Are you a bright theatre talent in the waiting? (From Gazette Series)

Are you a bright theatre talent in the waiting?

A NEW theatre partnership is waiting for new talent.

The Everyman theatre in Cheltenham, which recently started a brand new partnership with Bristol's Show of Strength Theatre Company (SOS), is searching for anyone who can write...about waiting.

The partnership's first project, Anyone Can Write Five Minutes, wants people to do just that; to write a monologue that's no longer than five minutes on the theme of 'waiting'.

As long as you've got a Gloucestershire postcode you can enter the competition and if your entry is chosen it will be performed, along with 19 others, in the Everyman's Other Space studio.

The monologue could be about any sort of waiting; waiting for a bus, waiting for life; waiting for death; waiting for a sneeze. The only limitations on pieces are that they have to be no longer than 1,000 words (approximately five minutes), written for live theatrical performance and is a new piece of work.

"This is a brilliant competition with infinite potential," said Sheila Hannon, creative producer of SOS.

She added: "To be able to produce the work of 20 new writers in one production is unprecedented - the name of the project really says it all, so even if you've never had a go at writing a monologue before, now is the time to start".

The project is rapidly spreading along the M5 - in addition to Gloucestershire and Bristol, it will run in Taunton and Exeter with each location producing the work of 20 new writers.

Entries must be received by 12noon on Friday, January 6 - a deadline fixed to encourage those who may be inclined to use the festive season, and all it brings, as inspiration to put pen to paper.

All entries should be sent to WAITING, SOS, 74 Chessel Street, Bedminster, Bristol BS3 3DN.