Incubate

This is the Octagon’s Professional Playwrights’ Group, founded in 2009. The Group is for ‘emerging’ and ‘mid-career’ level playwrights. It enables twelve playwrights to be on attachment at the Theatre all year round.

A playwright can remain on attachment for as long as the Theatre and playwright believe the collaboration is benefiting the playwright, therefore places are limited. There is a waiting list to become a member of Incubate.

Incubate aims to discover playwrights we wish to nurture, and eventually commission to write plays for our Main Auditorium Programme. The Octagon commissioned Aelish Michael, an Incubate playwright, to write The Demolition Man which has been produced as part of our 2010/11 Main Auditorium Season.

How does Octagon Incubate work?

• The Group meets every two weeks. The sessions are led by Elizabeth Newman
• The majority of the sessions are used to workshop the playwrights’ work. In these sessions their plays in development are rehearsed by Elizabeth and an invited group of actors. They receive feedback from their fellow Incubators and from the actors working on their new play.
• At selected points throughout the year the Octagon invites nationally respected playwrights and practitioners to come and work with Incubate.
• The Octagon also invites representatives from other theatres and organizations to meet with the Group to discuss how they can develop their careers and position in our national theatrical landscape.
• Every four months Incubate playwrights are offered the opportunity to present their works in progress at First Dates, Incubate playwrights’ showcase. Their work is rehearsed and presented in our Studio to an audience for feedback 
• Incubate playwrights have access to Main Auditorium rehearsals. They can observe our Company rehearsing the Octagon’s varied programme including our new plays and the great plays by Miller, Shakespeare and Cartwright.
• Every Season Incubate playwrights are invited to write a short site-specific piece inspired by the Shakespeare play we’re producing in our Main Auditorium. These new plays are performed by the Company of actors in our Shakespeare. Their shorts become part of a post-show repertory season. The plays take place all around the Theatre. In our most recent Season, A Thing Called Love, Incubate took the audience all over the Theatre. Their performance sites included our box office, the lift and we even did a promenade experience.

In 2012 we will strive to present a season of new plays by our Incubate playwrights in the Octagon Studio.

Contact Elizabeth Newman via info@octagonbolton.co.uk for more information. 

Generate

Building on the success of Incubate, we have created the same opportunity for young playwrights aged 13 – 19 years old through 'Generate'. Generate is part of our Bruntwood Academy, sponsored by Bruntwood, in association with Bolton Lads and Girls Club.

How does Octagon Generate work?

• Generate meets weekly.
• Generate is led by Elizabeth Newman and award winning playwright David Eldridge. The Group is supported by James Leach and Ben Aitken, our Generate Assistants who are also young playwrights themselves.
• At the end of their six month attachment, our Generate playwrights write a short play that is produced by our Bruntwood Theatre Company as part of our Bruntwood Academy. This play will go on a community tour around Bolton and across the North West.
• Generate is about learning about how to write a play. In the six months we cover many things including how to structure a play, write dialogue, generate storylines and plot, how to create conflict and obstacles for characters and how to find inspiration for new work.
• The sessions include reading and learning from established playwrights including Miller, Cartwright, Simon Stephens, Shakespeare and Pinter.
• In every session there is at least one playwriting task.
• Generate playwrights have their work rehearsed in sessions by Elizabeth and an invited group of actors. They receive feedback from their fellow Incubators and from the actors working on their new play.
• At selected points throughout the year the Octagon invites nationally respected playwrights and practitioners to come and work with Generate.
• Generate will go on theatre trips and creative excursions.
• Our Octagon Incubate playwrights act as mentors to the Generate playwrights.
• Three months into their attachment, the Generate playwrights are offered the opportunity to present their works in progress at Playtime, Generate playwrights’ showcase. Their work is rehearsed and presented in our Studio to an audience for feedback
• Generate playwrights have access to Main Auditorium rehearsals. They can observe our Company rehearsing the Octagon’s varied programme including our new plays and the great plays by Miller, Shakespeare and Cartwright.

Over three years Generate aims to have nurtured six groups of twenty young playwrights.

Contact Elizabeth Newman via info@octagonbolton.co.uk for more information.