Wertenbaker's role in writing degree

Published: 21 July 2013
Reporter: David Upton

Timberlake Wertenbaker

Timberlake Wertenbaker, one of Britain's foremost playwrights, is to take a leading role in a new playwriting Masters Degree course at the University of Salford, which, for the first time in the UK, will be run in formal partnership with some of the country’s leading theatres.

The affiliation with the Octagon Theatre Bolton, along with Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre and the Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse Theatre, will involve the organisations teaching two modules of the MA, offering aspiring playwrights a unique opportunity to learn from professionals and gain an insight into the running of major theatres.

Students will receive tuition and advice from a professional playwright who will be appointed on a yearly basis by the theatres; the 2013/14 academic year will be led by Wertenbaker.

This new relationship also includes a brand new commission for Wertenbaker to write an original play for the Octagon, which she will start writing during her year as Senior Playwright on the MA course, to be produced by the Octagon at a future date.

Wertenbaker’s most well-known work, Our Country's Good, an adaptation of Thomas Keneally's The Playmaker, had its première in 1988 at London's Royal Court, directed by Max Stafford-Clark, and has since been studied by thousands of pupils as a set text.

Of her involvement in the Masters course she says: “I'm thrilled. I'm sure this will be a stimulating first year and offer many creative challenges. I know working with the Octagon, the Exchange and Everyman will prove rewarding and fruitful for the students. I look forward to running master classes at each of these remarkable organisations.”

The MA will be taught in each of the three theatres involved, providing a unique insight into how theatres run, as well as at the University of Salford’s MediaCityUK base, with facilities including an experimental performance space—the Digital Performance Lab—incorporating the latest audiovisual and broadcast technologies, and professional standard TV and radio studios.”

*Some links, including Amazon, Stageplays.com, ATG Tickets, LOVEtheatre, BTG Tickets, Ticketmaster, The Ticket Factory, LW Theatres and QuayTickets, are affiliate links for which BTG may earn a small fee at no extra cost to the purchaser.

Are you sure?