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Regular news and insight from our many poets, writers, educators and facilitators

26 March 2022

Posted by Holly Spillar

Verbatim, Jeffery Bazos and The Queen!

VERBATIM SCRIPTS


Verbatim theatre is a form of documentary theatre which is based on the spoken words of real people. Strictly, verbatim theatre-makers use real people's words exclusively, and take this testimony from recorded interviews.


Writing with verbatim dialogue is a great way to capture exactly how people speak. All the ‘umms’ and ‘errrs’ and repetitions, help put a more realistic character on the page/stage.


This week the young writers interviewed each other in pairs asking the question 

‘if you could be anyone for a day, who would you be?’

 Their answers were recorded on phones and ipads so they could listen to themselves back and scribe every word, pause and mispronunciation. 


Then, using the text generated from both their answers, the writers had to create a script between two characters and perform it. The results were funny, whacky and, most importantly, captured realistic voices, from real people.


Verbatim isn’t just something that can be used in theatre, it makes a great exercise for story writing, writing down things you hear people say word for word, is a great way to learn how to write in a particular character's voice or accent.


You can see some of the work from this week at the bottom of this blog.


A couple of our writers have been staying creative outside of the workshop this week. Jazz, who often creates beautiful stories about animals and magic has created some vibrant new characters we can’t wait to hear more about and Neive, who’s descriptive writing is always out of this world has written a lovely atmospheric piece helping us get ready for spring.




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