his old friend while he can, but Carol knows rather more about him than he realises.
Supernova
Written by Molly Barnes-Tate
Directed by Rosie Bowden
Shadow Director Ruby Taylor
Performed By Simoni Dimitriadou & Dean Logan
Elliot is no longer waiting. Twenty years after he was abandoned without so much as a goodbye, Ara – an immortal entity, devoted to the creation of the intricate fabric that is the galaxy – is finally returning. Seeing this as an opportunity to seek closure, Elliot meets Ara on a street corner, witnessed by an audience of Ara’s finest work. Soon, their shared past and the ensnared emotions unravel, Elliot’s now-cold feelings about what they once were and what he has done since Ara are departed laid bare on the cobbles. Human and celestial alike are forced to confront the connection they once had, and all that Elliot gave up in the desperate hope that the love he once had would eventually return, a hope that has long since faded. ‘Supernova’ is a play that explores the consequences of withholding your heart for another, and what it means once that love burns out.
Medusa
Written by Andrew Thompson
Directed by Imogen Snook
Performed by Jack Bentley & Eilidh Talman
Medusa has snuck into a museum event by pretending to be a waiter so that she can see the exhibition as she can't afford a ticket. She meets Perseus, a successful actor, who, thinking she works here, hands her his drink. She accuses him of snobbery and not understanding or caring about the work or people. To prove her point she takes his wallet and refuses to give it back. Looking through it she learns he is the son of famous parents and they clash over the concept of nepotism. There is however clearly a spark developing between them but when he pushes her to talk more about herself she escapes.
Zuzu's Petals
Written by Jamie McLeish
Directed by Katy Weir
Performed by Conor McCready & Bridget Marumo
Nick is selfish. Nick is inconsiderate. Nick is dead. Having spent a lifetime in self-indulgence and excess, Nick’s only saving grace is his love for his 8-year-old Daughter, Alice. But after being hit by a van and losing his life, Nick is greeted by his potty-mouthed guide Angel, who not-so-gently makes him aware that he is dead. Nick is also informed that due to his dissolute life, he is likely to end up in ‘the bad place’, unless he can prove he can perform one selfless act for the benefit of another person, without any hidden agenda or strings attached.
Matthew Mclane
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.
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.
Andrew Thompson
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.
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.
