Roughly Staged: A Welcoming Place for Playwrights to Make Their Theatrical Debut
Nan Zhang
18/04/2024
(Image Credit: Kilyan Sockalingum/Unsplash)
A community project, which helps people to create theatre, has staged three short plays written by new playwrights from around Glasgow.
The three plays performed by young actors explore life in Glasgow from a female perspective on the topic of “LGBT rights, surviving in society and being alive”.
“I really appreciated the opportunity to be able to delve into it,” says Eleanor Capaldi, who is the writer of a short play about a cis and nb (non-binary) lesbian couple reflecting on their experiences as they prepare to attend a protest.
(Image Credit: Rachel Thomson Igelström/ Roughly Staged)
Roughly Staged is a voluntary group in Glasgow that aims to help to support new writing by running regular events to put on plays. As the name implies, the plays are quickly rehearsed and “roughly” performed.
“It is informal. It is kind of raw. The scripts aren’t refined. We're just trying to create opportunities for people to develop and get better at writing,” says David Hewitson, a 30-year-old freelance playwright, who started this project.
Now the project has grown into a group of 11 members, a mixture of playwrights, actors, directors, musicians, and producers.
The idea came from a time when David felt frustrated about not being able to put on his own work in a theatre. He recalls, “I thought, why don't I just put on my own show and share my own writing?”
After an event at The Old Hairdresser's in front of sixty people as a first try in 2022, Roughly Staged has run four events so far. Writers from around Glasgow are invited to submit original 15-minute plays and three plays will be then selected to put on for each event.
(Image Credit: Rachel Thomson Igelström/ Roughly Staged)
Glasgow, which boasts more than one hundred cultural organisations, was listed in 2019 as the top cultural and creative centre in the UK in a report from the European Commission. Now, new groups like Roughly Staged are helping to further energise the community.
David describes the experience of working in theatre in Glasgow as “very communal”, “Everyone helps each other. It's like a village. You have really experienced directors and producers who have been doing it for thirty or forty years, who are happy to help and give advice.”
An example of this is when he had coffee and a chat with Douglas Maxwell, one of Scotland's top playwrights. David tells Blether, “It's the reason that I’m so dedicated to theatre. It is because of how welcoming and loving the environment of Glasgow is.”
If you would like to try out your work, the next event by Roughly Staged will be held later this year and welcomes anyone submitting scripts. A script should be 15 to 20 minutes long and never performed before. There should be no more than three actors; scripts that can be staged with minimal design and technical requirements will be preferred.
Roughly Staged is not the only group trying to support new playwrights. Here are some other theatre projects to which you can reach out and try your work if you are interested: