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28 March 2007

The future of drama in the UK

'Next Stages' writers' careers conference

GREAT writers for drama are synonymous with our UK culture – Alan Ackbourn, Tom Stoppard, and more recently Paul Abbott and Jimmy McGovern. Traditionally they start in the theatre as straight-off-the street teaboys or middle-aged attic writers, but things are changing.

The proliferation of Creative Writing courses, including the popular MMU Writing School programmes, means that home-grown writers these days are invariably being groomed by the Universities.

But is this new system working? Are producers getting what they want? Are courses preparing future writers to survive and be original? Are standards of creativity rising or falling?

Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) Writing School is posing these and other questions such as: "Do we need a national strategy for writing to continue to lead the world in drama?" and "How can we support young writers and encourage experimentation and diversity?"

A UK first

MMU is staging a three-day conference (29-31 March 2007) - "Next Stages - Writers and their Careers" which is the first to bring together the theatrical and academic worlds to look to the future.

Jointly hosted by North West Playwrights as part of its 25th Anniversary celebrations, the conference will be opened tomorrow by Royal National Theatre playwright David Edgar and features top names such as John Griffin (producer, Shameless), Jo Calam (ITV Productions) Chris Reason (Eastenders), speakers from the Royal Exchange Theatre, Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse and BBC Radio and academics.

Graduates in creative writing also return to MMU to talk about their early careers and their ‘first break’.

MMU senior lecturer in English, Julie Wilkinson, whose credits include Emmerdale,
said: "For the first time, we are bringing together writers, the commissioners of drama in theatre, radio and television and those honing the writing talent in our universities and colleges.

Opportunities and threats

"There is an exciting future for writers but there are threats too, not least from a forthcoming government funding review for the arts, and from writers having the creativity squeezed out of them from commercial pressures.”

Topics will include:

- How do writers move from study to production?
- How do we balance experiment and craft?
- The terrible telly: poacher or gamekeeper?
- Can there be a national strategy for new theatre writing?

Performances (script-in-hand) take place on Thursday, Friday and Saturday as part of the NWP’s Anniversary Commission.

David Bridgeman of NWP said: The quarter century since NWP was set up to support new writing in the North West has seen as explosion in writer development.

"This conference asks: "Where do we go from here?’"

Interviews can be arranged with David Edgar, Julie Wilkinson and Chris Bridgeman.
Call the MMU Press Office on 0161 247 3406/07748 111322

For the full programme and list of theatres and dramaturgs presenting, go to
www.hlss.mmu.ac.uk/english/writingschool.