In our first 2019 workshop playwright David Eldridge  discussed how to tell a story as dramatic action, making backstory active and other tips, notes and thoughts on play-writing, using his own multi-award winning works as an example. With the writers in the room, the workshop sets tasks to write along to as you watch. To support the session, David has made some of his play extracts available here. Eldridge Bruntwood Extracts

David Eldridge

Theatre credits include: Beginning (Dorfman Theatre, National Theatre & West End); Market Boy (Olivier Theatre, National Theatre); Holy Warriors (Shakespeare’s Globe); Miss Julie, The Lady from the Sea (Royal Exchange, Manchester); In Basildon, Incomplete and Random Acts of Kindness, Under the Blue Sky (Royal Court & West End); Something, Someone, Somewhere (Sixty-Six Books/Bush Theatre);  MAD, Serving it Up (Bush); The Knot of the Heart (Almeida), Festen (Almeida, Lyric West End & Broadway); The Stock Da’wa, Falling (Hampstead); A Thousand Stars Explode in the Sky (with Robert Holman & Simon Stephens, Lyric Hammersmith); Babylone (Belgrade Coventry); John Gabriel Borkman, The Wild Duck, Summer Begins (Donmar Warehouse); A Week With Tony, Fighting for Breath (Finborough); Thanks Mum (Red Room); Dirty (Theatre Royal Stratford East); Cabbage for, Tea, Tea, Tea! (Platform 4 Exeter).

Television credits include: Killers, Our Hidden Lives, The Scandalous Lady W (BBC).Short Film credits include: The Nugget Run (Zig Zag Productions).

Radio credits include: Michael and Me: Stratford, Ilford, Romford and all Stations to Shenfield; Festen; The Picture Man; Like Minded People; The Secret Grief; John Gabriel Borkman; Jenny Lomas (BBC).Under the Blue Sky won the Time Out Live Award 2001 for Best New Play in the West End and Festen the 2005 Theatregoers Choice Award for Best New Play. The Picture Man won the Prix Europa Best European Radio Drama 2008. Under the Blue Sky won the 2009 Theatregoers Choice Award for Best New Play. The Knot of the Heart won the 2012 Off West End Theatre Award for Best New Play.

In 2007 the University of Exeter conferred on David an Honorary Doctorate of Letters recognising his achievement as a playwright. He is a Lecturer in Creative Writing at Birkbeck College, University of London.

We are delighted to announce 6 exciting brand-new livestreamed workshops for 2019.  Led by internationally recognised playwrights these sessions are completely free to access and will augment a growing archive of workshops created for the Bruntwood Prize

• David Eldridge – Telling story as dramatic action: making backstory active and other tips, notes and thoughts- Tuesday 19 February
• Jo Clifford–  on Imagery, Metaphor and Meaning  – Thursday 7 March
• Patricia Cornelius- Lovely, lovely, sometimes ugly dialogue-  March 25th with Playwriting Australia 
• Winsome Pinnock on the relationship between the epic and the intimate in writing for the stage – Thursday 18 April
• Tanika Gupta on how you might explore your work to ensure that the story you want to tell is clear, dramatic and theatrical – Monday 22 May
• And more to come….