The Festival
FUN AND TROPHIES!
'Slick and professional hosts and two excellent speakers – big names in the industry. A warm and supportive environment for writers. Excerpts from finalists' plays expertly performed (live or on video clips) by the team of actors. Beautiful trophies and superb prizes of Final Draft software. A wonderful experience, so uplifting in the current grim climate.’ Belinda Brady, playwright
'I would encourage anyone and everyone with a burning desire to write to enter this competition - the attendees, finalists and winners were all wonderfully gracious, kind and supportive of one another.’ Derek Masterson, playwright
Watch 2024's festival video here!
Our next festival will take place on SUNDAY 11 MAY 2025, from 11am - 6pm, at the RONDO THEATRE in Bath, UK. It costs just £20 to attend (free for finalists) - and you are invited!
Tickets for our festival give you six hours of entertainment, an awards ceremony, professional performances of excerpts from selected finalists' scripts and talks from established industry professionals. However, please note that this event is for adults of 16+ only, since actors will perform excerpts that may include 'offensive' language or sexual content. Our guest speaker will be announced soon.
In 2024 this was STEPHEN VOLK, the evil mind behind BBC TV’s notorious (some say legendary) 'Halloween hoax' Ghostwatch, and creator and lead writer of the ITV paranormal drama series Afterlife, starring Lesley Sharp and Andrew Lincoln. His other screenplays include The Awakening (2011), starring Rebecca Hall and Dominic West; William Friedkin's The Guardian; and Ken Russell's Gothic, starring Natasha Richardson as Mary Shelley and Gabriel Byrne as Byron. He also adapted Phil Rickman's novel, Midwinter of the Spirit, into an ITV mini-series starring Anna Maxwell Martin and David Thelfall, and wrote The Chapel of Unrest, a play performed by Jim Broadbent and Reece Shearsmith at the Bush Theatre. A two-time British Fantasy Award winner, Stephen's also the author of five collections of short stories (Dark Corners, Monsters in the Heart, The Parts We Play, Lies of Tenderness, and The Good Unknown And Other Ghost Stories), as well as a non-fiction book called Coffinmaker's Blues: Collected Writings on Terror. His Dark Masters Trilogy features Peter Cushing, Alfred Hitchcock and Dennis Wheatley as protagonists, while another, Under a Raven’s Wing sees Sherlock Holmes paired with Edgar Allan Poe’s master detective, C. Auguste Dupin, solving bizarre crimes in 1870s Paris.
Previous guests have included:
JOHN HODGE, BAFTA award-winning screenwriter of films including Trainspotting; T2 Trainspotting; A Life Less Ordinary; The Beach and Shallow Grave, as well as a playwright whose first piece for the stage, Collaborators, won the Olivier Award for Best New Play.
LUCY V HAY of BANG2WRITE, a script editor/reader, consultant and novelist renowned for sweary, no-nonsense writing and networking tips; and a blog for screenwriters, novelists and freelance writers. Her non-fiction books include 'Writing & Selling Thriller Screenplays', 'Writing & Selling Drama Screenplays' and 'Writing Diverse Characters for Fiction, TV and Film'. Lucy's debut novel, 'The Other Twin', was featured in The Sun and Sunday Express as well as Heatworld and Closer magazines, and she is currently adapting it for Emmy-nominated producers Free@Last TV.
DOMINIC MORGAN (aka SCRIPTFELLA), who shared knowledge picked up as a screenwriter in London and LA. He's been optioned or commissioned by over thirty studios and production companies, including Universal Studios, Working Title, Bold Films, Scott Free, BBC and ITV.
Additionally, our magnificent S&CO ACTORS, who continue to garner acclaim for their S&Co Scratch Night performances on Zoom, perform selected excerpts from finalists' work, from micros to pilots to features.
We're thrilled to be sponsored by FINAL DRAFT, so winners in all categories will receive a copy of FD13 scriptwriting software.
RUNNING ORDER
(All times are estimated)
11.15 INTRODUCTIONS - ZANNA CARDASH AND ALEX HOLLISTER
11.30 SPEAKER: TBC
12.30 NETWORKING
1 LUNCH
2 EXPLAINING THE AFTERNOON - ZANNA CARDASH AND ALEX HOLLISTER
2.15 S&CO WORKSHOP BY ZANNALEX - in collaboration with the audience!
3.30 REFRESHMENT BREAK
4 EXCERPTS OF SELECTED SCRIPTS PERFORMED BY S&CO ACTORS
5.30 AWARDS CEREMONY
6 FOND FAREWELLS - OR JOIN US AT THE CURFEW PUB FOR NETWORKING!
SCRIPT NOTES
'This is the most insightful, honest, no-bullshit feedback I’ve ever received. THANK YOU SO MUCH. Excited to run with it. It’s crazily invigorating to have 6 unbridled responses, pointing out the crap and the gems in the same authentic breath! No polite false praise here. Love it! Guarantee you’ll be getting my custom for further notes. I’ll spread the word!' Anna Wright, Screenwriter
Once winners have been announced, and in exchange for a nominal £25 admin fee, we'll send candid judges' notes to any writer who reached the Quarter Finals, Semi-Finals or was a Finalist or Winner. The higher you were placed, the more comments you're likely to see. If you'd like to know what we said, and why you did or didn't progress further, order your notes AFTER 11 May 2025.
GETTING TO THE RONDO THEATRE
BY CAR
From Bath: take the A4 London Road towards Chippenham, passing Morrisons on your right, and carry on past a pedestrian crossing. Take the left turn into St Saviour’s Road, carry on past the church and The Rondo will be on your left . From the A46 and Chippenham: at the roundabout (at the end of the A46) take the A4 (London Road) towards Bath. Go through the first set of traffic lights. After the pelican crossing, take the first right turn into Beaufort Place. Drive to the end and turn right at the junction. The Rondo will be on your left.
PARKING
There is limited parking on nearby residential streets and in the Oriel Hall car park, mostly free on Sundays.
ON PUBLIC TRANSPORT
At the time of writing, bus number 7 runs from Bath's bus station (two minutes' walk from the train station) to Larkhall. Number 3 stops just five minutes from the theatre on the London Road, as do buses from Chippenham and Devizes. Alternatively, taxis are available to and from Bath Spa train station.
ACCESSIBILITY
The theatre is equipped with an accessible toilet and there are no steps to access the foyer, auditorium or bar. Please let us know in advance if you need a front row seat or wheelchair space.
WHAT TO BRING
The Rondo bar serves soft and alcoholic drinks, as well as tea and coffee. No food is available, but small local shops and a Coop sell sandwiches and possibly take-aways (with Morrisons and their cafe/restaurant ten minutes away on foot), or you may wish to bring a packed lunch to eat in a nearby park.
POST-FESTIVAL
We’re booking a nearby evening venue for anyone who wants to network and chill (very different to Netflixing and Chilling!) after all the day's excitement.
All in all, we're building another incredible event. And we can't wait to meet you!
OR
And a great big thank you to our sponsors:
