Spooky and zany new scripts

The past few months have been busy getting more of my scripts on to Amazon marketplace. Visit www.scripts4stage.com or search Bev Clark on Amazon.

 The latest two one act plays are very different S.P.AC.E is a zany two hander for women: Crazy is a woman lost in chaos, her house is a mess of clutter and junk. Her mind is a mess of memories, guilt and emotions she can't handle. In short, she can't cope. That's when her alter ego Sanity turns up to help but they can't find much in common. Working through the problems and the clutter they eventually find peace, harmony and Space! Laughter and tears....and a bit of Zumba ! Great fun as a short play for "women of a certain age"

Room No.5 is a revised version of my play Box. This is a theatre of the Absurd mystery set in a psychiatric hospital where characters become other characters and we are left guessing who is the patients and who are the medical staff. If you like dark, weird and mysterious this might be for your group. Two females and three males - with an extra actor "in the box" A great bit of fun and madness.

Both plays can be found at www.scripts4stage.com or on Amazon 

Other new plays include a short drama My Life Unspoken. A woman nursing her dying husband is taken back to her past by the visit from a stranger. Jessie's Tree a play for young people and saga through the 2Oth century. 4 separate scenes the first set in 1918 just after WW1 two children form an unlikely friendship through grief. then in 1940, two local children meet two evacuees. In 1967 a group of teenagers learn first hand about the reality of loss in the summer of love until finally its Halloween 1999 and Jess's birthday party reveals a secret that links all the generations. Funny, sad and heart warming a great play for schools and youth groups. 

what's coming up in the next few months? Baggage is to be revised and updated as the premiere of this two handed takes place 15th July and the new copies will be out by then. RIP Mr Shakespeare, our award winning play, will be changed to a black and white copy. the full colour version was a limited edition for our celebration year. so, if you would like the full colour version buy it now as it will only be available in b/w soon. 

New titles for the summer and autumn in the pipeline plus a new poetry anthology before Christmas 

So I better get writing. 

WALK ON BY.

WALK ON BY.

(A trip to the city prompted a short piece of creative writing)

I gave him my lunch. His gaze, half grateful for the sandwich, half lost in another place. Yet he managed to turn to the next passer-by and ask “any spare change?”  Perhaps he would have preferred my coins to food but I knew that would only end up on drink or drugs and what the boy needed was sustenance.

I only hovered for a moment, just long enough to notice the filthy blue sleeping bag, his scruffy hair, his white vacant stare. A hint of a handsome boy now almost a corpse.  I walked on, each doorway it seemed was a space for littered bodies. There among the cacophony of gulls, buskers and the beating of feet hurrying about their lunchtime business, were cardboard boxes and plastic bags holding something resembling “wrapped-up people.”            

I found myself looking down at my feet to evade the beggars’ eyes. I couldn’t help them all.  I was to be like all the others who managed to avoid these desperate pleas; no doubt passing here every day, now experts in avoidance with their designer carry bags – Were they blind or just hardened to it? 

The woman in the shop told me it was like an epidemic – young lives lost to addiction and neglect. There were so many of them the council had gated off an area behind the multi-storey car park where they all congregated: It was like a little village she said.

“It’s the Spice you know? It’s killing them. “

I wondered where their mothers were – the women who bled to give them life. Had they abandoned them or were they left somewhere grieving for their lost sons and daughters?

I wondered why all the empty buildings couldn’t be opened up –made into liveable, safe accommodation. Why wasn’t someone, somewhere, helping?

This is a proud city. Its heart beats with its music. Its history flows through its blood. Its people look out for each other; stand up for each other… yet its streets are awash with the homeless, the lost- unwanted and invisible.

Poetry Should Be For Everyone

My first book of poetry - A Poem for all Seasons takes a journey through the months of the year with poems about the weather, nature, the location where I live and memories and feelings of joy as well as loss.

My poetry, especially in this anthology, is what I would term as popular poetry it is not the abstract complexity of ideas and textures you get from much of the "literary" poetry that wins awards. This. I believe. is more for the ordinary people who like a rhyme or two, like something familiar they can understand and relate to, without having to think after reading it - what did it mean?

