matthewturner.info

I’ve just posted the opening pages of Inside My Head in the Plays section.

Inside My Head is a short play about a patient and his therapist. Something has gone very wrong: the man is holding a gun against the therapist, but she seems quite relaxed about it all. What has driven him to such despair and why is she so calmly fascinated by his state of mind?

This play was shortlisted for the Windsor Fringe Kenneth Branagh Award for New Drama Writing last year, and was performed as a rehearsed reading at Sussex Playwrights’ Club last September. We’re currently looking for somewhere to stage a full production.

As before I’ve only included an excerpt here. Please send me an email if you’re interested in reading the full play.

My writing high point of the year was 14 May, our Saturday performance of The Inside Man / The Interview at the Brighton Fringe. A full house (despite the competing lure of the FA Cup Final), the cast at full throttle and a warmly responsive audience – well, it was everything I’d hoped for.

Our whole run at the Fringe was fantastically rewarding, and it was great to feel part of such a buzzing festival with so many inventive events going on all over Brighton. Creativity thrives on others creativity, and the Fringe spirit helps you turn your ideas into reality in no time at all.

The same spirit lies behind Shoreham WordFest. Though currently at a much smaller stage of development, I was impressed by how much our group managed to achieve for the inaugural festival in September. With barely any funding we managed to attract a big enough audience to prove the value of holding a larger-scale WordFest in 2012.

One final highlight was the news that I had made the final nine of the Windsor Fringe Kenneth Branagh Award for New Drama Writing for Inside My Head. Following a successful reading at Sussex Playwrights’ Club I’m now deciding what to do next with this short play.

And so into 2012, with the usual mix of apprehension and anticipation. Good luck with all your plans and hopes for the year ahead.