The Sitcom Trials 2012 Page 22

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Here are the Sitcom Trials Halloween scripts votes, totalled as of the midnight deadline (Eleanor Green, your votes will go into the next round of voting)

(The *asterisk scores are the totals with the writers own vote for their script included)

Draszic's Lot18
Separate Parents *1614
Randolph Carter13
Three in Tow*1513
Brides of PeteE *1311
Thirtn Gormley St *1210
Blackstable10
Country Rock*1210
Red Sky at Night10
What Was That?¬¬¬*97
Who Judges Judges5
Roy Richards*75
Kill Bob*64
Purgatory*64
Trick or Treat*64
Witching Hour3
Femme Fatale2
Gravesend (late)0
Café Rico-1
Womb Witha View-2
Istanbul-2
Three Ex Husbands *-3-5
Friends Like These-6
Enter Twineman*-6-8
Storm in a Teacup-9
Centipede Human*-9-11
Lord Mayor-14
Ghost Partner-17
Scare Room-17

So, Vince, good luck picking a Top Five from that 9-way tie there. See you at tomorrow's meeting.

Kev F

Cheers, Kev.

I've been sat here anxiously, drinking beef and tomato cupasoup (all the other flavours are dreadful), and trying to figure out that bit in tonight's "Dr Who" that made absolutely no sense. And now my printer can spring into action, and there will be five spooky and funny scripts to take to the meeting tomorrow. The fairest thing will be to just grab the top five - "Draszic's Lot" / "Separate Tables" / "Randolph Carter" / "Three in Tow" / "Brides of Petenstein" - as these are the highest scorers. We'll read them all, and then have a think about which ones we like best and which will be staged at the Wardrobe Theatre on Friday October 19th (tickets available now!).

Thank you to everybody who participated - hope you found it fun and useful. Please do feel free, everyone, to come to the Bristol meetings. If you're in the area, and have a Sunday afternoon free, we'd love you to come along and have some fun, lively debate, and cupasoups.

--Vince

Halloween - The Voting Continues

Yes, with a title sounding like a particularly poor horror sequel, I'd like to invite Sitcom Trials participants who haven't voted yet to read, review and vote on the scripts in the Halloween Sitcom Trials.

And I've just made it easier for you.

In the files you will find there are now just 17 scripts in contention. I've eliminated (ie put in a folder marked "Eliminated") the scripts that stood on minus figures after the first week of voting. So it's all the easier for everyone who hasn't participated in this process to pitch in and have their say. Just read, review and vote as many as you can, voting YES, MAYBE or NO with Twitter-length reviews, and post them here.

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The files: http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/SitsVac/files/Halloween%20Sitcom%20Trials%20Oct%2012/

The scripts still in contention are:

Draszic's Lot
Separate Parents
Randolph Carter
Three in Tow
Brides of PeteE
Thirteen Gormley St
Blackstable
Country Rock
Red Sky at Night
What Was That?
Who Judges Judges
Roy Richards
Kill Bob
Purgatory
Trick or Treat
Witching Hour
Femme Fatale

Deadline for 2nd wave of voting is midnight Saturday Sept 8th after which I'll post the latest running total and, possibly, do some more eliminating.

The eliminated scripts - and thanks to everyone who entered, remember every one of these got positive votes, and hopefully the comments that came with them were helpful:

Gravesend
Café Rico
Womb With a View
Istanbul
Three Ex Husbands
Friends Like These
Enter Twineman
Storm in a Teacup
Centipede Human
Lord Mayor
Ghost Partner
Scare Room

[quote name="Trinder" post="906806" date="August 27 2012, 4:27 PM BST"]

TWILIGHT OF THE BONE IDLE - Yeah, an embittered reference to sitcom trials on the first page is definitely the way to win people over. As previously, I really like the idea of the skull being a character, it just amuses me. How is a 'spiritual self' represented onstage? There's some decent funny stuff in here, and some pretty good characterisation, but there's not really a lot going on and I can't get past how you'd do it onstage. It's nearer a YES than a NO (and it would be a nearer still if it didn't have the trials ref) - MAYBE

Hi Trinder, thanks for the feedback. Sorry if the ST reference offended - was def no bitterness, just a playful dig at previous voting :-) Hope you enjoyed writing for the comp.

