What happens when we pair up two theatre artists from different backgrounds to co-host a discussion about what makes great theatre in 2019? Douglas Maxwell (Decky Does a Bronco, Charlie Sonata, The Whip Hand) is a self-proclaimed 'old-school' playwright and Jenny Lindsay (Flint and Pitch, This Script) is a spoken word poet, performer, writer and promoter. Douglas and Jenny are joined by a panel of writers and theatre-makers, each creating work in remarkable ways, to discuss inspirations, career paths, approaches to craft and their shows at this year’s festival.

Age category: 16+

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Feature set at Aberdeen’s premier spoken word night.

Created and compered by JESS GREEN, Find the Right Words is now firmly established as one of Leicester’s best spoken word and rap nights, which includes two nationally acclaimed headline acts, ten open mic spots (sign ups from 7.00pm) and the increasingly sought after speed poet spot. The show was nominated for the SABOTEUR AWARDS 2018 and Jess won the BBC EDINBURGH FRINGE SLAM 2018. With the support of the never knowingly mainstream BURNING EYE BOOKS, Jess makes sure you get to hear the UK’s top performance poets making the biggest noise in spoken word. £8/£6

With Josephine Foster/ Adrian Crowley/ James Yorkston/ Jenny Lindsay

Spoken word poetry is often lauded as the perfect art-form for direct, one-person, political address. It is spoken of as an urgent, increasingly important art-form that perfectly marries the personal and the political. But how to draw on personal experience to create work that is both entertaining and hard-hitting? How can a writer/ performer walk the line between the personal, the private and the universal, particularly when writing from lived experience?

Join spoken word poet and performer Jenny Lindsay, for a workshop that will share tips and exercises Jenny herself has used in creating her new solo show, This Script, which uses poetic memoir to ultimately strive for solidarity, empathy and a call to action. 

Often belittled, when not ignored, in the past, stories of women’s lives written by women have provided many of the past decade’s most powerful novels, memoirs and those books that inhabit the grey area between the two. Three writers who have drawn on their lives to produce poetry and prose that resonate with audiences discuss the challenges of writing memoir: not only how to shape it, but finding the courage to expose their experience. Join Janice Galloway, author of acclaimed ‘true novels’ about growing up in Scotland in the 1960s and 1970s; Catherine Simpson, whose powerful memoir of her sister’s life and death is winning praise; and Jenny Lindsay who turned her teenage diaries and reading of classic feminist literature into a meditation on the #MeToo.