Aspiring screenwriters and playwrights have been given the chance in 2021 to take centre stage with two regional writing competitions, namely Enter.Stage.Write and Amplified, which will end with a glitzy red carpeted annual awards screening and gala in January 2022.
Both competitions are the brainchild of the Birmingham born Natalie Yesufu-Edwards, founder of Transition Stage Company and Enter.Stage.Write. Natalie has run Enter.Stage.Write successively for the last three years in Birmingham, bringing people from all backgrounds to celebrate the intrinsic value of new writing and visual arts and changing the life of aspirational screenwriters firmly planted in the competitive world of stage and broadcast TV such as Abraham Adeyemi and Tonia Daley. This year Natalie has not only launched Enter.Stage.Write but for the first time also Amplified (part of the Enter.Stage.Write franchise), a comedy competition for diverse voices. Through Amplified Natalie wanted to create more opportunities for British Asian and Black and comedic voices and bring back the diverse renaissance of Comedy of Goodness Gracious Me and the Real McCoy. Indeed, after 2020 and the era of Black Lives Matter, she felt that there needed to be more joyful comedic storytelling.
Natalie, who recently won the ‘Downtown in Business’ award ‘Woman Of the Year’ for her endeavours with Transition Stage Company said: It is time to take ‘Enter.Stage.Write’ to the next level and turn this theatre competition into a TV format similar to a scriptwriting X-factor using Birmingham as a conduit and showcasing talent on a larger scale globally.”
These two annual West Midlands scriptwriting competitions where budding writers from the UK have the opportunity to see their work brought to life on stage have been filmed and transformed into a factual entertainment television pilot. With the restrictions now lifted, a screening gala of the filmed shortlisted scripts will take place at the Millenium point on the 20th January 2022. Television moguls globally and creative leaders from the stage world have collectively thrown their support behind the competitions here in Birmingham with the aim to find the next big screen or stage writer.
Judges
Sara Asante, the Commissioning Editor of Comedy UKTV, part of BBC, is judging and throwing their weight behind Amplified. Furthermore, the BAFTA-winning Lisa Walters, is the headlining judge for Enter.Stage.Write. Darcia Martin, a prolific award-winning director of multiple BBC shows, is also judging in the competitions this year once again. Last year one of the previous year’s finalist writers were lucky enough to have their script optioned by Darcia
Martin. Other notable judges were Louise Le Puloch from France who works with ‘FrenchKiss Pictures’ who are currently working with Netflix, and the American director Miguel Paguel who has won a prestigious Emmys for his work in the screen industries.
Gala Night
The Enter.Stage.Write gala in 2022 is going to be again a red-carpeted screening event. The audience will also be treated to the Dj Otley Don spinning tunes on the deck. The event will finish with an award ceremony where the guest panel of judges, business leaders and audience will get to crown two of the shortlisted writers of Enter.Stage.Write and Amplified as grand champions. The winners will receive £1,000 cash prize, trophies, and the opportunity for finalists to meet and greet with industry professionals.
Transition Stage Company will be encouraging everyone who wants to support the arts to come along.
Buy tickets here for the red carpeted ‘Enter.Stage.Write’ award gala.
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