Claudine Sinnett - Artistic Director of Cry Havoc Theatre Company
Photo Credit: helloimnik_
Someone asked me last week “what’s the point in you starting up a new theatre company for new writing- there’s so many out there”’. I get it, I really do. What’s the point in starting something new?... Everything is oversaturated I know. From mobile phone choices, to apps you can download. But there’s still real people out there doing their best to be creative and working hard on mastering their craft of writing for theatre. And yes, although there are many theatre companies, I’ll bet there’s more writers wanting to get their work out there and represented than there are companies willing to take them on.
So this journey is about risk. It’s about taking peoples hand and guiding them through a tunnel of audiences and theatres and the crazy world of what’s cool in theatre now, what social issues to write about, how to portray it physically, emotionally and in competition with all the rest.
Edinburgh, Brighton, London, where next?... It’s overwhelming I know. I have a friend who has actually given up writing for theatre because she feels like she has worked so hard at it for so long and she’s tired. Tired of having to ‘know’ someone in the business to be able to get her work seen. It’s either that or just the consistent rejection is tiring…
The reason, I said, we are starting this theatre company, is to make not only another portal to generate interest for new writers, but to workshop this material and produce it and take it to the places it needs to go to be seen. To give people the opportunity to be heard. To tell their stories. To not have to ‘fit in’ with the crowd, but to genuinely show their talent on stage through their writing.
We believe in new voices, we don’t care who you are or what your background in theatre is, we just want to see scripts and work with new writing that has a strong voice.
We want you to feel proud and confident of your work and we hope that Cry Havoc will be the helping had that you need to send you on your way to a more successful career in the arts. Which is, let’s be honest, oversaturated.
What’s the point? Is doesn’t matter how many writers or theatres are out there. There is someone writing right now who believes their piece will be the one that gets chosen and we are hoping we will see it and be able to produce it. There’s not enough people helping each other in the arts. So that’s why.
Submit your scripts to Cry Havoc for the 2020 season of festivals