Commissions
Writing West Midlands Writer Development Commissions
Ears Wide Open – a Creative Adventure in Sound
A Writing West Midlands/Theatre Writing Partnership Project
Ears Wide Open is an experiment in site specific audio drama – an opportunity for two writers (one from the West Midlands and one from the East Midlands) to collaborate and write a series of short plays in response to locations in Birmingham and Nottingham. Theatre Writing Partnership and Writing West Midlands are offering a bursary of £2000 to each writer, aiming to make a series of recorded stories/dramas/narratives which will be experienced by listeners in locations in both cities as part of the Birmingham Book Festival and the Momentum New Writing Festival. The locations in each city will echo each other: they might be green spaces in the city or underground spaces; they might be rooftop locations, night clubs, industrial spaces or cinemas.
The writers will work with a small production team to make short pieces of literature/drama for performance in response to the chosen locations. The production team will be led by Kate Chapman, Director of Theatre Writing Partnership working with a sound designer to be appointed. Creative input will also be offered by Jonathan Davidson Associate director of the Birmingham Book Festival. Our aim is to make the audio drama available on line but also to find a way to present it on location in each city.
We would like to invite expressions of interest from writers/artists who would be interested in this project. To be eligible for this commission you must:
• Live, work or study in the East or West Midlands.
• Be a commissioned writer in any genre – drama, poetry, fiction OR an artist with experience of creating narratives in sound.
• Ideally have an interest in writing for radio, working in sound, or making site specific performance.
• Be ready to work within a collaborative process.
Please send us an expression of interest which should include your CV, a sample of your writing (no more than 15 pages) and a side of A4 which outlines what kind of sound piece or radio play you would like to create to be heard by a listener in a city centre location of your choice.
The deadline for expressions of interest is 28 February 2010. The writing period will be March – June 2010 with recording and editing taking place from July – September 2010 and the presentation in October.
If you would like to apply for this commission please get in touch via our contact page.
Commissions from Other Organisations
We recommend Arts Council England’s Jobs Bulletin for details of writer commisions.