Writing For Live Performance
with Joel Horwood & Yolanda Mercy
15th March - 30th March
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Have you got that itch that you can’t scratch feeling? That ‘why is no one writing about this?’ feeling? That hunch that you know exactly what we all need to experience, together, right now..? If you have, then there’s a live performance inside you that wants to come out.
Let experienced writer, Joel Horwood, and rising star, Yolanda Mercy, help you get that new idea going. Starting at the start, Yolanda and Joel will help you hone your idea, develop your structure and begin to draw that show of yours out, using group and one to one sessions.
Writing for Live Performance is for emerging practitioners looking to build upon their skills. You will have some experience writing, directing or performing in plays, and now want to work on your first or second full length piece.
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To apply, complete the application form and upload a 500-word example of your work as a word document or PDF. If you have any questions about the course, contact
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Applications are now closed but you can still attend the Workroom Talk.
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Dates - Monday 15th March to Tuesday 30th March.
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The course will comprise 9 hours of contact time on Zoom and there will be tasks to work on between sessions. Here is a provisional schedule for the course. Timings can and may change depending on student availability.
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Price* - £135 (including membership to the Wise Children Club) free places available.
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As a course student you will automatically receive a free ticket to your subject’s Workroom Talk. If you buy a ticket before receiving your place, this can be refunded.
About the course leaders
Joel Horwood
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Joel is a playwright whose work for theatre includes The Ocean At The End of the Lane (adapt. Neil Gaiman. National Theatre); Berberian Sound Studio (Donmar Warehouse); The Little Match Girl (Shakespeare’s Globe/Bristol Old Vic), an adaptation of Jon Klassen’s I Want my Hat Back which received an Olivier Award nomination for Best Family and Entertainment Show (National Theatre); This Changes Everything (Tonic Theatre) which was nominated for a WGGB ‘Best New Play’ Award; A Series of Increasingly Impossible Acts (Lyric Hammersmith/UK Tour); I Caught Crabs in Walberswick (Eastern Angles at the Pleasance, Edinburgh/UK Tour/Bush); Food which won a Fringe First Award (Traverse, Edinburgh) and Mikey the Pikey (Pleasance, Edinburgh). Joel is working with Maria Aberg on a version of The Great Gatsby.
Work for screen includes Skins and The Reward which won the RED connector Grand Prize in 2008. Joel has also adapted the Radiohead album OK Computer for BBC Radio 4.
Yolanda Mercy
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London based writer and performer Yolanda Mercy's first play was On the Edge of Me presented at Soho Theatre where she is currently on attachment (as a Soho Six). Last year saw her television writing debut with BBW, a comedy-drama for Channel 4 as part of their BAFTA-nominated anthology - On The Edge. Yolanda is a published author with Oberon Books for Quarter Life Crisis and is currently developing new projects.
*The School for Wise Children is committed to making theatrical training accessible and offers at least 50% of our places for free to those who would not be able to train otherwise. Due to our funding, we are unable to offer free places to those outside the UK. You need to be aged 18 or older to participate in a School for Wise Children course.