This page tells you what's happening behind the scenes at awl

• Read on for details of current (non-awl) plays and projects involving awl members.
• Click here (or scroll down) for other news of awl members (births, new websites, etc).
• Click here (or scroll down further) for awl International notices.
• Click here (or scroll down further) for non awl notices likely to be of interest to members.

Please email Stephanie Connell
to include your backstage listing on this page

Clive Ward plays Harm Groespecker in Cabaret Direct's production of Theatre of Sex, The Naked Truth Tour at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, C soco, Chambers Street and Cowgate, Edinburgh EH1 1HR.

Dates: 30th July-25th August at 8.45pm. Tickets from £7.50

Successful media pet therapist Franny Winters and taboo-busting sex guru husband Harm Groespecker reveal how the most unlikely relationships can survive given the right costumes.

Online booking

Jan Hirst is playing Valentino in Stars in The Morning Sky at the Riverside Studios, Crisp Road, London W6 9RL.

Dates: 5th-17th August at 7.30pm.  Tickets £14

Four prostitutes are thrown together in a building on the outskirts of a city - far from the gaze of visitors arriving for the Olympic Games.
As the Olympic flame comes nearer, the women are forced to confront themselves and the fragile state of their existence. Based on the true-life 'purge' of Moscow's prostitutes during the 1980 Olympic Games.

Online Booking

Stephanie Connell's work in Shop Spank, GSOH and Choice & Taste can be viewed in the Rok Motion Showcase at the Canary Wharf Film Festival. 

Dates: 28th-31st August. Free Admission

Click here to view details on the CWFF website.

Julian Bird will be appearing in Look Back in Anger at the Greenwich Playhouse

Dates: 2nd-7th September

More details to come

Gareth Pilkington is directing a script-in-hand semi-staged performance of Sly Fox by Larry Gelbart at The Hideaway, 114 Junction Road, London N19, with the following awl members:

Carole Carpenter	Hayward Morse	Lewis Rae

Date: 10th September.  More details to come.

Martin Wimbush will be playing Jim the Gardener, in London Classic Theatre's national tour of Humble Boy by Charlotte Jones, which opens at the Theatre Royal Winchester.

Dates: 17th September-22nd November

London dates:
Artsdepot 1st-2nd October
Greenwich Theatre 21st-25th October

Following the sudden death of his father, thirty-five-year-old Felix Humble, a Cambridge academic, returns to his Middle England home and his difficult and demanding Mother. After a chaotic funeral, and the disappearance of his father’s prized bees, it becomes clear to Felix that life at the Humble home will never be the same again. 

Click here for further information and tour schedule

Unknown Voices is a project co-founded by the late Julie Hill of Women's Radio Group and Exciting Writing teacher Paddy Gormley.  The pilot phase of the project, completed in February 2008, had two objectives:

• to involve homeless and otherwise disadvantaged women in a training programme in which they could learn how to record and edit their own and other people's stories;
• to make digital audio recordings of the stories of other, similarly disadvantaged people, men and women, for presentation in this website. 

Click on the image for further information

Peter Sutton's play Elgar & Alice is now in print. It was first performed at the Swan Theatre, Worcester, in June 2007 to mark the composer’s 150th anniversary. The book includes an exclusive interview with Gerald Harper, who starred as Edward. Press reviews were enthusiastic.

Click here to purchase the script and view press reviews.

Martin Baum's new book called To Be or Not To Be, Innit - A Yoof-Speak Guide to Shakespeare has suddenly gone large and articles about the book have appeared in almost every national newspaper in the country and papers all over the world from Christchurch, New Zealand to Cape Town, South Africa and even in GQ Magazine.

Martin has something of a busy week ahead with interest from The Graham Norton and Paul O'Grady Shows and radio interviews already lined up for Spain, Ireland and lots of local Radio too.

The book is now a core stock item at Waterstones's, who will stock it in all their branches.  It's a satirical take, on fifteen carefully abridged Shakespearian works, written in the style of the street.

