CloudNine

Posting details of play again here. Off to London today  to join rehearsals for two weeks. Will check out a few things while I'm there - Cheek by Jowl's new production of Macbeth , Tom Murphy's play at the Arcola, Out of Joint's production of Sebastian Barry's new play at Hampstead Theatre. It's a tough life.

I recently completed my adjudication of a large-scale youth writing project in the border region. (This project is a Peace 3 project funded by the EU's 'Peace and Reconciliation' initiative.) My work was to judge creative writing portfolios submitted from schools all over the North and border regions, all of which contained works of fiction, poetry, non-fiction and an open section which saw some very innovative ideas – such as short films, plays, mimes, dance pieces. It was hard work devising the competition - and really hard work adjudicating it. But as always in these things - the reward is really in the discovery of young talent. The talent on show was startling – particularly in the non-fiction sections. Some of the essays were worthy of publication in the New Yorker - they were that strong. We are going to anthologise a lot of the writing, and I’m really looking forward to this. It all came to a wonderful head yesterday when prizes were presented to the young write...

The spring 2010 edition of The Frogmore Papers (number 75) is out in the shops now.  (Outside the UK, go to www.frogmorepress.co.uk to buy journal which retails at £5.00 or to subscribe.) The new Papers sport a stunning cover from Neil Gower and contain poems by Frogmore stalwarts Peter Carpenter, Michael Curtis, Edna Eglinton, Robert Etty, Sam Gardiner, Desmond Graham, Caroline Price, Alex Smith and Michael Swan alongside new work from the likes of Martyn Crucefix, Katrina Naomi and Martin Reed, prose from Peter Gilmour, Jaki McCarrick (that's me),  Maria McCarthy and Richard Todd, and artwork from Donald Stuart and Alexey Talimonov. The Frogmore Press publishes this bi-annual literary journal and awards the annual Frogmore Poetry Prize. It is edited by the Managing Editor of the Press, Alexandra Loske. The Frogmore blog details are: http://frogmore-jp.blogspot.com/2010/03/frogmore-papers-issue-75-is-out.html

  I just want to say a big thanks to Culture Ireland who are funding my participation in the LEOPOLDVILLE project, details below. Thank you so much!

Papatango presents Leopoldville The Winner of the Papatango New Wrtitng Competition 7th - 24th April 8:00pm Tickets: £12 BOOK NOW 020 7240 6283 / boxoffice@tristanbatestheatre.co.uk Written by Jacqueline McCarrick Directed by George Turvey   Cast Includes: Prentice - Richard Hawley Devlin - Jack Ashton Mikey - Russell Simpson Gascoigne - Joe Sims ‘Everywhere is Leopoldville. Everywhere’ This year’s winning entry, Leopoldville is a dark Irish play set in 1990, at the tail-end of the last recession. Leopoldville is about a gang of young men who rob a pub in a border town. Damaged lives are revealed and friendships are tested as their crime spirals horrifically out of control. Reviews for Jacqueline McCarric k Reviews for The Mushroom Pickers : "All the familiar ingredients are here: rustic eccentricity, colloquial lyricism, the Troubles. Yet fine performances and a subtle handling of the shades of morality lift this above the ordinary." Kieron Quirke, Even...

I've been asked to circulate this. But please do note the huge number of opportunities listed in last post. I'm going to do a newsletter of some kind. Some good script workshops here. Scripting Futures is a programme of screenwriting activity funded by Screen WM and run by Script in partnership with Red Room Films, Hello Digital and Animation Forum West Midlands. Each workshop is £50 (£40 concessions). For booking details, visit www.scriptonline.net/screen.html or email catherine.edwards@scriptonline.net Sitcom: Beginners (Keith R Lindsay) Saturday 20 th March 2010  Woodward Room, Birmingham & Midland Institute In this hands-on workshop, participants will engage in the process of creating a situation comedy from the initial concept all the way to writing the first and most important page of the script. The conclusion of the workshop will offer instructions on the technical side of putting together a script and suggestions for a professional approach to finding ...

