PAL Lab Results
The level of national and international success achieved by so many of the individuals who have attended PAL Labs is exceptional.
Commissions, productions and awards are the outcomes most commonly acknowledged as the mark of PAL's success. However, the personal insights and growth of each participant, including the mentors, who increasingly are asking for Labs for themselves, are as important to PAL as post-Lab commissions and accolades.
Colin Vaines (Executive VP, European Production & Development, Miramax Films), has this to say about the PAL Lab experience:
I have been working in the film business for the last twenty five years, and have been involved with PAL for over ten of those years, first as director of the Screenwriters Lab and latterly as a Trustee.
To my mind, PAL offers one of the most stimulating and invigorating forums in which to develop writers. Because the Labs take the widest possible view of development, and the primary goal is to cultivate strong and confident writers, in addition to a particular piece of material, PAL's role is unique. I have seen participants blossom and flourish over the course of an individual Lab - but more than that, I have seen them continue to grow in the film industry, bolstered enormously by their PAL experiences.
For me, the PAL Screenwriters Labs are an indispensable part of the UK film scene. The list of illustrious former participants only serves to underline that. Long may PAL prosper!
PAL results and success stories
We are collecting success stories and will continuously update this section.
Architecture
Broadband
CHAOS
Dance
Family Film, TV and Interactive Media
Food
Labs of Learning
Music Theatre
Playwrights
Screenwriters
Case Studies
Alumni alert
Architecture
One of the direct outcomes of the Architecture Lab pilot is a research centre called Experimental Practice (EXP), launched in 2003 at the Department of Architecture, School of Architecture and the Built Environment, University of Westminster, London, to stimulate collaborative experimental work through four research clusters closely linked with talent in industry, teaching and practice. Lab co-director Samantha Hardingham is a research fellow at EXP.
Experiments in Architecture edited by Samantha Hardingham (co-director of the Architecture Lab 2001/02) has been published by August Projects. This collection of short stories, letters and notes written by architects, educationalists, design tutors, clients, makers and developers have been put together to illustrate how, by asking more questions than often is deemed necessary or appropriate, extraordinary, unpredictable and arguably better work can be created. This is a book in the support of ideas and a celebration of a particular kind of energy, subtlety, skill and ingenuity that is employed (sometimes) in creating the built environment. With contributions by David Greene, Cedric Price, Sand Helsel, Bruce McLean, Kevin Gray, Matty Pye, Richard Wentworth, Feliks Topolski, Dickon Robinson, Ben Morris, Roger Zogolovitch, Nicholas Royle and David Rosen.
The book was supported by an RSA Art & Architecture publications grant and by the Arts Council. Available in all good bookstores stocking extensive art, architecture and design titles (e.g. Tate, Design Museum, RIBA bookshop, Triangle bookshop). ISBN 1-902854-21-7; rrp £12.99.
Dance Labs
The Dance Labs have been notable for the sheer quantity of collaborative work that they have generated. Participants from the Labs have continued to work together and produce new work that has been successfully staged. Just one example is Gary Carter's Enigma of Sin, which was choreographed for Ricochet Dance Company and toured nationally and internationally in 2001. The performers included fellow PAL alumni Kate Gowar, David Waring, Anna Williams and Ben Wright, with music by Kathryn Locke.
Family Film, TV and Interactive Media
Dan Wicksman writes:
At the Pygmalion Forum in Paris in October 2003, one of the people I met was animation consultant Stephanie Kirchmeyer.As a result of that meeting I am now working on an animation series called Invisible INK, It is a co-production between Pesky (UK), Samka Productions (France) and Telescreen (Netherlands).
Rob Bevan writes:
XPT's project The Nuuk has been selected as one which may receive support from the EC of Euros 40,000 under the recent MEDIA New Talent Support xall for proposals. XPT is also now collaborating with Frank Alsema, PYGMALION's new media mentor, on developing The Nuuk. XPT has been successful in attracting matching funding from Terzio, parent of Solimedia, who also attended PYGMALION in 2003, a contact that resulted from XPT's attendance at PYGMALION. Good news. Thanks for helping us make this happen.
