- Jul
- 25
On Wednesday 25 July between 11:00am–12:00pm, join our live videoconference:
WordSpace: Playwriting and Scriptwriting
Join James Griffin and Fiona Samuel in a discussion about scriptwriting and playwriting. WordSpace is a series of videoconference discussions between secondary school students and leading New Zealand writers, brought to you by the New Zealand Book Council and the Southern Trust. If you would like to participate in this session, but do not belong to the Book Council, please use this link to learn more about us:
http://www.bookcouncil.org.nz/about/aboutschoolmembers.html
This session will give your students the chance to ask questions like how to approach the writing of a play, and how they can write plays based on things they have experienced.
James Griffin
James Griffin
James Griffin writes scripts for television and theatre. He has been a scriptwriter since 1985, when he began writing for TVNZ on Gloss and Funny Business. Since then, he has been busy writing throughout the 1980s and 1990s for such shows as Marlin Bay, Jacksons Wharf, Shortland Street, and Double Booking, which won Best Script, Comedy at the 1999TV Guide Television Awards. In 2000, his play Serial Killers won the Chapman Tripp Award for Best New Writer. More recently, his screen credits include co-writing (with Oscar Kightly) Sione’s Wedding, which was the fourth highest-grossing film at the New Zealand box office in 2006. He is currently Writer, Executive Producer and Script Editor for Outrageous Fortune, which he devised in cooperation with Rachel Laing. James works as Head of Development for South Pacific Pictures, and works with writers on storylining and scripts before projects go ahead.
Griffin’s screen credits include: Outrageous Fortune (TV series); Sione’s Wedding (film); Serial Killers (play and TV series), Mercy Peak (TV series); Spin Doctors (TV series); Mataku (TV series); Double Booking (TV series); The Possum Hunter (TV series); Being Eve (TV series); Street Legal (TV series); Shortland Sheet (TV series); Jacksons Wharf (TV series); The Chosen (mini-series); Citylife (TV series); That Comedy Show (TV series); Plainclothes (TV series); More Issues (TV series); Marlin Bay (TV series); Funny Business (TV series); Gloss (TV series).
Fiona Samuel
Fiona Samuel
Fiona Samuel is writes scripts for television, radio and theatre. She is also an actor. She graduated from the New Zealand Drama School (now Toi Whakaari) in 1980, and began writing between acting jobs. Her first radio play, Blonde Bombshell, won her the Mobil Radio Award for Best Dramatic Production in 1984. In 1986, she had her first commission from TVNZ – ¬¬the original seven part series The Marching Girls – and has been writing drama for television regularly ever since. Samuel won several Mobil Radio awards in 1994 for Don’t Touch That Dial, and A Short History of Contraception, for which she also won the National Radio Suffrage Year Playwriting Award. Her TV Drama Overnight won Best Television Drama at the NZ Film & Television Awards in 1996; another TV drama Home Movie won Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Television Drama at the same awards in 1998. More recently, Samuel has written for the TV Drama Rude Awakenings, and played the character Bonnie Buckley in the series.
Samuel’s screen, stage and radio credits and publications include the following: Rude Awakenings (TV series); Virginity (TV documentary); Home Movie (TV drama); Overnight (TV drama); House Rules (TV drama); Her New Life (TV drama); A Real Dog (TV drama); The Marching Girls (TV series); The Garden of Love (short film); Song of the Siren (short film); Bitch (short film); Hat Trick (3 radio plays); A Short History of Contraception (radio play); Blonde Bombshell (radio play, also published by Victoria University Press, 1989); Words of Love (5 radio plays); Don’t Touch That Dial (radio comedy series); One Flesh (play);The Wedding Party (play); Lashings of Whipped Cream (play, also published by The Women’s Play Press, 1995). She has also written scripts for Gloss, Shortland Street, Jackson’s Wharf, City Life, Mercy Peak and Outrageous Fortune.
The Book Council will be creating a DVD of this session, which will be available for schools to purchase. If your school takes part in the session, please be aware that we will need signed permission forms from all participating students.
To register for this videoconference, email: digitalconversations@cwa.co.nz or telephone: (04) 382 6515 by Monday 23 July 2007
