Company
Aegis Productions
What can you receive?
Commission
Deadline
31 March 2024
Yoga Class develops six short monologues (10 mins) by emerging Welsh & British writers, examining the theme of motherhood and childlessness. Between our late 20s and early 40s, women’s lives are hugely impacted by their child status.
The monologues revolve around a weekly yoga class, which draws together 6 women each with their own relationship to childlessness and motherhood. They flow through the movement: warrior pose, sphynx…happy baby. Each pose serves as a catalyst for a monologue, offering a window into the characters’ lives. While the monologues exist in the world with one another, they are never collectively experienced: they are both congruent and totally alone.
Yoga Class is co-directed by Laura Meaton & Alice Ecklund, produced by Caitlin Richards.
We’re looking to commission 3 scripts from writers that respond to the prompt of examining a relationship to being childfree, childlessness and motherhood. Pieces could touch on embracing childlessness, the fear of straying away from family structures, the challenges or joys of pregnancy or motherhood, navigating infertility, the risks of childbirth: we’re interested in your ideas and viewpoint as a writer. The piece can be funny, vulnerable, absurd, raging, autobiographical, fictional. Above all, we want these pieces to discuss topics that we might talk about privately but that are rarely discussed in the mainstream.
The three selected writers would receive £500 to write the script, and £150 for a 1 day writers R&D at Wales Millenium Centre. If you are also a performer, you may be invited to participate in a 4 day performance R&D, with an additional fee of £600, we will explore this on a case by case basis.
We particularly welcome pitches from writers from the global majority, and disabled writers, as people whose stories relating to motherhood, pregnancy and childlessness are especially underrepresented.
Note on access: We are passionate about creating welcoming and accessible spaces for disabled performers. The project leaders have over 5+ years of experience facilitating disabled led spaces which place access at their heart. We have a dedicated personal access costs budget, and we are also very happy to partner on Access to Work applications where this is preferable.
Key details
Please see the full timeline of development below:
- Opportunity closes: 31st March (end of day)
- Casting: 3 April
- Commission begins: 8 April
- Script submission date: 6 May
- Writer R&D: 27th May, 10am-6pm (Wales Millenium Centre)
- Performer R&D & Sharing: 28th-31st May. Please note this will be filmed. (Wales Millenium Centre)
If you’ve got an idea for a monologue, there are a couple of few ways you can submit your idea:
- You can fill in this form online
- You can send a video (in spoken English or BSL), or voice note with the below information to caitlin@aegisproductions.co.uk.
- A pitch of no more than 300 words, telling us about your idea
- A sample of your writing (no more than one side of A4)
- Your CV or a link to your spotlight
If you need access support to apply, please contact caitlin@aegisproductions.co.uk.
The closing date for submissions is Sunday 31st March.
