Show of Strength Theatre Company brings free writing workshops to Bristol and Exeter
Sheila Hannon in Trading Local
What is the purpose of a theatre? To provide actors with a place where they can learn their art and earn an income, to educate and entertain the masses? Perhaps, from a writer’s point of view, it’s main purpose is to showcase the work of talented playwrights. Show of Strength Theatre Company takes this a step further by providing free scriptwriting workshops, and helping aspiring playwrights to emerge.
However, for many of us the idea of theatre also takes a physical form - it is the building where all these things take place.
Sheila Hannon, Creative Producer of the Show of Strength theatre company, would disagree. “I co-founded Show of Strength in 1986 to bring theatre to non-theatre spaces. The company occasionally puts on little known work, but the main focus is always on new works performed in non-traditional spaces.”
A theatre company without a theatre
The company began life as a small touring company, and then found a home at the Hen and Chicken in Southville, Bristol, from 1989 until 1994, when they moved to Quakers Friars in the city centre. Then in 1998, after negotiations with owner George Ferguson, Show of Space moved into an old tobacco factory in Bristol’s Bedminster area and gradually transformed it into a thriving theatre.
“When we first saw the Tobacco Factory, it had no running water or electricity and was just a very raw, basic space. In 2002 we produced Amanda Whittington’s The Wills’s Girls, about the women who used to work there when it was still a factory. The production was so successful that we revived it in 2003. Then it felt like time for a change and we developed other ways of working.”
Writer Joe Spurgeon took part in a series of workshops with Show of Strength around this time, long before he became the editor of Venue magazine. “The writing workshops were spread over several weekly sessions at the Southville Centre, with a performance night at the Bocabar at the end. As a group we discussed stage writing, short story writing and other, more general aspects of creative writing and performance.”
The sessions included work on individual pieces and monologues as well as a healthy portion of feedback’ and critique, all of which Joe felt gave him a step forward in his writing career.
“It gave me great encouragement to write. I became aware of the effect of slick dialogue, rhythm, analogy and verse. It also gave me an enormous amount of pleasure through discussing ideas and developing pieces of writing for performance.”
Free scriptwriting workshops
Another example of this kind of project was Trading Local, which began as a series of workshops and ended up as a series of short performances held in the shops of Bedminster in February 2009.
“Sheila contacted me after I’d won the Bristol Short Story Prize 2008,” says writer Rebecca Lloyd. “She told me about Trading Local and it sounded so enchanting that I wanted to be involved. I teach creative writing so it made sense for me to help with the scriptwriting workshops, helping the writers to get their five-minute monologues as perfect as possible. One of the glorious things about the workshops was that there was such a good mixture of interesting people participating, some of whom had written before, and others who were just starting out.”
Promoting shops and new writers simultaneously
The project comprised 19 five-minute pieces of work written specifically for the 19 Bedminster shops they were performed in.
“I wrote a piece for a Sicilian restaurant,” Sheila says. “Other shops involved included an ironmongers, launderette, Polish shop, bakers and greengrocers. Over 700 people came to see the shows and at one point over 200 were watching theatre in three Bedminster shops. One café told us they gained new regulars and that on the day of the performances they had so many customers that they ran out of teapots, plates and teacups.”
Poet Joanna Butler was one of the writers involved with the project. “I knew the Bed Workshop on Braunton Road, Bedminster, and the place really intrigued me, so I was excited to have the chance to write about it. I placed the piece deep inside so people had to walk past the beds to reach it. I wanted to leave an impression of the place on them, of the place’s history, and help them to see the magic about it.”
Joanna recognises the work that goes into producing such an unusual event. ”The Trading Local event was an immense feat of organisation,” she says. “You need an incredible amount of faith to make something like that happen, and that’s what Sheila has. She really believes in what she’s doing, and that’s why Show of Strength is such a success.”
Show of Strength are now talking to a number of shopping areas about taking the project elsewhere, with free scriptwriting workshops happening in Bristol’s Brislington and Westbury-on-Trym, as well as in Exeter.
Sourcing funding to keep the writing opportunities going
Another big part of the job is sourcing funding to keep the theatre company going, and in June SOS won VOSCUR’s campaigning award for its success in getting Bristol City Council funding reinstated . “It’s a constant challenge trying to balance producing, my own creative writing, and writing funding bids, using two different bits of the brain,” Sheila says. “We did a fundraising event with Sandi Toksvig in April, and that has helped immensely. I knew Sandi through a play I wrote for Radio 4 that she performed in, and we’ve stayed in touch ever since.”
Good working relationships like this are clearly important to Sheila as the company now works with a large range of partners, including Theatre Royal Plymouth, The Everyman Theatre Cheltenham, The Brewhouse Theatre, Taunton, The Northcott Theatre Exeter, and the Bristol Old Vic. This talent for building positive partnerships is a key part of their success, and is also reflected in the writing workshops that ives local writers an opportunity to work together as part of a team.
“It’s good to work with a very recognised theatre company,” Joanna says, “You’re guaranteed an audience, coverage, and lots of interest. There was real feeling of solidarity as we were all working towards a common goal.”
Joe agrees. “Show of Strength contributes massively to the creative community. With little money, they create an egalitarian, accessible world for aspiring writers, actors, directors and anyone with a vaguely creative bent. They are relentless, generous, intelligent and an institution that should be protected, cherished and nourished by the people of Bristol. We’re lucky to have ‘em…”
For further information on Show of Strength’s free scriptwriting workshops, please visit http://showofstrength.org.uk/
A version of this feature was originally printed in The Bristol Review of Books and has been republished here with the kind permission of editor Stephen Morris.
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