Don't say I don't spoil you: Tinderbox Young Writer Programme Fireworks 2010 - applications now open If you are a young writer aged 16 to 25 interested in writing for the stage Fireworks might be something for you. Fireworks is a 5 months long specialised program to take you through the process of writing a play from idea through redrafting and into the rehearsal room. The applications deadline for this year is the 3rd of May. For more information visit http://www.tinderbox.org.uk/dramaturgy/fireworks-young-writers-programme/ The Grand Opera House seeking to commission a script writer/ facilitator The Grand Opera House is seeking to commission a script writer/ facilitator to deliver their Perspectives Project , a community based outreach project. The aim of the project is to engage with groups within Unionist communities across Belfast to develop a script for a new piece of theatre which will be performed in The Baby Grand at the Grand Opera House. The script narrative wil...

Have a very Happy Paddy's Day from Cloud Nine!

 If you fancy it:   http://www.tristanbatestheatre.co.uk/Production_Details_Leopoldville.asp

  In a few days the new issue of The Frogmore Papers (no.75)  is available for sale. It’s a wonderful journal with a solid reputation and has published fiction and poetry from the great and the good for a number of years. It’s one of those rare creatures – a print-only journal and is not available on-line. I think it retails at £3.50. My short story, The Badminton Court, will appear in this issue. It’s a tightly-woven piece inspired by a painting by David Inshaw called The Badminton Game – which features two girls playing badminton in identical maroon-coloured gowns outside a big house. I saw a mystery (and a love story) and set to work. It’s set in Sussex and is also now being considered for an anthology of lesbian short fiction in the States. Inshaw's picture, left: More can be found about The Frogmore Papers and Frogmore press at: www.frogmorepress.co.uk

Last night I watched Joe Wright's multi-award winning film, Atonement, starring Keira Knightly, James McAvoy and Saoirse Ronan - amongst others. It's an astonishing film, I think. Beautifully shot, brilliantly acted - and the key tropes are very delicately handled. I must admit to not having read McEwan's novel on which the film is based - though I do have a copy - and will be heading straight to page one as soon as I can. The core 'message' of the film must, I imagine, belong to the novel, and not Christopher Hampton's fantastic script. And that is, that fiction - story-telling - can 'atone', can put things 'right' in some way. This idea has been with me all morning, and if ever I needed as a writer to have some kind of assurance as to why the hell I do what I do at all, there it is in McEwan's tale. He is reading at the forthcoming Oxford Literary Festival: http://www.oxfordliteraryfestival.com/

I've just come back from a very serene and productive week at Annaghmakerrig, Monaghan, for which I'm very grateful. The weather was bright but cold, the lake as ever draped in a light mist. As I'm going to be flitting between Ireland and the UK for the next couple of weeks I thought I'd post a beautiful discovery I made while there. It's a poem by Derek Mahon and has (to paraphrase Kavanagh), the quality of prayer.  See you soon! Everything is Going to be All Right How should I not be glad to contemplate the clouds clearing beyond the dormer window and a high tide reflected on the ceiling? There will be dying, there will be dying, but there is no need to go into that. The poems flow from the hand unbidden and the hidden source is the watchful heart. The sun rises in spite of everything and the far cities are beautiful and bright. I lie here in a riot of sunlight watching the day break and the clouds flying. Everything is going to be all right. ~ De...

I've just completed my first screenplay. It's called RAY and is a character-driven piece about a forty-something single male living in West London called, you guessed it, Ray. Ray is a cross between Buster Keaton and the Dude - and I completely love him. In an ideal world he would be played by the actor, Phil Daniels. Getting the picture? While writing RAY I realised what an absolute art-form screenwriting is. Believe it or not, it wasn't my play-writing background that was most useful for this work - but my poetry. There can be no fat in a good screenplay, and every word must carry weight and move the drama forward.  Screenwriting is very precise and there is no room for long, drawn-out conversations or languorous scenes  (I love these scenes on a stage, however.) There is a demand for action all the time in a screenplay - and what this did, as I was working out my story (RAY is a short), was to make me very, very mindful of anything superfluous - exactly the same fram...