CityLife

??30,000 for Contact to develop writing

IN the same week the Royal Exchange launched its project Write, a major new writing festival for 16-25 year olds living in the north west, the innovative Contact announces that it has been picked by the BBC to receive £30,000 a year over two years to develop new writing.

The BBC Northern Exposure programme at Contact will invest in the discovery of new writers and the creation of diverse writing for stage, screen, radio and new media.

New writing has been central to Contact's core aim of the creation of new work and new kinds of performance for its 13-30 year old target audience, although they've consistently side-stepped the more traditional structures of literary departments and script reports to concentrate instead on workshop-based methods to try out scripts and find new writers.

Contact has also successfully worked with more established writers like writer-in-residence for 2000-2001, the Manchester-based poet, Lemn Sissay, in the development of his new play, The Storm which will be seen at Contact in 2002.

Another notable success was the Script Squad project where young people from all over Greater Manchester were introduced to team writing and created a lively serial drama.

One of the most prominent innovations has been the playwriting slam night Flip The Script, that takes bite-sized four minute chunks from six new scripts each month and lets the audience vote for their favourite script which returns in a longer slot next month. Flip The Script celebrated its first 16 months with Flip Fest! a mini new writing festival this August.

Projects

Contact has created a number of new projects, directly funded by the BBC, to develop new voices in writing. The funding will create two years worth of workshops, commissions, residencies and courses targeted at everyone from young people who have never written for the stage to more experienced writers who want to try their hand at something new.

Guided by the BBC's Creative Director of New Writing, Kate Rowland and Contact's Artistic Director, John McGrath, Contact will be setting up new writing groups, pulling together teams to assess treatments for new plays, and acting as a ''matchmaker'' between writers and designers, composers and new media artists.

Writers whose work is developed through the programme will also have a chance to show their work to BBC producers and programme makers.

Kate Rowland of the BBC said: ''Northern Exposure is the most exciting writing project in its scale and diversity that any broadcaster has ever launched.

''Having worked in theatre, I know how difficult it is to secure money to commission, nurture and mentor talent. We've always been committed to the development of new writing and the establishment of a creative environment in which writers can really flourish. Northern Exposure allows us to do just that.''

John McGrath of Contact adds, ''New writing has really taken off at Contact and it's fantastic that the BBC has made such a bold and flexible investment in our new ways of working with writers.''