PLAYER-PLAYWRIGHTS SPRING PROGRAMME 2006

Monday meetings from 7.30 pm upstairs at the Horse and Groom, 128 Gt Portland St, W1N 5PH. Tony Diggle [020 8998 7660] collects dues, Nicole Forbes runs the Competitions and the secretary and programme manager is Peter Thompson [020 8883 0371] 9 Hillfield Park, London N10 3QT: P-P@dial.pipex.com.

NB For previews, updates and reviews of Plays of the Month, go to our web-site

www.playerplaywrights.co.uk

09 Jan	Paola Trimarco	TALK TO ME	Radio	45 m
16 Jan	PLAY-OFF OF	COMPETITION PLAYS OF 2005
23 Jan	Helen Blizard	FLY AWAY	Stage	60 m
30 Jan	Michael Oliver	EXPOSURE	TV Play	40 m
06 Feb	Peter Phillips and Ian Purser	POETIC JUSTICE	Stage	50 m
13 Feb	John Plews Michael Mills	UPSTAIRS AT THE GATEHOUSE DUST TO DUST	Talk Radio	30 m 30 m
20 Feb	Tim Gambrell	THE REDOUBTABLE ENID THRUSH INVESTIGATES	Radio	50 m
27 Feb	Roger Mayhew	A FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING	Stage	90 m
06 Mar	John Timperley	THICKER THAN WATER	Stage	90 m
13 Mar	Gary Davies	PRINCESS	Radio series	30 m X 2
20 Mar	Peter Vincent & Bill Gordon	NOT NOW, ESMERELDA	Stage	90 m
27 Mar	Sarah Turnbull COMPETITION	ACTRESS ON A MATTRESS DEADLINE	Stage	45 m
03 Apr	Marks and Gran	THE MOON’S A BALLOON	Stage	75 m
10 Apr	COMPETITION	TWO PART INVENTION	10 pieces	90 m
24 Apr	RESUME AFTER	EASTER BREAK

JANUARY AND FEBRUARY PREVIEWS

30/01/06 EXPOSURE is a TV play by Michael Oliver. When amateur photographer, Charlie Dutt, takes pictures of the prettiest girl in town little does he realise that he is about to expose a fraudulent business and change his own life completely.

06/02/06 POETIC JUSTICE is a stage play by new members Peter Phillips and Ian Purser. At a creative writing weekend workshop one of the tutors, a rising poet, faces the professional and personal consequences of his past actions.

13/02/06 John Plews is our guest speaker. He has been at the North London Theatre known as Upstairs at the Gatehouse for 20 years, directing and producing all kinds of plays and musicals [book now for THE WIZ: 020 8340 3488] and hosting performances by opera companies, conjurors, poets, musicians and young hopefuls on their way to the Edinburgh Fringe. He has lots of good advice for actors and writers who want to succeed so come along. We round off the evening with a new sit-com by Michael Mills’s DUST TO DUST, of which he writes “Welcome to the world of Nigel Dust. Property Developer. Serial Dreamer. And Success machine. But hang on a second. There seems to be a fault…with reality.”.

20/02/06 Like Don Quixote the redoubtable Enid Thrush (the crazy creation of new member Tim Gambrell) embarks on a series of foolish adventures (starting with the Case of the French Shrug) with a trusty but much abused Hispanic servant who manages to save the day. [This episode had the mentor in tucks]

27/02/06 A FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING is a comedy by Roger Mahew. The key elements are two cheating husbands whose wives each have a secret of their own and the arrival of a good-looking stranger.

FORTHCOMING ATTRACTIONS

06/03/06 In THICKER THAN WATER, a stage three-hander by John Timperley, a highly dynamic, and monetarily successful, business woman is appalled by her daughter’s wayward lifestyle and seeming collapse into drugs. In imprisoning her daughter at home, to detox her, the mother finds herself incarcerated and forced to confront her own shortcomings.

13/03/06 The PRINCESS, in Gary Davies’s radio series, is a young woman who insinuates herself into the production staff of a popular Soap. But what does she really want? Each episode (only time for two tonight) is a self-contained story told through the experiences of those who have witnessed her rise to the top.

