Festival Gives Hull’s New Writers a Voice

New writers from the Hull region will get a chance to showcase their talents in the forthcoming New Voices festival. Taking place on 3 and 4 February 2010, a total of 15 diverse short plays and excerpts from full-length pieces will be staged, and each night will offer a different selection. The event marks the first show from the newly formed Hull branch of Script Yorkshire.

Director, Paul Lawton, praised the “real talent” among the new writers, adding: “The festival is all about new writing and giving this selection of new writers from Hull and the surrounding area a stage.”

Arts students from Hull College will take to the stage at the college’s Riverside Auditorium alongside professional actors to perform the works that range from a piece inspired by current events in Iraq to a fictitious meeting in 1950s Cuba between Ernest Hemingway and Bond creator, Ian Fleming. There are also pieces that take place closer to home, such as Zahidi Mansoor’s The Circle of Life, which is set in Hull and looks at intergenerational dynamics, and Ultimate Solutions by Gail Teasdale, which is influenced by the credit crunch.

Kate Hainsworth, chair of the Hull branch of Script Yorkshire said of the programme: “There really is a wide choice of work on offer.” She also noted the “incredible speed” with which the Hull branch has established itself, adding: “We quickly realised the drive and ambition that we all had, as writers, and that, collectively, we all wanted to get our work in front of the public.”

Script Yorkshire offers professional developments and networking opportunities for writers in the region and has a number of other regional branches, including Bradford, Leeds and Sheffield.

Tickets for the New Voices festival are available from the Box Office (tel: 01482 598979).

-by Hannah Giles