Skip to content ↓

Up To Scratch

Up To Scratch is a monthly development evening that has been set up to give creatives a city-centre platform to develop their work. It’s all about bringing new work to The Old Rep!

Once a month on a Thursday night, The Old Rep will be opening its doors to artists and companies to give them the opportunity to test out their material in a safe space joined by a positive and friendly audience. The way it works is simple - submit your work to us, give us time to read it, await a slot at one of our scratch nights, turn up and experience your work up on its feet, take in the audience feedback and then enjoy the other work on display.

It is free to attend and all that we ask is that you help the other artists by offering feedback. In return, we will give you a space, rehearsal time, an audience, feedback, and support with performers and directing where requested.

If you would like to attend as an audience member please book your ticket in advance, so we can anticipate how many of you will be attending. Tickets go live one month in advance, book by clicking the dates below.  

We anticipate the sessions to be popular due to there not being much free opportunity for people to present new work, so email your submission(s) over to our Theatre Manager Darren and whether it is just a couple of pages of ideas you’ve written, or a near-finished future classic, we’ll ensure that we support you in the next stage of your work’s life. If you have any work that you would like to perform yourself, or by others, email darren.knapton@oldreptheatre.co.uk.

As the oldest purpose-built repertory theatre in the country, we are so excited to start shaping the artists and theatre makers of the future, whilst offering a whole host of opportunities in the process.

Writers/Creators: 

In order to host a scratch night we need work to present. Ideally this will be new work in the form of plays, radio scripts, comedy sketches and/or poetry. It is important to clarify that the variety of work being presented will be at different stages of its journey. Some of it will be brand new and never seen/heard before- and that’s absolutely fine!

Curators:
 

If we end up with lots of submissions it will be impossible to present everything- and therefore we will need to read through work in advance to make sure that we are being fair to everyone. If you submit a four-hour-long script, we will only be able to present a segment of this alongside other work.

Directors:
 

I use this title in its loosest form! Some writers may not want to direct their work themselves for creative reasons. If anybody has an interest in directing then this could be a good opportunity for you to try it out in a relaxed setting.

Performers: 

Some writers/creators may wish to perform their own work OR may have a cast that they want to present on their behalf, but if this is not the case we will do our best to have a group of performers who can pick up their work with just a small amount of practice for these “script in hand” sessions.

Audience 

It is important to have a few friendly faces to support the event and also to offer creative feedback on the work. If you have a general interest in getting involved but don’t want to do any of the above roles… come along, have a drink and enjoy on a social level. It will be free to attend, just make sure you book your ticket in advance!

 


Feedback

"It's so good that you are supporting local writers and theatre makers in this way; the UTS nights are a brilliant opportunity to enable writers to get work out there"

"Since showcasing my script in January I have done a lot of work on it, responding directly to feedback I was given on the night, I have transformed the script into something containing very little of what was presented in the theatre. These substantial rewrites came about because I realised that the script had fundamental weaknesses which could only be exposed by presenting it to a live audience."

“The UTS experience was tremendously helpful for me. It made me realise that the script wasn't quite communicating what I wanted it to, something I had no idea of sitting alone in my room typing away. Going forward, I am going to continue drafting the revamped version of the script and use the new style I have developed to rewrite other episodes in the series I have written. At some point in the near future, I might bring a script in to UTS again and see how the group will react to this new style.”  

“I've been on the verge of giving up recently but these events have been a much needed lifeline.” 

“It's a breath of fresh air, and so needed!” 

 


Events coming up:

THURSDAY 4 APRIL


You have not allowed cookies and this content may contain cookies.

If you would like to view this content please