Page to Stage Festival
The Page to Stage Festival is a theatre festival established by John Mc, a Liverpool (UK) based writer, actor and businessman. It is a platform for emerging writers to stage their shows during a two-week period in venues situated around Liverpool City Centre, hence gaining experience of the theatre production process. Plays are selected for the festival via an international script writing competition.
Process
Scripts are submitted to the festival organiser, with an entry fee. Scripts are then passed to a panel of adjudicators who score and critique each play. From the submissions, the strongest plays are selected to be produced at the festival.
Each writer acts as the executive producer for their own play and, with the help of the festival organiser, selects a director to work with them and then find a cast.
The festival organiser provides help and support throughout the process with a view to the writers developing the skills to enable them to self produce in the future.
History
Early in January 2014 Ian Moore, the director of a previously established festival (Write Now) posted on its website that he will no longer be holding the festival. John Mc decided to take the Page to Stage Festival forward as he had been involved in the theatre festivals previously and he had experience of running other festivals, including the 0151 Film Festival in 2013.
The name of the festival was chosen through a Twitter poll. More than fifty percent of those who responded selected “Page to Stage Festival” from a list of about ten suggestions.
On 15 January, the Facebook group (pagetostage) was launched, attracting over 500 members in the first week. This was followed with a Twitter account (@P2S_Festival) and registered domain names including www.pagetostage.org.uk.
Page to Stage is also listed in a list of theatre festivals.
Venues
In 2014 the Liverpool venues hosting the festival are The Treasurehouse Theatre (at The World Museum), The Bluecoat Chambers, The Lantern Theatre, House and 81 Renshaw Street.
Line Ups
2014
- Fell - Sean Burn. Directed by Lucia Cox. Starring Craig Sharkey and Joel Parry.
- Last Appointment - John Mc. Directed by Zara Marie Brown. Starring Marie-Claire Kennedy and Saul Murphy
- Life's Witness - Tom Hodson. Directed by Onur Orkut. Starring Jennifer Campbell, Luke Helly, Tom Hodson and John Mulholland.
- Mother, Crone, Maiden - Jessica Collette. Directed by Martin Williams. Starring Edwina Lea, Alicia Dillon and Charlotte Cumming.
- My Afternoon With Bruce Lee - Sarah Lowes. Directed by Samuel Erskine. Starring Joanna Moran, Andrew Di Tym, Rachel McKeown, John Purcell, Luke Saunders, Rebecca Riley, Sheddie Broddle and Laura Jump.
- Second Chance Saloon - Merseyside Script Initiative
- The Ruination of Isaiah Squiff - Tim Tricker. Directed by Paul James Furlong.
- Venus Rising - Ian Salmon. Directed by Anna Cardus. Starring Samuel Metcalfe, Natalie Timmins, Alan Flyn and Lydia Parsons.
- A Conversation with Colin McKeown - Mike Neary ineterviews Colin McKeown from LA Productions