Friday 27 July 2012

Sitcom Trials Halloween Special Manchester - scripts wanted

Isn't it marvellous? You wait 13 years for a Sitcom Trials Halloween Special, and then two come along at once. Yes, hot on the heels of the announcement of the Bristol Sitcom Trials Halloween Special on Friday 19th October, we are pleased to announce the Manchester Sitcom Trials will be performing a Halloween Special the following night, Saturday October 20th, as part of the Manchester Comedy Festival. And we are looking for scripts.



Both the Bristol and the Manchester shows will be selecting their scripts to perform from the same online entries, so you only have to enter once to have double the chance of seeing your sitcom performed live on stage. The Bristol team will be choosing two scripts to be part of their show, and the Manchester team are choosing three, the remainder of the show being prepared by the performers themselves.

Since this is a Halloween show, we're specifically looking for the spooky, the supernatural and the macabre.  You can re-write an existing sitcom, tailored to the Halloween theme; or you can come up with something new.  

Scripts should be NO MORE THAN 15 pages long, with a solid and exciting CLIFFHANGER around the 8-10 page mark.
 If you want to enter a script, simply upload your scripts to the SitsVac files. First read The Brief below for guidelines.

If you have any questions about The Sitcom Trials you can ask at
The Sits Vac Forum
The British Comedy Guide Forum
or Facebook

Scripts should be written to be performed with NO PROPS, SETS or COSTUMES - we're going minimalist on this occasion, since the last show nearly killed us.  Ideally, we'd like ONE CONTINUOUS PIECE OF ACTION, with no scene changes, and with no more than SIX CHARACTERS.  One day we won't need to say this, but please please please write some strong female characters.

The deadline is: Friday 21st August.  There will be a week of voting (usual rules apply: YES=2 / MAYBE=1 / NO=-1), and then the cast will read the top five scripts at a meeting on Sunday 2nd September, and we'll decide which two will make the show.  All writers (and performers) are welcome to attend our meetings, particularly if they buy us drinks.

Kev F Sutherland
Executive Producer
Sitcom Trials

Wednesday 25 July 2012

Scripts invited for Sitcom Trials Halloween Special

Having sold out the last two shows, and garnered 4 star reviews, the Bristol Sitcom Trials will be back with a special Halloween show on Friday 19th October at the Wardrobe Theatre.  We're looking for TWO SCRIPTS to perform as part of a line-up of five brand new spooky sitcoms, and you're all invited to submit material (the other three sitcoms will be written by the Bristol team of writers and performers).

UPDATE: There is now also a Manchester Sitcom Trials Halloween Special on Oct 20th for which these script entries will also be eligible, you only need enter the once to be counted for both. See here for details.



Since this is a Halloween show, we're specifically looking for the spooky, the supernatural and the macabre.  You can re-write an existing sitcom, tailored to the Halloween theme; or you can come up with something new.  

Scripts should be NO MORE THAN 15 pages long, with a solid and exciting CLIFFHANGER around the 8-10 page mark.
 If you want to enter a script, simply upload your scripts to the SitsVac files. First read The Brief below for guidelines.

If you have any questions about The Sitcom Trials you can ask at
The Sits Vac Forum
The British Comedy Guide Forum
or Facebook

Scripts should be written to be performed with NO PROPS, SETS or COSTUMES - we're going minimalist on this occasion, since the last show nearly killed us.  Ideally, we'd like ONE CONTINUOUS PIECE OF ACTION, with no scene changes, and with no more than SIX CHARACTERS.  One day we won't need to say this, but please please please write some strong female characters.

The deadline is: Friday 21st August.  There will be a week of voting (usual rules apply: YES=2 / MAYBE=1 / NO=-1), and then the cast will read the top five scripts at a meeting on Sunday 2nd September, and we'll decide which two will make the show.  All writers (and performers) are welcome to attend our meetings, particularly if they buy us drinks.

Vince Stadon
Producer
Sitcom Trials Bristol

Sunday 22 July 2012

Sitcom Trials Manchester video

Here is a video giving a small taste of the Manchester Sitcom Trials, July 20 2012.



The Manchester Sitcom Trials team, July 2012 was Jog Maher, Christine Dalby, Amir Rahimzadeh, Lisa Connor, Michael Loftus and actor-producer Michelle Ashton, hosted by Trials creator Kev F (just out of shot)

The running order was:

Thrift Collection by Graeme & Nicky Knowles
My Best Mate by Bob Ferris
End Of The Line by Oliver Ley
Post Docs by Eoin Carney
Games Night by Ed Campbell

The Sitcom Trials is planned to return to London, Manchester and Bristol in October, watch this space for news.

Saturday 21 July 2012

Manchester Sitcom Trials result

Thanks to everyone who took part in and attended last night's Manchester Sitcom Trials at the Lass O'Gowrie. A packed show full of the highest quality of scripts, a video will follow a little later*. Here are the results.


The Manchester Sitcom Trials team, July 2012 (from left) Jog Maher, Christine Dalby, Amir Rahimzadeh, Lisa Connor, Michael Loftus and actor-producer Michelle Ashton. Presenter Kev F just out of shot

The running order was:

Thrift Collection by Graeme & Nicky Knowles
My Best Mate by Bob Ferris
End Of The Line by Oliver Ley
Post Docs by Eoin Carney
Games Night by Ed Campbell

And the audience vote, which is just a bit of fun that decides which sitcom's ending they're going to see, gave us..... a tie. Yes, in joint first place were End Of The Line and Games Night. (In deference to Oliver, the writer of EOTL who'd travelled over from Yorkshire to see his script performed, the cast delivered the ending of that on the night).



So congratulations to all the writers and tremendous work by all of the cast. The next Manchester Sitcom Trials will most likely be in October as part of the Manchester Comedy Festival, keep watching this space for news.




*I write this from my Manchester hotel room having performed not only the Sitcom Trials but then the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre in Manchester last night, and today I'm playing with the Socks at the Splendour Festival in Nottingham in the afternoon, then doing another Socks Edinburgh preview in Guildford at night, so editing and uploading will have a wee wait. It'll happen, stay tuned.

Sunday 15 July 2012

Manchester Script Selection Results

Here are the results of the votes totted up for the Manchester Sitcom Trials. Thanks to the very many of you voted, I counted 28 sets of votes. Here are the results, totted up so that a Yes vote gives 2 points, a Maybe gives 1 point, and a No give minus one point. (The totals with an asterisk beside them is the total if the author's vote for their own script is included)


Games Night

21
Post Docs
*21
19
Thrift Collection

15
End of the Line
*16
14
Audition

11
You Banker
*13
11
Cooper

10
Serenity Now

9
Deliverance
*10
8
Making Heavy Weather

6
Spanner In Works

5
Status Quo

5
Mr Nice Guy
*6
4
Home School

3
Be The Stath
*4
2
Flying Pigs

2
Fifth Horseman

1
Night Club Faux Pas

1
Wat’s Ethics

1
Weekend with Wogan
*2
0
Alternative Route
*2
0
Cally Park Station

-1
Hijacked

-1
Apocalypse

-3
Stanburg

-3
second Cousin of God

-4
Midsummer night ikea

-5
Benched

-5
Doodlebugs
*-3
-5
Guided By Voices

-5
Whitecoats

-6
Wing Man
*-4
-6
Neighbours Wife

-7
Very Friendly Fire

-7
Warthogs
*-7
-8
Shake Money Maker

-12
Diamond Life

-12
Please Die Carefully

-12
The Neighbour

-13
Steven & Mohammed
*-12
-14

I would say this gives us four clear winners - Games Night, Post Docs, Thrift Collection and End Of The Line to be included in the show this Friday in Manchester. I will now confer with producer and performer Michelle as to what that 5th script will be. We will make a decision based on a look at the performability etc of the scripts which came a very close 5th. Stay tuned for updates, the writers will be notified as soon as a decision is made.

The complete table of totalled up votes is here in the SitsVac files if anyone would like to amend my counting, which was done manually. 

Thanks for voting all those who did, it was a big ask this month.

Kev F Sutherland
Producer
The Sitcom Trials

Wednesday 11 July 2012

Notes on the Trials


(Above: Apropos of nothing, some doodles I've found that I made on a Sitcom Trials programme during a show back in 2009)


From a discussion on the BCG Forum:

evan rubivellian writes:

Just some thoughts on the writing process for Sitcom Trials:

It's got to be a potential 30-minute televised sitcom that could run for at least two series. This means rounded characters, plenty of tension and a world that can generate plots week after week. Many of today's sitcoms, especially the US ones, are fast-paced and feature lots of scenes.

However:-
It's got to work as a ten-minute (more or less) stage show. This means no time for rounded characters, and you can't have lots of scenes. Humour that works on stage has different timing to TV comedy. Let's face it, you've got to please a crowd in a pub.

However:-
It's got to work as a script read by your peers, some of whom will actually be literate. You have to give the illusion of rounded characters, realistic dialogue and a plot that moves forward. Humour that works well on stage may read badly on the page.

Evil! Evil I tell you!


This has long been a "thing" about the Sitcom Trials (and the Sitcom Mission by extension), that the live environment lends itself to certain styles of comedy more than others, and that the short form of our mini sitcoms differs from a 30 minute pilot. And it is inevitable. The short form developed following our very first shows in Bristol in the 90s when we tried staging full half hour pilots (in the show Situations Vacant) and found that some were less good than others. And although a couple of our half hour pieces worked excellently and held the audience's attention throughout, some were less good and, once you were 5 minutes in, you were praying for it to end. So the 10/15 min mini-sitcom on which the audience could vote was born.

The live atmosphere has a lot in common with the studio audience sitcom, which of course not all sitcoms are. I've long said that The Office, as a script, would have died a death in the Sitcom Trials as it relied so heavily on its reality TV treatment and its filmic pacing. Of course, since we began the Trials, there has been an explosion of online opportunities to showcase your filmed sketches so work like that can get a showcase whenever it likes.

This leaves the live stage show with a vital role in testing the sort of comedy writing not suited or designed for a filmic treatment. So, yes, the Sitcom Trials works best as a showcase for studio-audience comedy that's supposed to have audible laughs throughout.

The online script-reading process is a different matter and, again, I have long been aware that some participants are not very good at reading scripts, noticing superficial jokes more than they will notice good characterisation and plotting. In practice, usually, we get so many script reviews in that this balances out and we find enough people who have read the scripts properly. In the past we used to temper the influence of the online voting process by allowing it to select a shortlist of 10 scripts which were then read at a table reading with actors, after which we chose the 5 best suited to performance. In the case of the recent London and Manchester shows we haven't done this, through pressure of time and cast availability, but the Bristol team (who, you will remember wrote all of the last show themselves with no online contributions) are in a position to do that more readily.

So, the Sitcom Trials process has its quirks, its strengths and possibly some weaknesses, but as long as we remain aware of them and learn from them it's a process I'm delighted to be part of. And with our current ongoing programme of shows in the three cities, The Sitcom Trials of 2012 is the most active it's been for a good few years, once more staging more shows and showcasing more sitcoms than any of its distinguished competitors, which can't be bad.

We all have until Saturday midnight to read the scripts on contention for Manchester, so izzy wizzy let's get... no, bad quote, bad bad quote.

Kev F
The Sitcom Trials

Sunday 8 July 2012

Draycott & Trimm on Script Chat

Hope you've all been catching up with Sitcom Trials alumni Anne-Marie Draycott & Charity Trimm on Twitter as BAFTA Rocliffe Forum hold a Scriptchat on Sunday night (see below). Charity starred, alongside Miranda Hart, in the Sitcom Trials' first Edinburgh Fringe show (see video clip here) and Charity was in both the 1st Sitcom Trials TV series and the 2004 Edfringe run (see video clip here).

Here's the Storify feed summing up the whole discussion.

Comedy Duo Anne-Marie Draycott and Charity Trimm to guest on Euro #scriptchat on July 8th, 2012


Anne-Marie reaches for inspiration

Euro #scriptchat is delighted to be joined by comedy duo Anne-Marie Draycott and Charity Trimm on Sunday July 8th 2012. 

Anne-Marie Draycott & Charity Trimm met each other through working with Miranda Hart and discovered they shared a passion for quirky character-based comedy. They wrote and developed their own live material and hosted successful comedy residencies in London.  Draycott & Trimm steadily built-up an online community of supporters by writing, performing and producing comedy sketches and short films, winning several comedy competitions and attracting industry interest along the way (including BBC Comedy North, Monkey Productions, Baby Cow, Channel K).

In 2009 they were invited to take part in a BBC Comedy North / BBC Writers Room Writers Residency and were then commissioned to write and appear in a sketch show for BBC3, and also commissioned by Monkey Productions to write and perform sketches for BBC Online’s website, Comedy Extra. 

In August 2011 they were thrilled to win the BAFTA Rocliffe Comedy Scriptwriting Competition for their TV comedy drama PREGNANT PAUSE.  In September BAFTA showcased the script at the New York Television Festival and they took part in a Q&A with Phil Rosenthal.   Draycott & Trimm are currently developing the script, now called UNEXPECTED, with Bwark Productions.

Most recently, they have also been commissioned to write a comedy pilot for the BBC.

Come join us as we chat to Anne-Marie Draycott & Charity Trimm on Sunday 8th of July at 8pm BST.
 
 

Monday 2 July 2012

Manchester Sitcom Trials - time to vote

Time to vote in the Manchester Sitcom Trials script selection, everyone can join in.



There are 40 scripts entered in the Sitcom Trials files for consideration for the Manchester Sitcom Trials on July 20th. Only 5 can be performed on the night, so which will they be? Time for you to help decide.

Simply go to the Files here and read as many of the scripts as you can (it doesn't matter if you can't get through them all).

Then we would like you to Review and Vote on the script. Vote Yes, Maybe or No on whether the script deserved to be showcased on stage as part of The Sitcom Trials, and please include a Twitter-length review of each script (this is both to prove you've actually read the script and to provide vital constructive feedback to the author).

Once you've read and reviewed as many scripts as you can, post your finished votes (all together please, don't post votes on individual scripts separately) either on the Sits Vac Forum, or on the BSG Forum.

These will then be totted up, awarding 2 points to a Yes vote, 1 point to a Maybe vote, and minus 1 point to a No vote. Thus your votes only affect the scripts you've read, and leave unaffected those you haven't.

The deadline for voting is midnight Saturday July 14th so start now and you could have time to read them all. The scripts in contention are:

A midsummer night's ikea sale
A SHAKE YER MONEY MAKERS
a spanner in the works
A Weekend With Wogan Recut
Apocalypse
Audition
Be The Stath
benched
Cally Park Station
Cooper
Deliverance
Diamond Life
Doodlebugs
entry The Neighbour's Wife
entry The Neighbour
Flying Pigs
Games Night Monopoly
Guided by Voices
Hijacked
Home School
Making Heavy Weather
Mr Nice Guy
please die carefully
POSTDOCS
Second Cousin of God - Three Miracles
Serenity Now
Stanburg
STATUS QUO
Steven & Mohammed
THE ALTERNATIVE ROUTE
The End of the Line
The Fifth Horseman
The Night Club Faux Pas
The Thrift Collection
Very Friendly Fire
WARTHOGS
Wat's Ethics - Episode 1 - Off The Grid
WHITECOATS- BRAND NEW DRAFT! Manchester Trials - KB.pdf
Wing Man
You Banker!


http://sitcomtrials.co.uk

Sitcom Trials Bristol report

The Bristol Sitcom Trials team took to the stage at the Wardrobe Theatre on Friday night for a sell-out show that was packed to the rafters.  The heat inside the room sometimes threatened to lead to outbreaks of spontaneous human combustion, but the audience were absolutely wonderful, filling the theatre with laughter and merrily joining in on the spirit of things. (Read the 4 star review here)

Photo: Left to right - Troy Hewitt, Linda Westmoreland, Alistair Hedderman, Louisa Smith, Ziggy Ross, Naomi Carter, Janet Adams, John Lomas, James Dowdeswell, Lewis Cook.

James Dowdeswell, a former Bristol Sitcom Trials member from back in the day, was the show's brilliant host for the night, and the audience were really appreciative of his superb stand-up comedy.  James is preparing for his "Urban Wurzel" show at Edinburgh, which promises to be an absolute corker of a show.  http://jamesdowdeswell.co.uk/

The Sitcoms:

"Ee-Eye-Ee-Eye-Oh"


This started with a bang (a woman sat near to me gave a startled WTF when she heard the shotgun sound effect) as Macdonald the farmer-who'd-rather-be-a-detective bounded on stage, searching for a crime to solve.  Brini, the teenager with attitude, got all the big laughs, and by the time we got to the cliffhanger, the audience were well into this sitcom, particularly enjoying the fluffed lines and technical hitches. 

Cast:
Macdonald:  Lewis Cook
Brini:  Louisa Smith
Mrs Cutler:  Linda Westmoreland
Dr Blight: Alistair Hedderman

"Can We Get Les Dennis?  The Audition"
A classic from the Sitcom Trials script archive, courtesy of Kev F Sutherland, this was a great chance to get all the cast involved, and went down a treat. The double-act between Naomi Carter (Tara) and Soozi (Louisa Smith) was just delightful, and it would be difficult to upstage John Lomas's scenery-chewing turn as the eccentric Mr Legas, but the cast somehow managed to do so in the auditions routine, which was very funny indeed.   (The bar staff in the downstairs pub told me that the intermission was filled with members of the audience asking to be served a pint and noodles-in-a-bun.)

Cast:
Tara: Naomi Carter
Soozi: Louisa Smith
Mr Leagas: John Lomas

Scots Actor: Alistair Hedderman
Posh Actor: Janet Adams
Musical Actor: Linda Westmoreland
Perv Actor: Troy Hewitt
Belching Actor: Alistair Hedderman
Nervous Actor: Ziggy Ross
Protest Actor: Lewis Cook
Camp Actor: Troy Hewitt
East End Wide Boy Actor: Ziggy Ross

There was a 15 minute intermission, after which James Dowdeswell read out a handful of Pitch Fest entries.  My favourites were: "The Hills Have ISAs" (One line pitch: "Ageing football pundit Jimmy Hill and renowned film director Walter Hill set up their own firm offering impartial financial advice - hilarity ensues.") and "Cliffhanger" (One line pitch: "Cliffhanger."  Your name: Cliff Hanger), and then we moved on to sitcom number three:

"Wicca's World"

The most visually striking of the sitcoms (a character in full cricket whites is menaced by a black robed and hooded Druid), this was a change of pace and kicked things off nicely in Part 2, with some lovely performances (from Janet, Troy, Louisa and Alistair) and seemed to be especially enjoyed by the more bohemian members of the audience, and/or those on psychotropic drugs.

Cast:
Caitlin: Janet Adams
Danny: Troy Hewitt
Naomi: Louisa Smith
The Druid: Alistair Hedderman


"None of the Above"
The one with the rude jokes and the very high gag rate, this was destined to win and deservedly so.  The audience loved this from start to finish, particularly the bits involving a character named Mike, who gets to put on and then take off his sunglasses for dramatic effect (this temporarily caused actor Alistair Hedderman to be blinded by the stage lights, to much hilarity). This sitcom was written entirely by actor/writer Lewis Cook, based on ideas the team came up with at a Bristol Trials meeting, and his terrific script was easily the best of the sitcoms.


Cast:
Tim: Lewis Cook
Freddie: Ziggy Ross
Mike: Alistair Hedderman
Ruth: Naomi Carter

Doris: Linda Westmoreland
Gary: Troy Hewitt
Anthony: John Lomas
Meryl: Janet Adams

James Dowdeswell read out the funniest Pitch Fests, and asked the audience which one they liked the best; the winner was Kev Page's  "Pull the Wool", a sitcom about grannies thwarting a terrorist attack by knitting them balaclavas without eye-holes.  And Kev's prize was to have his sitcom idea performed right there and then by an improv. team!  

"Pull the Wool"

Entirely improvised by John Lomas and the cast of "Closer Each Day", this was a whole new level of insane, and absolutely delighted the audience - particularly the bits involving the terrorists who had to pretend to be American tourists.  

James Dowdeswell clearly thought this was a show-stopper, and promptly declared the evening's entertainment to be over.  But it wasn't, we still had the voting to get through, and then the final scene of the winning sitcom.  And the heat in the room was now at boiling point.  And it had gone ten o'clock.  The votes were swiftly counted and the results are:

"None of the Above" = 14
"Wicca's World"= 10
"Pull the Wool" = 9
"Ee-Eye-Ee-Eye-Oh" / "Can We Get Les Dennis? The Audition" = 7

The cast took to the stage to perform the final scene, and then it was all over, and the bar was still open for more pints and noodles-in-a-bun.

A huge thank you to the wonderful cast who gave it their all after weeks of rehearsal, and to Roz our splendid director, and to James Dowdeswell who bravely stood in for Kev F as host for the evening and did a brilliant job, and to the Wardrobe Theatre who are a delight to work with, and most of all to the audience who were fabulous.

The next Sitcom Trials is in Manchester on July 20th, and the Bristol team will be back at the Wardrobe on October 19th for a special Halloween Sitcom Trials.  See you there!

--Vince Stadon, producer

Sunday 1 July 2012

★★★★ "You will not be disappointed" - The Public Reviews, Bristol Trials

Excellent 4 star review for the Bristol Sitcom Trials via The Public Reviews

The Sitcom Trials – The Wardrobe Theatre, Bristol

VN:F [1.9.14_1148]

Writers: Luke Cedar, Lewis Cook, Oliver Ley, Vince Stadon, Kev F Sutherland, with additional material by the cast

Director: Roz Hopkinson

Reviewer: Joan Phillips

The Public Reviews Rating: ★★★★☆


If you enjoy a night out of good comedy then take a group of friends to The Sitcom Trials. You will not be disappointed.

The show format is for short versions of potential brand new sitcoms, competing head to head, performed live before an audience. A sort of Britain’s Got Sitcoms.

The evening features 4 productions. The first is about a farmer who would rather be a detective. Like all famous detectives there is no ‘Mr’. So, as a tribute to his famous heroes (Morse, Sherlock, Colombo), he insists on being called McDonald. Following on, is a low budget production company trying to cast for some promotion material for the next great new fast food. In the third sitcom we are shocked by the inside world of extortion in (of all places) Glastonbury, where the villains are the druids. The final performance is about a market research company who seem to have allowed their research to have taken over their lives.

The productions are all very funny and each lasts around 15 minutes up to a cliff-hanger moment. Towards the end of the evening the audience get to vote for the best and the cast then come back and perform the second half.

The show was introduced by James Dowdeswell, former Sitcom Trials alumni. Dowdeswell was an excellent host for the evening. Already a headline act at some of the UK’s top comedy clubs, he smoothly keeps the process of the competition going with great humour.

At the interval the audience are asked to participate in Pitch Fest. Everyone is asked to submit their own idea for a new sitcom and vote for the best one. Before the end of the evening the supporting cast act out their own improvised version of the winner.

The Sitcom Trials is a stage and TV show originally devised and produced by Kevin Sutherland. It started in Bristol in 1999 and it seems apt that it returns to Bristol to a new venue, The Wardrobe Theatre, specifically set up to support new work using local talent. Located in an upstairs room in the White Bear pub, space is limited so get there early to avoid disappointment. The pub serves good food and has a great atmosphere so have a meal before you go upstairs and finish off the evening with a few drinks as the show finishes comfortably before last orders.

The cast of Closer Each Day, a local comedy sitcom group, also deserve a mention. They provide support to the main cast and the improvisation for the winner of Pitch Fest. They return for a season of improvised comedy of their own at The Wardrobe in September.

The Sitcom Trials will next be in Manchester on July 20th and return to Bristol at The Wardrobe in October.

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