MA Dramatic Writing At Drama Centre London At Central Saint Martins And Oberon Books Announce New Partnership

The MA Dramatic Writing at Drama Centre London at Central Saint Martins and Oberon Books have announced a new partnership to provide access to the leading training coming out of the dramatic writing industry.

The MA Dramatic Writing, which is one of the top scriptwriting courses in the UK, has combined forces with Oberon Books, one of the UK's most prestigious performing arts publishers, on a new series of books which will provide access to advice on how to write dramatic writing written by those leading the way in the industry, most of whom have never published their training methods before.

The first book in the series has just been published - Dramatic Writing Masterclasses: Key Advice from the Industry Masters.

Contributors to the first book, many of whom are publishing their training methods for the first time, include:

• Ola Animashawun, founder of The Royal Court Theatre's world famous Young Writers Programme
• Stephen Jeffreys, Literary Associate at The Royal Court Theatre for eleven years and creator of Masterclasses which have led the way in Playwriting training in the UK
• Caroline Jester, who has been Dramaturg at Birmingham Repertory Theatre, co-author of the book Playwriting Across the Curriculum and has pioneered collaborative and digital playwriting programmes worldwide
• Fin Kennedy, winner of the first Fringe First award ever awarded to a schools production and co-Artistic Director of Tamasha Theatre Company
• Kate Rowland, founder of BBC Writersroom
• Philip Shelley, instigator of the Channel 4 screenwriting course
• Nina Steiger, Associate Director at the Soho Theatre
• Jennifer Tuckett, Course Leader for Drama Centre London at Central Saint Martins' new MA Dramatic Writing Course
• Steve Winter, Director of the Kevin Spacey Foundation and co-creator of the Old Vic New Voices 24 Hour Plays and TS Eliot US/UK Exchange
• John Yorke, creator of the BBC Writers Academy and former Head of Channel 4 Drama and Controller of BBC Drama Production

This book, which provides key advice from those leading the way in the industry, will be followed by The Student Guide to Writing series, a new annual competition and book series providing in-depth step by step guides to each form of dramatic writing (theatre, film, television, radio and digital media), the first competition of which was run with the Bush Theatre last year and the book and winning work from this competition will be published later this year.

The book series and partnership is inspired by the need for increased access to and diversity in the writing industry, for example with the cancellation of the Creative Writing A level, EBACC not including creative subjects, the Cultural Learning Alliance's recent figures showing a fall in the number of school students taking arts subjects and the growth of creative writing university courses.

Jennifer Tuckett, Course Leader of the new MA Dramatic Writing at Drama Centre London at Central Saint Martins said: " We are delighted with this new partnership with Oberon Books and to be publishing our first book together. I think it's really important to publish the leading training coming out of the industry so that anyone, wherever they live and whether they can attend workshops or not, can access this training and know what is being taught in terms of dramatic writing training. If we know what is being taught, then suddenly being a writer becomes more accessible and understandable, promoting greater diversity in the industry".

George Spender, Senior Editor at Oberon Books said: "All of us at Oberon are thrilled to be a part of this extremely exciting project that will no doubt have a tremendous influence on the next generation of writers and theatre makers."

The book series is part of a new campaign to provide access to and increase diversity in the writing industry being run by the MA Dramatic Writing course.

Other projects include London Writer's Week, the writing version of London Fashion Week, designed to provide access to and showcase the best new ideas coming out of the writing industry and which provided free access for over 4000 writers in one week last year, and The Student Guide to Writing Competition series which will provide step by step guides to writing each form of dramatic writing for writers, students and teachers as part of the partnership with Oberon Books.

The book is accompanied by a survey investigating what is the future of dramatic writing training to facilitate further exploration of this subject matter which can be completed here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/dramaticwriting

The results will be reported at London Writer's Week.

The National Student Writing Awards will also be launching as the final element of the campaign later this year to showcase the best work coming out of creative writing university courses and assist the transition for student writers from study to working as a writer - the awards are partnered with the creative writing subject association The National Association of Writers in Education (NAWE) and you can subscribe to the mailing list here: www.thenationalstudentwritingawards.com

More information on the partnership between Oberon Books and the MA Dramatic Writing and the first book Dramatic Writing Masterclasses: Key Advice from the Industry Masters is available here: https://oberonbooks.wordpress.com/2017/02/07/the-masters-at-work/

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