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We are exploring ways in which we can all remain connected and optimistic. The Bruntwood Prize has always been about much more than the winners. It is about opening up playwriting to anyone and everyone, to support anyone interested in playwriting to explore the unique power of creative expression. Therefore we want to make this website a resource now for anyone and everyone to explore theatre and plays and playwriting.
So we will be highlighting the many different resources archived on this website over the coming weeks.
This workshop took place in April 2017
Playwright and theatre maker Chris Thorpe will explore how to break the rules through non-naturalistic writing, collaborative writing and writing as part of a devising process – based on his work writing and performing with companies like Unlimited and Third Angel, and for building-based theatres like the Royal Exchange and Royal Court Theatre
Chris Thorpe was a founder member of Unlimited Theatre and still works and tours with the company. He is also an Artistic Associate of live art/theatre company Third Angel. He has worked with, among others, Forest Fringe, Slung Low, Chris Goode, RashDash, Belarus Free Theatre and Portuguese experimental company mala voadora. He also plays guitar in Lucy Ellinson’s political noise project #TORYCORE and works with the National Student Drama Festival. Chris is an Associate at the Royal Exchange, Manchester. His play for the Exchange, There Has Possibly Been an Incident was selected by Simon Stephens for the Stuckemarkt in Berlin, 2014. It continues to be produced internationally on stage and radio.
He has an ongoing collaboration with director Rachel Chavkin from New York’s TEAM. Their first piece Confirmation is still touring internationally, and their next, Status, is in development and will have its first public reading in summer 2017. His other main collaborator is poet Hannah Jane Walker with whom he made The Oh Fuck Moment and I Wish I Was Lonely. He has written a new version of Beowulf for the Unicorn Theatre opening in September 2017 and a new piece, Victory Condition, opening in October 2017 in the downstairs theatre at the Royal Court. He recently wrote Chorus for The Iphegenia Quartet at The Gate Theatre. He is also working on The Mysteries for the Royal Exchange with Sam Pritchard. His piece for director Rachel Bagshaw, The Shape of the Pain will open in August 2017. His durational piece, The Milk of Human Kindness, commissioned by LIFT and the Royal Court, is still appearing at festivals.
Chris is the Arvon mentor for playwriting 2016/17, and one of the three Jerwood New Playwrights 2017 for the Royal Court Theatre.
For more archived livestream workshops please see https://www.writeaplay.co.uk/writing-resources/?media=online-workshops