The bookshop in the seaside village is buzzing despite the late hour. Just over a dozen new playwrights are witnessing the launch of their work in print. The three volumes of ACTSwansea – The Plays are a culmination of years of hard graft by the writers who have been nurtured by playwrighting courses and a new X-factor style competition for new writers in Swansea.
“We’ve all been Binda’d,” said Joy Tucker, a retired journalist who has seen her 15 minute play Any Other Business performed at the Play Offs, as they are known. The phrase comes from the man behind the books and the Play Offs, Binda Singh.
An accomplished broadcaster and playwright, Binda has been encouraging new writers for the past few years with the short format of the Wednesday Play offs staged in the city’s Dylan Thomas Centre. Many of the authors featured in the three volumes transferred from Binda’s writing courses and have found themselves not only penning the 15 minutes playlets but acting, directing and even seeing their work transferred to film.
The 15 plays are an eclectic collection of comedies, ghost stories and snap shots of life. The authors come from all over South Wales and include a student in her late teens, a retired businessman as well as a policeman and civil servant. All the plays featured have been performed in front of an audience and some have even been broadcast on radio.
One of the writers is Juliet Betts. She said, “I started on a script writing course two and a half years ago. I have published before but all this is new. I’ve always loved theatre and acting so the experience has been exciting and fun. A lot of the writers take acting parts but we also have a group of actors that we can call on.”
Among the group is mother and son pairing Margaret and Darren Hembrow. They came to the play offs through the local writers circle and it is the first time they have been published. Margaret, who based her ghost story, The Cottage, in Scotland, admits it’s been a whole new departure for her. “I look at the pages and I cannot believe I have written it! I am also working on another three scripts that will be performed at the Play Offs.”
One of the biggest successes is John Davies. A retired businessman with a string of electrical shops across South Wales, John decided to take up writing in recent years, as, in his words, “he is not a great TV fan”. His play At the Lights was turned into a 45-minute film that took Gold at this year’s Everglades International Film Festival in South Africa. It seems that John has been well and truly ‘Binda’d’ as he soon starts filming its sequel, which will debut at the Swansea Film Festival next year. But despite his success, John is still a keen supporter of the Play Offs, “I am a great believer in supporting the group. I even act a bit to help out if they need a retired businessman.”
“This is a talent showcase for new writers and actors, “Binda Singh explains to me when I finally snatch a few minutes with him. “ It encourages and inspires people and gives them the feeling they could act.”
ActSwansea has been edited by Binda, a lecturer at Swansea University and published by his own AMRITSA publishing company. “It’s like making them all lottery winners. We have enormous reserves of artistic talent in South Wales, whether that be writing or performing. I’m very glad that the books will bring these talented writers to a wider audience’.
The Play-offs began with Binda’s writing course at the University and have grown into a regular seasonal competition judged by the audience and a panel of professionals. The Play Offs feature 15 minute long extracts that have been worked on by the group and every season audiences pack the Dylan Thomas Centre. Both judges and the audience vote for their favourite, with the top two plays progressing to the final.
It is clear that Binda is proud of his playwrighting ‘graduates’ and he is keen to see more fledgling writers join the group.
“We needed to create an outlet for all this creativity. Someone has likened it to Andy Warhol’s Factory – but with paracetamol rather than amphetamine!”
