BROADCASTING INDUSTRY DAY

Stephen will be talking about So You Want to Write Radio Drama? which he co-wrote with Claire Grove at New Writing South's Broadcasting Industry Day on Saturday 30th November. Copies of the book will be on sale!

CLAIRE GROVE

Claire Grove, co-author of our radio drama book, died yesterday afternoon after a long and courageous battle with cancer. She was a wonderful collaborator and such a warm, vibrant, energetic and funny woman that it's hard to believe she's no longer with us.

Dear Claire, you will be much missed.

Here's what she wrote in the introduction to the book:

I love radio drama. I am a shamelessly enthusiastic listener and I’ve had the enormous pleasure of working in it for many years as a producer and director. Why do I love it?  Because it can take me anywhere the writer wants to take me. It gives me the freedom to imagine complete worlds.  It can take me to places where I could never actually go in life. I love the vast range of subjects that it embraces and the sheer volume of it splurging out of the radio on a daily basis. Thrillers, romances, fantasy, gritty urban; there’s something for everyone here. I love the fact that the word is king, that I can imagine complete characters from the timbre of an actor’s voice and that a sudden silence can stop me in my tracks because I simply have to discover what happens next.   And it fits in with a busy life. I can listen to it on my iPod while I’m walking, in the car while I’m driving or at home while I’m doing other things.

TOLD LOOK YOUNGER AT JERMYN STREET THEATRE

Many thanks to my talented cast (Jonathan Coy, Philip Franks, Jordan Mifsud and Jeff Rawle) and my director (Sue Dunderdale) for all their hard work on the reading of Told Look Younger at the Jermyn Street Theatre on Thursday 14th. The script really came alive in their hands.

Thanks also to Sara Moore at Valerie Hoskins Associates and the Arts Council of England for their support.

Very favourable reactions from the audience and it looks as if there's a good chance the play will now proceed to production at a later date. Fingers crossed!

THE ORGANIST'S DAUGHTER

A nice review from Gillian Reynolds in The Daily Telegraph:

Radio drama has its own voice, of course, one with the power to take you anywhere. Monday’s Afternoon Drama last week, The Organist’s Daughter by Stephen Wyatt, was just such a play. Simon Russell Beale, the National’s most-daringly versatile actor, played Buxtehude, the great German Baroque organist. Emma Fielding, who began her distinguished career with the BBC Radio Drama Company, played his clever daughter. Would he succeed in marrying her to one of the candidates to succeed him, Bach (Karl Davies) or Handel (Joseph Kloska)? I won’t say. It’s bound to be repeated, a piece that will catch your ear, your inner eye and, unexpectedly, your heart.

ARTS COUNCIL GRANT FOR TOLD LOOK YOUNGER

I was delighted to learn that we have been given an Arts Council of England grant for the workshops and rehearsed reading of my comedy, TOLD LOOK YOUNGER (see below) on 14th November at the Jermyn Street Theatre. Sue Dunderdale will direct with Jonathan Coy, Philip Franks and Jeff Rawle in the cast. There will also be an opportunity for two young theatre writers to be involved in the process as part of my continuing collaboration with Chris Taylor and New Writing South.

TOLD LOOK YOUNGER by Stephen Wyatt

A provocative and perceptive comedy about sex, love and growing old.

Three encounters between three gay men in their early sixties in a restaurant where the menu is never the same.

Colin plans to marry his nineteen year old Turkish boyfriend and his two oldest friends are determined to stop him. This is the starting point for an emotional rollercoaster which turns all their lives upside down as they bitch, argue, confide, laugh and cry their way through the changing dishes of the day.

 Supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England

Supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England - See more at: http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding/information-funded-organisations/grant-award-logo-and-guidelines/logo-guidelines-new/#verbal

14th October 2013 AFTERNOON DRAMA

Monday 14^th October 2013 at 2.15 pm

BBC Radio 4

THE ORGANIST’S DAUGHTER

By

Stephen Wyatt

 Directed by Martin Jenkins

with

Emma Fielding and Simon Russell Beale

Dieterich Buxtehude was famous throughout Europe for his skill as an organist. Many musicians coveted the post he held in Lübeck, including Georg Friedrich Händel and Johann Sebastian Bach, both then in their early twenties. But there was a condition – the successful applicant had to marry Buxtehude’s thirty-year old daughter, Anna Margreta.

SO YOU WANT TO WRITE RADIO DRAMA?

So you want to write Radio Drama? by Claire Grove and Stephen Wyatt will be published by Nick Hern Books on 5th December 2013.

We will be doing a launch in collaboration with New Writing South in Brighton as part of NWS's Broadcasting Industry Day on Saturday 30th November.

SOPHIE READS GREATEST SHOW

My copy of the new release of Sophie Aldred reading Greatest Show in the Galaxy arrived a couple of days ago. Great job by Sophie and Simon Power (music score and special effects)

ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS

My dramatisation of ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS broadcast over Christmas 2012 is now available for download from AudioGO. A snip at £1.99! See November 2012 entry for further information about the production.

NEW WRITING SOUTH

Honoured to be invited to become one of New Writing South's new Artistic Associates. I've enjoyed my times running courses on radio drama for NWS and have enormous respect for the terrific work Chris Taylor and her team do.

We are hoping to organise a joint event in late November to launch the publication by Nick Hern Books of SO YOU WANT TO WRITE RADIO DRAMA? which I've co-written with that distinguished radio director/producer the lovely Claire Grove.