Our annual new writing festival, First Break, showcases new work from artists and companies from across the North West.
The 2017 First Break Festival took place between Thursday 22 June – Friday 30 June 2017
2017’s festival boasted a programme packed with new writing, emerging companies, rehearsed readings, workshops, established companies and panel discussions with actors, writers and directors. Audiences were excited to come along and discover something new.
Oldham Coliseum Theatre is committed to developing the work of emerging artists and companies from across the region to explore the stories and issues that affect and reflect the local communities. The Coliseum offers a safe and welcoming creative environment to take your work to the next level.
We put a call out for early/mid-career writers to participate in 2017’s First Break Writing Competition which had the theme of ‘futurist’ as the subject to respond to.
Futurist:
noun: A person who studies the future and makes predictions about it based on current trends.
…
The social and political landscape of the North West and beyond is constantly changing. Brexit, local regeneration, welfare state, US elections, even Toblerones are shrinking; how may these affect the future of you and those around you? What are your predictions for your community in one, two, or five years’ time? Will the North West still be as we know it, or will it be unrecognisable?
Writers were asked to develop a play of no longer than 15 minutes with a maximum of four characters.
The winning writers benefited from the support of a professional director Sushil Chudasama (RTYDS placement), dramaturgical support to mentor writers through the development of their work, access to the rehearsal process to see how work is crafted from page to stage and professional actors performing their work to an appreciative audience.
2017’s winning plays were Macaroni by Sam Orton; Resistance by Megan Holland; The Warning by Aisling Caffrey and Waiting by Aimie George.
Due to the large number of entries we expect to receive, we regret that we are unable to provide individual feedback.