Dramaturg service

Script Development Service

Have your script read, analysed and developed by Artistic Director & Producer Heather Ward.

Heather has trained and coached writers in The Writer’s Club and outside it for 12+ years, helping them get their work from page to stage. Receive script development as well as the perspective and insight of a director and producer.

recommended

Full script development

What is included:

  • Three sessions of full script development/dramaturgy.
  • Script analysis (roughly 4-5 hours of work – reading, note taking the script, detailing thoughts for improvement and brainstorming any additional ideas).
  • Face to face meeting in London for feedback.  The face to face meeting usually lasts around 3-4 hours (where the script is discussed thoroughly and in detail).

This process is repeated for the second and third draft.

Price booked as a block: £350*

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Discount available

One-off scrip development

One session of full script development/dramaturgy.

  • Script analysis (roughly 4-5 hours of work – reading, note taking the script, detailing thoughts for improvement and brainstorming any additional ideas).
  • Face to face meeting in London for feedback.  The face to face meeting usually lasts around 3-4 hours (where the script is discussed thoroughly and in detail).

Price: £150*

*Price per session is £150 and discount is given at £350 for three sessions booked as a block.

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What people say...

Pete Talman
Winner of Make The Cut

”What a great prize for winning Make The Cut! Three Script Development sessions with Heather and how invaluable they proved to be! What is so great about Heather’s dramaturgy is her absolute commitment to the task. Heather’s detailed analysis of the script is incredibly fastidious. She arrives at meetings having obviously devoted time and energy to scrutinising the script. Her ability then to pinpoint inadequacies in the writing is simply astonishing. I found myself nodding in absolute agreement to all her observations whether they concerned a single word or an overarching idea.

Heather has an enviable talent for seeing possibilities for development and asking incisive questions. She simply sees things that somehow you have overlooked and the improvement to my script as a result these sessions was immeasurable. I wrote three further drafts after each meeting and each time a significant step forward had been taken.

The test of Heather’s support is best exemplified by my play reaching the last 16 of the prestigious Octagon Theatre Bolton’s Top Five Festival where over 800 scripts were submitted.Heather is generous, perceptive and diligent and, above all, she makes it great fun to be criticised!”

Tom Jensen
Service user

”Heather’s dramaturgy session was invaluable for a 60-minute play I was rewriting. After initial feedback elsewhere, I wanted to know if the latest version worked. I was impressed by her thorough analysis – picking up on the subtlest nuances of individual words but also the play’s overall idea, story, tone and characterisation.

Her suggestions were always constructive, and our discussions invariably led to tangible improvements. She also applied a director’s eye to many scenes, offering ideas about how the action might work better on stage. Thanks to Heather’s input, I can finally say I feel happy with the play I’ve written.”

Martin Malcolm
Winner of Make The Cut

”Heather prepared very thoroughly for our script feedback session. She had read the play closely and in many places had precise, line-by-line notes to share.She asked pertinent questions that made me stop and rethink my approach. But she never tried to impose her own view on the script, or to take it in a direction I didn’t want.

Heather’s powerful instincts for character development and plot structure helped me to focus clearly on how to move my story on.Heather was very generous with her time and very willing to take the discussion beyond immediate script issues to consider wider themes. We had a rigorous and at times intense discussion, but we also had time for a laugh as well.A brilliant script workout from a dream of a dramaturg!”

Linda Morse
Service user

”As well as creating and running a vibrant community of director, actors and writers,
Heather has a special ability, as a dramaturg. She has the ability to mine deeply into an
individual writer’s work with genuine insight into character and enables the writer to
express their own vision, without imposing her personal view. She encouraged me to
shape and hone each individual scene and to see the play as a whole. It went on to a
successful production. Thank you, Heather."