The writing competition set up to find new work to perform at the Edinburgh Fringe has now been judged, the winner has been decided, and the chosen work will be developed into a one-hour play that will be performed at next year’s Edinburgh Fringe and will also be published by Stagescripts Ltd.
Revolution Society by Sarah Power has been chosen from a final short-list of 10 plays at the FFShorts festival at the Mill Studio. It follows a group of students who decide to start a revolution to change the world, although this one is different from all the other groups of students who set up societies to revolutionise society.
The ten plays were given rehearsed readings directed by head of youth theatre Adam Forde and youth theatre director Lucy Betts. They were performed in front of packed audiences, including the three guest judges: playwright Mark Davies Markham, critic Stephanie Merritt who is also known as best-selling author S J Parris, and actor Eddie Webber. The judges described Sarah Power’s writing as "mature and assured".
Twenty-two-year-old Londoner Sarah is a student herself, currently physics and philosophy, at Manchester University. “I was so thrilled with the festival and I haven’t stopped smiling since Wednesday. I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited. I’m completely over the moon”.
Adam Forde was thrilled with the outcome of the festival. “This has been a wonderful success. As it was our first year of FFShorts we weren’t quite sure what to expect but the number and standard of entries meant we were guaranteed a strong final choice. Revolution Society is certainly that, it’s a clever idea and what we’ve seen of it so far is very funny. It was a very popular choice with the audience.
"It has also been a real pleasure working with Stephanie, Mark and Eddie and gaining the benefit of their experience. They have been so generous with their time and energy and enthusiasm for the project and have all promised to stay involved as Sarah’s play takes shape in the coming months.”
Former youth theatre member, Nigel Munson also had cause to celebrate as his play The Caravan, a collection of traditional travellers’ tales from the east, will be developed and performed by one of the youth theatre’s production groups during the 2013/14 season.
FFShorts was launched in the summer to find new work to take to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe where the youth theatre has been performing for the last five years. Entries for the festival came in from all over the world including South Africa, the USA and Europe.