In December 2003 PAL and Commonwork joined together to organise the Food Colloquium. This three-day gathering explored issues around the obesity time bomb and ways to inspire young people to investigate food and health at home and at school. Cooking, science, the arts and eating were considered in relation to the social role and culture of food and its production.
A direct outcome of the Food Colloquium was the Commonwork Food Week for schools, held at Bore Place in February 2005. This week of food and science, involving a range of sensory experiences surrounding food, was attended by pupils from three local secondary schools. Feedback from both teachers and pupils was positive and enthusiastic. Most significant was this from a Deputy Head:
We have resolved to work towards returning Food Education to the curriculum and that does not mean “learning about food” in a theoretical way, but having fun with it, developing a confident and instinctive approach to healthy eating.
The experience of the Food Week reinforced PAL and Commonwork’s commitment to reaching more young people. PAL’s three-year experience of working with teachers on creative science teaching confirms our belief that the best way to do this is through the teachers. In November 2005 PAL and Commonwork held a five-day, residential Food Lab for Teachers. The aim of the Lab was to give teachers time, space, support and resources to explore and experiment with approaches to making food and food issues interesting for their pupils, which they can then take back to their classrooms.
Labs of Learning
Alumni from the Labs of Learning have established supportive and active networks that have resulted in exciting collaborative projects spanning schools and institutions countrywide. The teachers report that the PAL Lab experience has strengthened their confidence to try out new ways of working, stimulated fresh ideas and renewed their commitment to and enjoyment of teaching.
Music Theatre
Andrew Lovett (Opera Lab 1991) writes:
I've just been given a grant to write my first full-length opera, Abraham, which will be performed in Cambridge, at a new Junction/CDC theatre venue, in May 2005. Abraham is a work for five singers and electro-acoustic music with video. It's based in part on the story of Abraham and Isaac from the Boof Of Genesis. The performers are from the Electric Voice Theatre (formerly VOCEM electric voice theatre). The video artist is Brian Ashbee. It is supported by the European Association for Jewish Culture and Arts Council England.
Music Theatre Lab alumni who have achieved notable success include composer Thomas Adès, whose 1994 Lab project Powder Her Face was premiered by Almeida Opera in 1995 and has subsequently been staged internationally as well as being filmed for television by Channel 4; and playwright April de Angelis, who wrote the libretto for Jonathan Dove's Flight, which premiered at Glyndebourne in 1998. Composers Deidre Gribbin, David Sawer, Aaron Kernis and librettists Eva Salzman, David Simpatico and Jane Buckler among many others have success stories to tell after their Lab experience.
Playwrights
The Playwrights Labs have produced a formidable body of work - some 40 plays have emerged over the years, many of which have been part of the 'new wave' of work for young people - Helmet [Lab project]; Heidi and Decky Does a Bronco by Douglas Maxwell; Ash and Rama Yama by Peter Oswald; Silence by Moira Buffini; Simon Burt's Untouchable; and Judy Upton's Confidence.
Award-winning novelist Beverley Naidoo's powerful play for children, The Playground, enjoyed excellent reviews during its run at London's Polka Theatre. Beverley started work on the play, which is set in her native South Africa, at PAL's Playwrights Lab in 2000. She wrote of the experience in a recent article in the Times Educational Supplement:
A fairy godmother couldn't have offered a better present.
Screenwriters
Congratulations to Terry Loane whose feature Mickybo and Me was shortlisted for the prestigious Michael Powell Award at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, where it received its international premiere. Terry brought Mickybo and Me (then, Jonjo Mickeybo) to the 2001 PAL Screenwriters Lab.
Terry Loane writes:
I feel that the Lab will turn out to be a crucial milestone in my career as a writer, and I would recommend it wholeheartedly to all screenwriters.I feel that it will help turn my screenplay into a film with true potential for local production and an international audience. It has also helped me to establish a network of new contacts with writers, directors and producers across Ireland and England.
