The White Bear Theatre will be home to The Collective Collected from Monday 21st – Saturday 26th June 2021 – a week-long festival of 10 short plays from writing group ‘10 Minutes a Month Playwriting Collective’, in collaboration with new London-based theatre company, Parallel Paths.
This is the third week of the plays from the writing group, covering themes set by the contributing writers, including Deception, Dreaming, Technology, Happiness, Competition, Killer Instinct, Church and Shipwreck. Across the week there will be a variety of stories told – from a family secret being revealed, to dreams of winning the lottery and shipwrecked friends talking about the pros and cons of cannibalism.
The ‘10 Minutes a Month Playwriting Collective’ is a monthly initiative to keep writers writing by setting a monthly theme as a basis for new 10-minute plays. The new plays are then presented at a reading night each month covering a number of styles, such as comical, dramatic, historical or whimsical. The monthly initiative was able to thrive and grow during the Covid 19 lockdowns as the group reached global audiences through video conferencing.
Andy Marchant, founder of the ‘10 Minutes a Month Playwriting Collective’, said: “The Collective has become a useful and safe platform for writers, old and new, to test their writing skills and try out different techniques. Being based purely online over the last year has allowed us to attract writers based throughout the UK and internationally. It has also allowed us to experiment with different writing formats, including our popular seasonal duologue challenges where writers are tasked with creating a play within 24 hours, which are then made into short films through video conferencing.”
The festival of short plays is being produced by Parallel Paths, a new theatre company that aims to bring new writing and forgotten classics to the stage.
Nick Mouton, co-artistic director of Parallel Paths, said: “We’re proud that our first production is in collaboration with ’10 Minutes a Month Playwriting Collective’. They have such an extensive portfolio of new plays that we want to ensure that they get the recognition that they deserve, rather than get dusty in drawers or lost on computers. After a terrible year for the arts, it’s been a pleasure to team up with talented creatives and play a part in getting live theatre back in front of audiences and show our support for fringe theatres, such as the White Bear.”