Click on the image to buy a copy or to view press reviews

Paddy Gormley is involved with the Persuadem management training courses which are designed to help organisations exploit their creative and persuasive potential to the full.  You can view a video of Paddy leading a creative thinking class by clicking on the image below.

Radio Writing Showcase 2006

Live recordings of Radio Plays written, directed and performed by
awl members, now edited with full radio soundscape and effects. Available exclusively to awl members in a 2 x CD set £15 (£10 for a single CD).   Contact Paddy Gormley.

www.w4r.co.uk

Urban Writers Retreat offer time and space dedicated to your writing by running writing retreats for small groups in London.  Usually held at weekends or occasionally as a Monday to Friday week, retreats provide complete freedom from phones, relatives, housemate, pets, tv, the internet, work and all the everyday chores that get in the way of writing.  

The retreat dates are:

• 6th-7th September
• 4th-5th October
• 1st-2nd November

Urban Writers Retreat are willing to offer awl members a discount on retreats. If you're interested, please email Stephanie for further information.

Tricycle Cinema are holding an advance screening of Somers Town on Thursday 21st August at 8.15pm which will be followed by a Q&A with the film’s writer, Paul Fraser and producer, Barnaby Spurrier.

Tickets for the event are £11 but they are offering awl members reduced price tickets of £9.50.

To book tickets call the box office on 020 7328 1000 and quote Writers Offer-tickets are limited, so early booking is advised.

Tricycle Cinema
Cinema Manager
269 Kilburn High Rd
London NW6 7JR
020 7372 6611

Learn the facts from the professionals, brought to you by Lewis Rae (Voice Artist) and Jennifer Taylor Head of Shining Management (Voice Over Agency), by attending one of their classes.

Some of the topics discussed are:

• How to present yourself as a professional voice-over artist, even if you have never done a voice-over before.
• The best way to get a voice-over demo and what to be aware of.
• What your demo should and shouldn't include.
• The best ways to market yourself so you have the best chance of gaining representation and getting work.

Classes last for three hours and have a maximum of six people. All questions answered, time permitting.

Cost: £50 per person.

Click here for enquiries, or alternatively
contact Lewis Rae on 07956 251 412

Peter Pawan shoots both indoors and outdoors using natural light, on digital format with optimum quality.  The session lasts 3-4 hours in a relaxed environment.

Peter will take about 100 photos; which can be viewed at full size, and then brought down to your top 10-20 images, (effectively this would be like the contact sheet stage).  Those are then cropped exactly as you want, to fit a 10 x 8 frame, any necessary re-touching is also done at this stage. They are then burned onto a disc at maximum resolution Tif format, as well as in Jpeg format for email/website purposes.

You leave the session, disc in hand, knowing exactly what you have got and feeling confident with the end result.  It can be taken to any reputable reprographic company who will print optimum quality images direct from your disc.

Peter's current fee is £160 with a maximum of two clients per day.  For members of awl, a substantial discount is being offered, only £100.  Peter Pawan Photography is based in South London, to view some samples of his work, click here.

Contact Peter Pawan Photography
by email or on +44 (0)7786 543 834

Masterclass offers free talks and workshops with leading theatre professionals to young people between 17–30 years.

Launched by the Theatre Royal Haymarket in 1998, Masterclass has supported over 35,000 young people. The year-round programme of events focuses on all aspects of the theatre industry from acting and directing to writing and producing.

Click on the image above for further details

Playing Your Part

awl is run for and by members on a purely voluntary basis. Members are actively encouraged to participate in the work of awl in as many ways as possible, for example as writers, directors, actors, discussion chairs, readers and administrators. Many members find that active participation brings rewards in terms of experience, professional contacts and friendship.

We aim to work to the highest professional standards at all times. Accordingly, participants in our readings are required to conform to awl guidelines. Click on any of the following links for the relevant set of guidelines:

• writers
• directors
• actors
• discussion chairs

The guidelines are adorned with more than thirty witty drawings by
awl member Max India.

If you wish to participate in any other way, please speak to any member of the committee at a meeting or write to us via the contact page.