Dear theatre supporters around the Bega Valley,
Happy New Year and we hope you are having a wonderful summer, maybe writing??
This year, Theatre Onset will produce a season of short plays by local writers called Homegrown. We held a Playwriting workshop in December last year, and we all had such a fun, productive time, we decided to hold another one which will be on Sunday 15th February at the old Uniting Church in Bega, 11am-4pm. If you are a budding playwright and have a play or two half written, completely written or a very strong idea, you are more than welcome to come to the workshop. Three of Theatre Onset’s resident writers will be on hand to guide participants through a process to help get them writing great 10-minute plays. The deadline for submission of works for consideration in the Homegrown program is 31 March 2026. This workshop is an opportunity to get those plays up to scratch, giving you advice and techniques to get your plays ready for submission.
Please RSVP for the workshop by Sunday 1 Feb.
Here is a checklist for developing your play:
TEN MINUTE PLAY DEVELOPMENT – CHECKLIST
- What’s it all about?
- What’s your play about? Can you tell us in a single sentence?
- Write that sentence, read your play. How did you go?
- Before anything else get your story straight, beginning, middle and end. Now, do you believe it?
- What happens? Actually happens… not talked about, not discussed… does anything actually happen. Remember what they say… theatre is life with the boring bits missing.
- Have you got the most out of your story?
- Those good ideas that you had, have you explored them to their logical/ illogical conclusion?
- Anything more you want to say? Said all you wanted to say and then dribbled on a bit?
- Who is in it?
- Most important…Are all your characters working to tell your story?
- Does every exchange either build on a character or drive your story forward? Hopefully both.
- What about Bill with his two lines??? Do you need him? Is he worth more than the two lines you’ve given him.? You’ve got ten minutes, don’t waste a minute.
- What have you given your director/actors to work with?
- Does six-foot seven hard man Fred sound, and more importantly act, like a hard man? The actor and the director will start from what your character does to build a believable character. Does what you’re characters do reflect what you’ve said about them.?
- Dialogue
- Read your dialogue aloud or, better yet, get someone else to read it while you listen. Does it sound like a recognisable person speaking?
- Do all your characters sound the same? Some people will go on a bit, others you’ll be lucky to get a grunt out of, and a grunt might say as much as a dozen words for the right character.
- Listen to people around you. You’ll pick up a rhythm in their speech. Good playwriting matches speech pattern to character.
- Where will this be performed?
- Think about if you were to submit your work to an Off Off Broadway company in New York. It’s open for submissions for ten-minute plays with something to say, to be performed in their black box theatre. Is your play a fit?
- The company is going to present a program of plays.. It is looking for a balanced program to entertain/ stimulate its audience of paying customers. Whether it gets an audience to its next production depends on how well the audience receives this production… no pressure.
- Does your play fit the bill? If so, press submit, etc.
- If it’s good enough for Theatre ONset, it should be good enough for Off Off Broadway. Don’t think of it being good enough to just get by.
So, if you have got to the end of this checklist, please let me know if you are coming to the 15 Feb workshop.
If you know of others who would benefit from this workshop, please forward this info on.
Cheers,
Mahamati 0448 248 322
Secretary
Theatre Onset
Theatre Onset 