All the best,

Alan

That sounds dickish of me...not really sure I felt the need to get dickish about it then so sorry for that. Enjoyed this ep of Istanbul more than others I've read though and I still think the skull is a terrific character/idea. Brings to mind old sixties american sitcoms where the cat would pitch in amusing asides to the audience.
Always enjoy the sitcom trials, never made the final yet but tdo get a kick out of watching the votes come in.
Best of luck to you and here's hoping for a Christmas trials.

:)

Very Hyped and happy that my entry is on the move to manchester.

Sorry, to be pedantic but the title is WHO JUDGES THE JUDGES, not who judges judges, its a play on who guards the guards or who watches the watchmen, could u change it please.

PS

My apologises for my scots accent on YouTube audio of early draft

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjOcnjAegpY&feature=plcp

Quote: Nekark Loon @ September 2 2012, 12:52 PM BST

:)

Very Hyped and happy that my entry is on the move to manchester.

Sorry, to be pedantic but the title is WHO JUDGES THE JUDGES, not who judges judges, its a play on who guards the guards or who watches the watchmen, could u change it please.

PS

My apologises for my scots accent on YouTube audio of early draft

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjOcnjAegpY&feature=plcp

I wouldn't count your judges before they're hatched, you're still in eleventh place, that's a big leap to make yet...

Quote: RedZed333 @ September 2 2012, 1:48 PM BST

I wouldn't count your judges before they're hatched, you're still in eleventh place, that's a big leap to make yet...

:)

I'm just happy to be here.

Hello,

Kind and sexy people congregated in Totterdown, Bristol today to do Sitcom things, and a jolly time was had by all, not least by Kev F who bewilderingly and aggressively played a Scots woman in a script that really did call for Kev F to play a bewildered and aggressive Scots woman.

In attendance - some very lovely and talented Bristol Sitcom Trials Players, plus a scattering of anxious writers who grew to appreciate why we hold these afternoon meetings in a pub. We read and critiqued the top five scripts as voted by peer review, and a further discussion was held with the Halloween show's director, Alistair Hedderman, after he had won a furious battle with the bar staff to serve him something that seemed very suspiciously like beef and tomato cupasoup.

We took a vote, and the two scripts we absolutely intend to go into rehearsal for our next show are: "The Brides of Pete-enstein" and "Three in Tow". These two scripts garnered the most laughs and appreciation from the team, and any staging issues were worked out in discussion, leading us to believe that they will be performable, funny, and that they will work for an audience.

At the meeting we also discussed and decided upon a classic Trials script, which we also aim to perform, simply because it's a great script that really works. The final two scripts will come from the Bristol team, as we write and rewrite with considerable input from the cast. For me, the process of watching scripts blossom as the cast bring characters to life and give their input is truly magical. Yes, it demands lots of rewrites and time and effort, but the audience don't know that - as they sit there with their cupasoups they just see five funny sitcoms, and that's exactly how it should be. And the audiences for the Sitcom Trials, in London, Manchester and Bristol, have been fantastic.

A few exciting pieces of news for you -

- Thursday Night Bristol Sitcom Trials. From Thursday 13th September, the Bristol team will be reading sitcom scripts on stage at the Oxford pub, Oxford Street, Totterdown, just before bands take to rock the world in an open mic slot.

We're doing this for fun, and because the landlord at the Oxford - who has kindly let us meet on Sundays - has begged us to do it. It'll be free. It'll be from 7pm. It'll be fun. It'll be free (yes I know I said that already). We very much hope to get a good crowd, so please please come along. and please please bring all your friends, except the ones you don't like very much any more.