So much poetry I feel is to "clever" for its own good but of course, like art or theatre it is in the eye of the beholder. We all have different likes and dislikes and different ways of appreciating a walk along the river.

These poems, I hope, just create pictures and stories that are recognisable in an instance. As the reader scans the words they are there in the moment and it helps them make an emotional connection with the time and place.

Poetry is probably the most subjective of all the art forms and everyone can find something that appeals to their our sensibilities. Words take us to beautiful evocative places - they can make us feel every emotion under the sun.

The poems in this little book are just my ways of recording the world around me and I hope others will enjoy them for that.

I begin with a dedication to Holly - Holly Green was the young Wirral Poet Laureate in 2007-2008 and as a school-girl her grasp of language and imagery was more superior than many three times her age. I doubt I shall every be as good but her being part of my first community pageant All Along The River was a honour. Although I wrote most of the poetry, prose and music for this extravaganza for Liverpool's Capital of Culture, I could not have done it without the input of the other writers, poets and musicians who contributed to it and so it is in memory of that project my dedication is to her.

Some of the poems are just capturing the seasonal flavour as in "Winter Childhood" when an old man in a nursing home is looking at old black and white photos and remembering the fun of his childhood playing in the snow.  Other poems are more cynical like "Another New Year's Day"

There are poems about famous landscapes "Another Place" - the iron men standing in the Mersey sculptured by Antony Gormley - in this poem I imagine what the iron men may be thinking and how we define freedom.  "London Tripping" is a fast rhythmical poem about a trip to London and the train journey home to Liverpool. £" "River Sunday" paints a busy picture of all the sights one can see in just one morning along the River Mersey. Alternatively, "River Morning" shows a different side to the river through nature.

Liscard Cemetery has also been the source of much inspirations and "In loving Memory" is in this book but other poems and stories are also waiting to be published.  Vale Park , set on the promenade in New Brighton has also been a source as in the poem "Benches".

Poetry is all around us and in each one of us. so I hope if people consider buying this as a Christmas or birthday gift for someone they will appreciate the love I have for my surroundings.

The book is available from https://www.amazon.co.uk/Poem-All-Seasons-Collection-Poetry/dp/153996423X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1481107716&sr=1-1&keywords=bev+clark

www.scripts4stage.com 
twitter@scripts4stage.com
our like us on facebook



.

Haunting tale for Winter Nights

Now it's cold outside  why not try a ghostly supernatural drama for a dark Winter evening? This one act drama has a cast of six characters - three male three female and would make an ideal festival play or as part of an evenings drama. If your technical department are ambitious and like a challenge there is plenty for them to get their technical teeth into as sound lighting and effects will really enhance this creepy tale. Available on Amazon.https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1539518833/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1479315357&sr=8-1&keywords=the+ghost+crib+by+bev+clark

When farmer Hornby and his wife keep a secret they could not imagine what the consequences would be. Their young daughter is haunted by nightmares but are they visited by a ghost from the past ?
This is my six play on Amazon or you can find out more by visiting wwwwww.script4stage.com.scripts4stage.com  or like our facebook https://www.facebook.com/1092254910846022/photos/1100389356699244/s/ or follow us on twitter@scripts4stage.

Writing is more creative than housework any day

Cold mornings and blocked noses are good excuses to stay in bed but if you are like me and feel guilty about the washing up still in the sink or the pile of clothes in the dirty laundry basket,then creeping back under the covers and forgetting the world is hard to do...so I grab my iPad and tap out some notes....it makes me feel - well at least I am doing something. what's more important ? Washing up or creating a possible masterpiece ? Perhaps, not a masterpiece but I have two new plays, a couple of half written poems and a short story that is getting longer each day. Ideas are not the problem. Starting is not the problem. Finishing them - is !  O I know how they'll finish, well most of the time but I just don't have time to finish!! O for a day that has thirty hours or more. O for a P.A who could type as quick as I think . O to make just enough money so I can give up work and finally have time to write and do the housework... or better still afford a cleaner !  I have finished some plays of course they are now on my website.www.scripts4stage.com. And now four of them available on Amazon. just search one act plays by Bev Clark but I have so much more to write ....so for now the dishes can wait!
What do I write ? Drama comedy horror romance I think I can tackle most genres although supernatural and twist in the tale are my favourite.... and that reminds me my new ghostly one act drama The Ghost Crib should be out next week on Amazon . A haunting period drama about a girl possessed.  I have also just finished putting together a book of poetry. Perhaps I shouldn't be so hard on myself I am finishing some stuff. Now should I get up and go to Tesco or should I write another chapter of my fantasy novel ? ... decisions ...decisions.  Follow me on twitter @hihtheatre or @scripts4stage.com

