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Comment by Robert Walton on August 13, 2012 at 12:08

Agreed, Marc. The accessibility and the two-way communication of NTW is amazing.

Comment by Rowena Louise Bernice Scurlock on August 13, 2012 at 2:29

Hang on am I through to the next round!?

Comment by Marc George on August 13, 2012 at 2:24

Thank you very much John for listening and responding to us. It means a great deal. Which only leaves me to say, good luck to those shortlisted.

Comment by National Theatre Wales on August 13, 2012 at 0:59

Hi all, have had a chat now with BBC Writersroom, who have emphasised that in their view the quality and range of work submitted for Wales Drama Award was very high.  The email sent out to those who weren't successful was an attempt to be very clear about the process so far, but lacked some of the things that should have been said - about how excited we all are with the response, and ways to keep in touch with NTW as well as the BBC.  We'll send a fuller follow up to everyone soon.  The next stage of shortisting down to 6 finalists will be happening in the coming weeks.  Many thanks for your patience, creativity and engagement.  I'm sure that the great response to Wales Drama Award this year will only be the start of good things to come.

Comment by Robert Walton on August 12, 2012 at 22:36

Like Louise, I felt frustrated at not being able to enter, being Cardiff born and bred and studying in the city but living in Bristol. But these are the consequences of the decisions we make. Similarly, when anyone enters a competition like this, they know that 99.9% of the entries will not win the award but at least a section of their script is being read and considered by a professional. Mind you, when I listen to some of the plays on Radio 4's 'Afternoon Play' I am bewildered by the criteria that have led to their selection: the Writer's Room process is far from perfect. It's great that a competition with this level of financial and professional investment was negotiated so well done for that, and, as Carmen suggests, let's hope that a genuinely fresh new voice is discovered to enhance the resources of writing for theatre in Wales. Any choice that narrows the field will be a disappointment.

Comment by National Theatre Wales on August 12, 2012 at 5:40

Cheers Louise. When we were setting up the award we did talk a lot about writers like you, but in the end the only way we could find to frame it fairly was to make it open to all writers living in Wales.
Carmen - you're right that it would be a great boost to a new writer if they win. However, based very much on input from this group we felt the award must be open to all writers, however experienced or inexperienced. So whoever wins - they will have succeeded in a very accomplished field.

Comment by Louise Breckon - Richards on August 12, 2012 at 3:44

 Seemed like a great opportunity for new writers. Just sad that I couldn't enter as living in London,  not resident in wales, though welsh, and writing about wales and my identifiction with my homeland.  All the best to all short listed either way and any award that opens up an avenue for new writing has got to be a good one.

Comment by carmen medway-stephens on August 12, 2012 at 2:55

ps. congratulations to Rowena who got through to the next round :)

Comment by carmen medway-stephens on August 12, 2012 at 2:54

I do hope that the award goes to a writer with a fresh new voice that really needs the financial backing and reward to allow them to write for at least a year without the worry of where the next meal comes from, and that this opportunity allows them to make contacts that they wouldn't necessarily have...that's my wish.

 

Comment by National Theatre Wales on August 11, 2012 at 23:59

Hi all, sorry to read that people feel disappointed about the way that the rejections for the award have been handled.  Let me clarify a couple of points right away, and I promise to look into things in more detail over the coming weeks.

There were around 250 submissions for the award, which is a very good number and says a lot about the health and wealth of new writing in Wales.  It's also a lot of submissions to deal with, and our partners in the award, BBC Writersroom, who took on the task of creating the shortlist applied their usual approach of doing a first sift by reading 10 pages.  However, I do take Ieuan's point that some scripts have a much longer burn than others.  On Marc's question about whether an 80% fail rate shows a problem - I would say this definitely isn't the case - even if 100% of the scripts are brilliant, it's a competition and so there needs to be a shortlist, which means that some scripts need to be eliminated.  Rather I would say that the great number or scripts indicates a very healthy situation.  As for the letter/email, I do apologise if it falls short. I will talk to BBC Writersroom about this tomorrow.  

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