On the strength of its screenplay and director, Peter Cattaneo (The Full Monty), Renaissance Films has struck pivotal pre-sales deals on Pobby and Dingan, a rites of passage story set in the Australian outback. The screenplay was developed by Ben Rice and Phil Traill at the 2000 PAL Screenwriters Lab. PAL wishes them every success.
Ben Rice writes:
In the past I have always been cautious and cynical about any kind of structured creative writing programme. I have, however, no hesitation in saying that the PAL Lab will help you work wonders on your writing, because it makes you challenge all your preconceived notions about what a film ‘should’ be and root out exactly what you are trying to articulate and accomplish. … I would not recommend others to go on a PAL Screenwriters Lab – I would tell them they absolutely had to do it.
Three films developed through the PAL Screenwriters Lab (July 2001- 2002 Lab cycle) went into production in the summer/autumn of 2003: Pearse Elliott's Man About Dog, with producer Simon Channing Williams to whom he was introduced at the Visitors’ Day; writer/director Juliet McKoen's Frozen; and Jonjo Mickybo, written and directed by Terry Loane.
Among the many successful award-winning alumni of the Screenwriters Labs are Paul Laverty Carla's Song [Lab project]; My Name is Joe; Bread & Roses; and Sweet Sixteen; Simon Beaufoy The Full Monty; and This is Not a Love Song [Lab project]; John Hodge Shallow Grave [Lab project]; Trainspotting; and A Life Less Ordinary; Kevin Allen Twin Town [Lab project]; Lee Hall Billy Elliot; Diane Samuels Kindertransport [Lab project]); and Asif Kapadia The Warrior [Lab project]. Most recent news is that Pearse Elliott is in production on Man About Dog, with producer Simon Channing Williams. Pearse brought this project to the Lab in July 2001 and was introduced to Simon at the Producers Open Day.
Case Studies
Nick Wood writes:
I went on the 2001 PAL Lab writing for younger audiences. While I was there I wrote A Dream of White Horses. It got me a lot of work in the UK, but everyone said it was too expensive and too difficult to stage. It has been translated into German and will get two productions next season at Carousel in Berlin, and at Ingolstadt.
I had left teaching the July before I went on the Lab. It gave me a huge amount of confidence, it came at just the right time for me, at the point when I could have started to wonder if I'd done the right thing. I left Bore Place feeling sure that I could achieve what I had promised myself, since then the work hasn't stopped.
Amongst other things I've worked with the RSC on a project in Birmingham, been invited to the National Studio for a three-day workshop, spent a year writing and directing a project with three groups of young people from Nottingham Playhouse, Theatre Athenor, and Teatro Kismet, had a Radio 4 play – the BBC rang me to ask if I wanted to go on the SPARKS 2001 project while I was washing up for Gilpin – Warrior Square was translated into German, and there are two productions over there at the moment. The Potsdam production was selected for the Berlin Theatre festival as one of the outstanding productions of the last two years. It has been produced twice more in this country and in Spring 2004 tours the North West with Action Transport and also opens in Croatia. I have just submitted the second draft of a joint commission for Action Transport and Nottingham Playhouse Roundabout Company, and been given a main house commission for summer 2005 by Nottingham Playhouse, the only brief is to tell a big story and take risks.
Next year I want to get a commission for an adult piece, because although I don't make any great distinction between writing for different age groups – I just tell stories – it would be good for the way I want my writing to develop.
It's hard to underestimate the impact those ten days had on me. I went there, secretly a bit afraid that I might have written a couple of decent plays by accident, and that I would end up with egg on my face. I came away knowing for sure that writing is what I do. Many thanks!
Alumni Alert.
What is going on with your work?
PAL would like to hear post-Lab stories of both successes and failures from participants at all PAL Labs. It is important for PAL's growth and development to learn what happens to our Lab participants, so keep in touch with us!
All PAL alumni, please let us know about your post-Lab progress by emailing Kathy Pimlott.