New Play shows how emotional baggage can weigh you down.

My new play BAGGAGE- is about two women and their very different emotional baggage which they carry around with them. Sandra, a fifty something mother of three and wife to Pete is weighed down with real baggage - Christmas shopping but also the constant worry and needs of this demanding but "normal" family with its tears, tantrums and fussiness.

She meets Annie, a stereotypical bag lady weighed down with trolley and plastic bags in which she carries her life but her emotional baggage is far heavier than anything  Sandra can imagine.

These two different women forge an unlikely friendship.

This one act drama touches on many issues, death and grieving, mental health, homelessness as well as the place of women seen still as wives and mothers. Women of a certain generation still being somewhat trapped between ideas of their modern role and that of past generations.

This drama has moments of humour and comic banter and moments of tragedy and despair requiring two mature actresses to give both emotion and empathy to the roles as well as possessing good timing and delivery.

An excellent festival play running under fifty minutes and a minimal set.

 Previous plays of mine have been successful at both All England and National drama festivals. Remembrance Day and Bentley: road to Justice both northern winners 2009 and 2011 and recently R.I.P MR Shakespeare was also Northern Winner 2016. Remembrance Day and R.I.P both NDFA All Winners finalist as well. The Black Eyes best youth play and semi finalist for central region AETF 2016.

 For details of all my plays check out www.cripts4stage.com.
Baggage is now available on Amazon.com https://www.amazon.com/Baggage-One-Act-play-two-females/dp/1537570498/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1478556468&sr=8-1&keywords=baggage+by+bev+clark as are R.I.P , Make Me Invisible and When The Dark Sea Cries. New titles being added all the time. Please follow me on twitter @@scripts4stage

Period drama for large female cast

As dramas such as Poldark hit record viewing numbers it is clear period dramas which offer adventure, romance and wild landscapes could be as popular on stage as they are on screen.

Bev Clark’s new drama When the Dark Sea Cries, takes us to fishing village on the coast of North Somerset circa 1850s, where a tempest is raging in the Bristol Channel and the men of the fishing village are all out at sea. The women folk remain waiting…. and this play is about eight women in particular.

The main protagonist is Kate Martyn a woman in her mid-thirties who has three young sons, one who is deaf and out in the storm with his father. Kate, though poor and illiterate is strong-minded and sharp-witted. Her older sister Marianne who has been married twenty years has no children and now shares a secret with her sister.

. 

Their mother Ma Bess has already been widowed by the sea and fears this storm will bring more tragedy. Emily Tavener is wife to Jack, one of the skippers and mother to some of the crew. She is a woman nursing her own grief already. Bryony, Tilly and Lizzie are the younger girls who each have family on the boats and as the matriarch - Old Susan with her philosophy and experience watches over all the women of the village, a story unfolds in the space of one long night.

Into this storm-battered dwelling comes Dr Richard Trelawney an Irishman travelling from Bristol who has lost his way. Susan believes his arrival is providence for indeed he is able to give some help to the group of women but for Kate it heralds the beginning of a new chapter in her life.

A violent storm brings them a miracle but also a tragedy… yet hope for new beginnings. Originally inspired by a quote from the poet Ted Hughes 

“The sea cries with its meaningless voice treating alike its dead and its living…”

This one-act drama offers a cast of eight female characters, one male and one teenage boy. Ideal for a festival play it is now available on Amazon.com Licence available from www.scripts4stage.com