If it works, we'll read YOUR sitcoms to an audience at future Sitcom Trials Thursday nights, so please feel free to come along with scripts so we can take a look at them - as long as they don't need stage directions, we're keen to perform them. Actors, please get in touch should you wish to be involved - we guarantee a good time!.

Let's see what happens on THURSDAY 13th SEPTEMBER, and we'll take it from there. Could be a nice thing on a regular basis - it's up to you guys to come along and support us.

- The Radio Sitcom Trials. Still in the planning stages, but we're looking to perform 30 minute radio sitcom scripts live in front of an audience, then release them as fully-mixed professional shows. We'll hold open competitions to select scripts. All up in the air at the moment, but discussions are underway and we'll announce how it'll work before the end of the year, and it could be quite exciting.

So.. busy times!

Kind regards and very best wishes,

--Vince

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Sitcom Trials Bristol table read, today at The Oxford, Totterdown

I've just had the pleasure of joining Vince and his Bristol team for a Sitcom Trials table reading of five scripts in contention for the Halloween Sitcom Trials in October

The team read Three In Tow, Brides of Petenstein, Randolph Carter, Draszic's Lot and Separate Parents, the scripts that stood in Top Five position after the first voting deadline. It was a marvellous reminder of the value of a table-reading, with scripts coming across very differently once heard read out loud as opposed to flat on the page. I'll leave it to Vince to tell you which scripts fared well and what will be going forward to the October show. All I can say is, you see that script that was the best? The one that suddenly every realised "oh wait, this is really good this one"? Yeah, well I gave that one a Yes. Is all I'm saying.

Keep those votes coming, we've had a very positive response to the extension of the deadline.

Read the scripts still in contention here in the SitsVac files, and post your reviews and votes here in the BCG forum. Next count will be Saturday night.

Next shows:
Sept 13 - Sitcom Trials Bristol scratch night, The Oxford
Oct 19 - Halloween Special, Bristol
Oct 20 - Halloween Special, Manchester
London to be announced

I see the Jeb Bush school of voting have been hard at it again...

Sorry ours didn't get past the readthrough, but well done to Eoin and Iain!

For the next contest I'll be giving myself an unpronounced vowel in my first name too. I'm not saying that was the deciding factor...but nothing will convince me that it wasn't. :)

Jeim.

Quote: RedZed333 @ September 2 2012, 10:13 PM BST

I see the Jeb Bush school of voting have been hard at it again...

Bristol have chosen two scripts they want to work on, having given five scripts a good reading. 17 scripts remain in contention for the Manchester team's consideration, and they intend performing three of them.

Hopefully I've kept all the voting visible and accountable, and I think I'm giving participants the maximum opportunity to have their say on the scripts in contention.

As always I'm sorry if anyone's disgruntled by this process, but the feedback so far has been very positive.

Kev F

Quote: Frantically @ September 2 2012, 10:18 PM BST

Sorry ours didn't get past the readthrough, but well done to Eoin and Iain!

Not being chosen to be performed by the Bristol team doesn't mean that your script hasn't been chosen to be performed by the Manchester team. It's all to play for.

Quote: Kev F @ September 2 2012, 10:35 PM BST

Not being chosen to be performed by the Bristol team doesn't mean that your script hasn't been chosen to be performed by the Manchester team. It's all to play for.

Well, I've already changed my name - just hope it's enough.

(Just kidding - "Brides..." was one of my favourites this series, and I thought "Three in Tow" was good too).

The Sitcom Trials has a tradition, and indeed a catchphrase, in the form of the "Have We Found The New..?" adverts and links. It's a line the compere, Kev F, has been inventing variations of for the last decade. Here is the latest animated ad version. Do please enjoy, and retweet to your heart's content.

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The next Sitcom Trials shows take place in Bristol on Oct 19 and Manchester Oct 20. You are invited to participate by voting on the scripts in contention. See details here.