8Squared: A Night of New Writing

This week brought to life a project I have been working on since I started at Central. 8Squared.

In our very first week the Creative Producers course was introduced to a student lead project called New Writers' Night. This was an evening performance over a run of two nights that featured new short works from the writing students on the MA/MFA Writing for Stage and Broadcast Media. The pieces were restricted to eight minutes each and the entire production was student produced. I was immediately drawn to the project as I have long been a supporter of new works for the stage and headed up a New Play Festival at my previous place of employment.

My first involvement came with the New Writers' Night that was presented in October. As it was right at the beginning of my first term at school, I didn't have a whole lot to do with the planning process. But I helped with auditions and ran sound for the performances. My classmate, Trish, also got involved as Stage Manager. After the October performances, we began to collaborate intensely with the two second year writers who took on the organization of the October performances. Over the past few months we formed a dedicated and organized producing team consisting of the two writers, Dale and Natalia and Trish and me, all of whom were involved in the October performances and we brought on board a writer from the first year writers' class, Sophie. Together the five of us overhauled New Writers' Night, establishing a mission statement, organizational procedures and documentation to communicate our purposes to those who submitted to become involved in the performances. We established a network of script evaluators and liaised with faculty at Central to solicited formal support for the event from the school. We completely re-branded, including the new name 8Squared, which refers to the eight scripts we present at performance nights and the eight minutes of time allotted to said scripts.

In December, writers submitted their work and with the input from the evaluators we selected eight for presentation in a rehearsed reading format. The eight scripts were workshopped and rehearsed and finally presented to the public this past week. The attendance was good and I believe the writers learned much from seeing their work in action, which is the ultimate goal for these presentations. It is after all, about the new work and the writers' education and experience. 

The team and I now need to review the strengths and weaknesses of this round and start preparing for the 8Squared event that will take place in the spring. We have gained support from the school and are looking forward to the advantages of faculty involvement. Much to do and exciting new ways to grow.

That's the big news for this past week. More reports coming soon. In the meantime, check your local theatres and see if they support new writing and then go see some!

Take care!

-m