20/03/06 Peter Vincent and Bill Gordon’s play NOT NOW, ESMERELDA is described by PV as “An affectionate salute to the Great British Farce, featuring identical twins, a magic cabinet, comical foreigners and a traditional Deus ex machine ending –Watch for the Cuddly Polar Bear!”

AGM

No change of officers at the AGM, but 4 new members joined the Committee: Napoleon Ryan (welcome back), Lynne O’Sullivan, Tim Gambrell and Sheila Malham.

Subscriptions still £6. Post cheques (to PLAYER-PLAYWRIGHTS) to Tony Diggle,

9 Cain Court, Castlebar Mews, London W5 1RY on 1 January 2006.

A GLIMPSE OF STOCKING

Our autumn competition on the theme of A GLIMPSE OF STOCKING was run on 24 October 2005. We had a rush of entries on the last day and decided to take the first 12 received, 2 more than the norm. Happily our Competition Secretary, Nicole Forbes, kept proceedings under tight control and we had the results in well before 10 pm. It was a shame that two particularly promising sketches had to be disqualified. Sarah Turnbull’s ACTRESS ON A MATTRESS revealed some interesting facts about work in a massage parlour but over-ran the time limit (nice rapping by Anna McKeon, by the way). In contrast, Michael Oliver’s ANYTHING GOES about desperate housewives (“they say many relationships start in Tescos”) ran short; but not before Silas Hawkins had delivered some wonderful lines as an Italian gigolo in a gold-plated Mercedes. The ten who completed the course successfully were very closely bunched. John Ringrose scored 187 for A NEW STRIP about confusion caused by a footballer with concussion. Malcolm Wroe was just above him (215) with a Northern country drama JIM’LL FIX IT about a diner dating a big-breasted waitress. Adrian Chadburn was awarded 220 for A VERY CRUEL BUSINESS (making videos about sado-masochistic fantasies). Above him was Bill Gordon’s BRAVE FACE (227): this concerned an ugly lad whose features were actually improved by a stocking mask and whose robberies saved his father from expulsion from the golf club. Peter Vincent took us on a Shakespearian journey, THE PACK HORSE ROAD, for a penitent Maria to comfort a dying Malvolio, who was still wearing those yellow stockings: 231. We had a couple of new-comers in 4^th and 5^th places. Anna McKeon gave us CROSS WORDS, in which the couple in bed studied clues last thing at night until they worked out what they ought to be doing instead (232). Roger Mayhew kept us guessing with HOT PURSUIT (242). Why was this undercover officer continuing to pursue inquiries after the raid on the naughty night club revealed no criminal activity? The answer came with a rolled up trouser leg and a glimpse of stocking: he wanted to learn how to be a drag artist! Third was veteran competitor Giles Armstrong with TROUBLE IN STORE (245) where Anthea Courtenay and Christopher Prior were glimpsed in a warehouse carrying out some amazing “stocking” eg “Contract 892, cap badges, postmen, Senegalese, packed 10s, hopper 75” and “Contract 229, swastikas, chocolate, apricot flavoured, hopper 50”, until mercifully interrupted by a couple of assassins, Denise O’Leary and Daniel Dresner. The certificate for second place went to Lynne O’Sullivan for A WRONG ENTRY (248) who took us back to a pre-decimalisation draper’s where fancy waistcoats cost 17 shillings and eleven pence and the glamorous shop assistant wore stockings, as became clear as she climbed the ladder to bring the merchandise down for her excited customer Philip Philmar. He it was who provided the winning entry STOCKINGS, GLIMPSED, a fast-moving script about a young man, Napoleon Ryan, who is forced to the floor in a bank raid by a team of glamorous sisters, led by supply teacher Nicole Forbes (Goodness, is she ever fierce!?). He is so smitten by what he glimpses that he begs to be taken hostage. Hilarious stuff, earning an amazing 324 points. A most entertaining evening, with a great variety of well-crafted entries, brilliantly performed.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR WRITERS

Writernet has Opportunities for writers on its web-site: www.writernet.org.uk. Paid up members of P-P have access to this interesting noticeboard but they need to go first to Subscriptions and put in the username Diggle and the password which will be provided if you contact 020 8883 0371 or P-P@dial.pipex.com.