Writer Development

Schedule:

31st August 2020	Writing Skills 1 : Oliver Emanuel (with Gaelic group)
11th September 2020	Developing Disabled Characters : Robert Softley Gale
18th September 2020	Home Recording Skills : Garry Robson & Heather Andrews
6th October 2020	Writing Skills 2 : Oliver Emanuel (with Gaelic group)

Meet the BOP group:

Writer Commissions

Overview

In October 2020, BOP launched the Writer Commissions strand: three commissions for brand new 15 minute radio plays that BOP would produce and would be available to listen to via our broadcast partner, independent community Edinburgh radio station, EH-FM. The specific details of the commission call out were:

• Writers had to identify as being disabled (see here for BOP’s definition of being disabled)
• Writers had to have a proven track record of creative writing, but this could be in any writing form; poetry, literature, theatre
• The play pitches had to be monologues or duologues only

See the ‘Call Out Archive’ drop down box below, for full details of the call out.

We received 21 pitches from writers who identified as disabled, many of which would have made really interesting and entertaining radio plays. Please see below for details of the three pitches that we selected for development and production.

Project Development & Casting

Project Development

Once we had selected the three writers, we understood that although they each had lots of experience as writers, none of them had written for radio before. To help them through the process of turning their script pitches into finished radio scripts, we brought in writer and director Gerda Stevenson (who has lots of experience of working in radio drama) to work with each of the writers as a dramaturg, through a series of 1:1 feedback sessions.

While the writers were working with Gerda on their different drafts, we approached Lu Kemp – a stalwart of radio drama – to direct the three pieces, who we were delighted was able to join the team. We were equally delighted that Niloo-Far Khan, who had been due to work as Assisstant Director on a main stage BOP production in 2020 that was cancelled, was able to join too. We had initially planned to work with disabled Sound Engineer, Heather Andrews, as part of the team but during the early stages of the project she began a new full time job and as such her availability became much more limited. Heather was however able to put us in touch with Editor and Sound Designer Zoë Irvine, whose expertise and experience was a perfect fit.

Casting

Across the three separate plays we had a total of six parts to cast, and as is customary for BOP we knew we wanted to cast at least two performers who identified as disabled. In light of the 2020 Black Lives Matter movement, the BOP team have been reflecting on the fact that although our casting can be diverse when it comes to disabled people we have room for improvement regarding our casting of people of colour. As such it was a key aim for us with this project to also cast at least two people of colour.

We ran an open casting call for each of the six parts and received a huge response of 321 applications. This volume of applications required a significant amount of time from the creative team, so to ensure that each individual was given due care and consideration the applications were divided up between Lu Kemp (Director), Niloo-Far Khan (Assistant Director) and Callum Madge (Producer), to draw up a longlist for each part. This longlist was then reviewed by Lu, who worked it into a shortlist, and then invited some performers from that shortlist in for recalls. As some of the parts started to be cast from the shortlist, in order to find performers who would balance well with the cast roles but also who fit with our diverse casting target, there was a requirement to make some direct approaches to agents. See below for the full breakdown of our casting.

Casting Breakdown

From a total of six parts available, we cast:

• 4 performers from the open call
• 4 performers who identify as disabled
• 2 performers who are people of colour
• 5 performers who are women

The Something to Say radio plays were produced by Birds of Paradise in association with Perth Theatre, and with EHFM as broadcast partner.

Special thanks to BBC Scotland.

Read about the Commission

The Commission

We will commission three writers to write a 15 minute radio play (monologue or duologue only). 

Writing:
As this is a commission, you will be expected to write this play without any support. We have requested a draft submission at which point we will offer feedback.

Production:
Once the finished script has been submitted, BOP will be responsible for producing the script into a finished radio play. While we will be happy to involve the writer in this process, we reserve the right to have the final say on specific production elements including direction and casting.

Fee:
For each 15 minute play we will pay the writer a fee of £1010.00 – this is inline with BBC rate for radio drama of £67.23 per minute for beginner writers.

Broadcast:
The finished plays will be broadcast on EH-FM (date tbc) and will be available on their website for twelve months from the broadcast date.

The finished plays will also be made available through the BOP podcast channel ‘BOP on the Wire’, available on various podcast platforms and hosted on our website. We will retain the right to continue to host the radio plays on our website in perpetuity.  All rights remain with the writer.

Timeline

Monday 12 October, 2020	Applications open
Sunday 21 November, 2020	Applications close
Monday 30 November, 2020	Successful commissions announced
Monday 11 January, 2021	Draft submission deadline
Monday 1 February, 2021	Final submission deadline

Eligibility

To be eligible for this opportunity you must:

• Identify as disabled, please see here for how we define disabled
• Be based in Scotland
• Have a proven track record of creative writing, this does not need to be radio plays
• Be able to commit to the timeline, outlined above

How to Apply

To apply, you must submit a 500 word outline of the play you would like to write plus at least two examples of your writing.

Outline:

The outline should be a short summary of the story you want to tell. It could include a brief synopsis of the narrative, character descriptions and what your motivations are for wanting to tell this story.  Whether it is a monologue or duologue should also be explained at this stage.

The play must be a monologue or duologue

Writing examples:

For the examples of your writing, you can submit files of your written work (for example, a Word document) or video / audio recordings of your writing being performed (for example, a filmed performance of a play you wrote).

For video and audio recordings, you may send us the recording as a file or provide a link to where the file is hosted online. 

If the recording is quite long (for example, a whole play) please identify a short section that you feel best represents your work – i.e. if you sent us a link to a recording of a full length play, you could say “Please watch the section from 48 minutes – 56 minutes.”

The writing examples can be previous plays you have written but they could also be poetry, literature, comedy or anything else creative.

Please do not submit journalistic or academic writing – we want you to demonstrate your storytelling and creative skills.

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