Arts Richmond The New Plays Festival Returns!
The New Plays Competition 2024 – Finalists Announced!
Arts Richmond is delighted to announce the four finalists in the New Plays Competition 2024: our celebration of original writing by local playwrights.
We received an incredible 54 submissions, and the quality was as impressively high as the quantity! So our panel of readers faced a very difficult challenge. However, after much discussion and deliberation, they have whittled the entries down to four finalists.
They are:
· ‘Sky Horses’ by Patricia Bertram
· ‘That’s All Folks’ by Jacqueline Hazell
· ‘The Boot Room’ by Rebecca Mayhew
· ‘Common Ground’ by Dominic Parford
Our hearty congratulations to all four.
This short-listed quartet will be performed at the Orange Tree Theatre on Sunday 13th October at 15.00, in front of a paying audience and a judging panel of professional theatre practitioners. The latter will then select the final winning script, and the Mayor of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames will present the winning writer with their trophy and prize.
If you would like to join us for this exciting event, tickets are only £10 and be purchased by clicking on the below link. Numbers are strictly limited, so do please book now!
Our thanks to all those who submitted scripts. We will be running another competition, focused on new work for radio, next year and hope that they will all submit again.
Arts Richmond Creative Voices
Wednesdays 6th, 13th, 20th & 27th November 7.30pm
The Exchange Twickenham
Doors Open 7.00pm Discounts available to all Arts Richmond members and an offer on booking all four talks for £40.00.
6th November: The broadcaster Fergal Keane - who has reported on conflicts everywhere from Somalia to Sudan, Iraq to Afghanistan, and most recently Ukraine, during his 30-plus years with the BBC - discusses his latest book, the intensely personal The Madness: A Memoir of War, Fear and PTSD, with journalist York Membery.
13th November :Best known for presenting a long-running phone-in show on LBC, the hard-hitting, opinionated radio presenter and best-selling author James O’Brien discusses his provocative new book, How They Broke Britain – which points the finger of blame at those he regards as responsible for ‘breaking Britain’ – with journalist York Membery.
20th November: The broadcaster, writer and lexicographer Susie Dent – best known for her 30-plus year stint as the resident word expert on Channel 4’s hit game show Countdown, and for co-presenting the podcast Something Rhymes with Purple – talks about her debut novel Guilty by Definition with the journalist York Membery.
27th November : Dharshini David, BBC News’s Chief Economics Correspondent, discusses her timely, thought-provoking new book, Environomics: How the Green Economy is Transforming Your World, with Sir Vince Cable, the Secretary of State for Business from 2010-15 and former Liberal Democrat leader, who studied economics at Cambridge and worked as an economist before going into politics.
Young Writers Festival 2024/2025
Arts Richmond's Annual writing competition for all young people in the borough.
Arts Richmond Young Writers' Festival is open to all young people who either live or attend school/clubs in the Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It is a chance to demonstrate writing skills of any form: stories,descriptive writing,poems, playlets,lyrics for songs-whatever the imagination can devise.
This year we are excited to announce that the competition will be themed based. All written work should be themed around the topic "Changes".
Entries are judged in four age groups with prizes for all winning entries.
All shortlisted entrants will be invited to a gala awards event at prestigious venue
The Exchange on Sunday 23rd March 2025.
Entry rules are simple: entrants may write about any subject of their choice, in any format (e.g. a poem, story, play script, news item etc.) not exceeding 500 words or 25 lines for a poem. ENTRIES MUST BE IN TYPED FORMAT (Hand written entries will be disqualified)
Extracts from longer pieces will be accepted. All entries must be exclusively the entrant's own work. Only one entry per Young Writer
Entries will be judges in the following Categories.
· School Years 4 and under
· School Years 5 and 6
· School Years 7 and 9
· School Years 10 and over.
Send Your entry to:
Arts Richmond Young Writers Festival
ETNA Community Centre Room 21, 13 Rosslyn Road, Twickenham, TW1 2AR.
Or email: YWentries@artsrichmond.org.uk
Please give full name, address, telephone number, email, date of birth, school year, and school or club you are attending in a covering letter/email or form provided by your school. (NAMES ENTERED DIRECTLY ONTO WORK WILL DISQUALIFY THE PIECE)
Deadline: Friday 6th December 2024
I am very happy to be working with Arts Richmond and their Young Writers’ Festival. I have recently moved to Richmond and love the area…in fact my most recent book is set here.
More to the point, I’m always keen to encourage young people to develop their creative skills and if they’re living in this area, there’s plenty to inspire them. Just walking along the river, in the park or on the green, we’re surrounded by history and enchantment and there are stories everywhere.
Good luck. And get writing!
Anthony Horowitz
Arts Richmond Poetry Prize 2025
Supported by Roger McGough
Entries are invited for the Arts Richmond Poetry Prize 2025.
The theme for this competition is Changes.
You may enter poems up to 40 lines in length. There are prizes of £250, £150, and £75.
A judging panel appointed by Arts Richmond will select 40 poems to be judged by Roger McGough who will choose the winning poems. The final 40 poems will be read by actors experienced in the performance of poetry and Roger will present the winning poets with their prizes at an awards event at The Exchange Twickenham on Sunday 1st June 2025 at 3pm.
The 40 poems will be published in an anthology to mark the event.
The copyright of each poem remains with the author. However, by entering the competition, authors of the winning poems grant the organisers of the Arts Richmond Poetry Prize the right to publish and/ or use them in promotional displays.
The judges decisions are final and no correspondence will be entered into.
ENTRY RULES
Entries must be entirely your own work.
The competition is for original, unpublished poems, no more than 200 words and 40 lines in length, on the theme of Changes. All entrants must be aged 16 or older.
Each poem must be clearly typed on a single side of A4 paper. The poem title must be written at the top of the page. Your name must not appear on the manuscript.
Deadline for entries: Friday 17th January 2025 at 12.30pm.
The entry fee is £5.00 per poem, three poems for £12.00.
Please Include an Entry Form. This can be downloaded by clicking below.
Payment can be made by BACS (preferred) or cheques, details are in the Entry Form.
We prefer to receive entries by email but we will also accept postal entries. Send entries as Word or PDF attachments by email to Competitions@artsrichmond.org.uk
Please enter Arts Richmond Poetry Prize in the subject line. Don’t forget to attach the entry form.
For poems entered by post please include a completed entry form. We prefer BACs payments but you can also pay by cheque made payable to Arts Richmond. Please send to: Arts Richmond, Room 21 ETNA Centre, 13 Rosslyn Road, Twickenham TW1 2AR.
Arts Richmond Drama Party September 2024
Featuring the SWAN Awards
Arts Richmond had a record turn out for their annual Drama Party Awards held at the Landmark Arts Centre on Saturday 21st September. You can now download images from the event and a list of the winners and their citations:
