Created in Birmingham

A message that went up on Tak‘s website last month confirming the news that had been doing the rounds for a little while:

At the beginning of July 2010 – exactly six years from the day they opened – we closed the doors at TAK! Towers to explore new ideas & ventures. It’s been fun, thanks for having us!

Recently, Tak had been responsible for the Home of Metal website, the branding for British Dance Edition and had picked up a run of awards for their work on BMAG’s Pre-Raphaelite website.

Meanwhile, I’ve just heard (via Dave Allen) that Script, the West Mids agency for dramatic writers, are shutting up shop:

It is with great regret and reluctance that the Board of Script has taken the decision to dissolve the company as of the end of August 2010.

The loss of RFO status in March 2008 has had a serious impact on the company’s resources, and the reliance on ever-decreasing pots of project funding has made its future existence unsustainable.

See Script’s August newsletter for further info and to see a slew of opportunities for writers.

• 50 things that make me smile in Birmingham « Latest posts
  In no particular order
• Arts & Business | Culture Forum
  Geoff Sweeney, Development Director at Birmingham Royal Ballet is a representative on Culture Forum. Culture Forum is a national thing that was set up recently. I haven’t the slightest idea what it is
• Opportunity for Playwrights « Script Online
  Script, The REP, National Theatre and Birmingham School of Acting are getting together to do a thing
• WANTED More Midlands TV Drama
  “This site was set up to collect suggestions and information to facilitate an increase in TV Drama made in the Midlands”
• West Midlands Screenwriters Forum
  “Promoting west midlands based screenwriters”. These weren’t on my radar until now
• Zombie Walk Birmingham 24-07-2010 – a set on Flickr
  Pics from the charity thing at the weekend
• Arts Contact Warwickshire
  “Arts Contact Warwickshire enables users to search for an artist or arts organisation to suit their needs, using a variety of search criteria”
• A weekend in Brum « Everyday Stories of Rachel & James
  “I can get a bit evangelical about Birmingham’s cultural offerings, but I do think that the snapshot of activities I went along to is pretty fantastic.” Yes indeedy
• crookedsplinter
  David Hurley (who did some stuff in the CiB Shop as part of the Flatpack Festival) has a blog
• Handsworth Simmer Down Festival 2010 – a set on Flickr
  Some pics from the other weekend
• IAMA Professional cinematographer and steadicam operator. AMA
  Bit old this, but Ed Moore did a (looooong) interview thing on Reddit. Actually, it was only 6 months ago, so it’s not all that old

• Tower of Song
  Birmingham’s foremost acoustic and roots music venue, it says here. In Cotteridge with lots of events going on
• First Person: Playwright Nicholas McInerny « Script Online
  The Chair of Script discussing a recent workshop of his new play
• STUDIO4 GALLERY: Chris setting up show
  “Just finished setting up Chris Bourkes Storm in a Teacup Exhibition with Chris and his lovely wife Jo. Opening Thursday 29th April and on for a month, lots of very nice new lino prints from the blistered hands of Mr. Bourke, come join us for a beer from 6.30pm”
• We Are Fierce» Blog Archive » DIY 7: Fierce and the Black Country
  “Fierce are pleased to be a partner organisation on this year’s DIY 7 with a specific project opportunity: ‘The Black Country and its Living Museum’”
• Interview with ARC « More Canals than Venice
  An interview with organisers Laura Coult and Shamrez Marawat
• Birmingham Central: Musical dome to complete Birmingham’s redbrick vision
  Birmingham Uni’s £16m music project
• Facebook | Black Country Visual Arts Network
  “BC VAN is open to anyone with an interest in the visual or creative arts”

• Cut-Out
  Not quite sure what the deal is with this one. They’ve got a DIY print studio and are looking for people to submit designs for them to use on T-shirts and so on. A physical shop is apparently coming in summer 09, in the meantime they’re up online with a website (coming soon) and this blog
• Birmingham Music
  “The Town Hall and Symphony Hall website have launched a new online booking system for their events… Also, as an introductory offer, you can take advantage of free postage on all bookings up to November 30th”
• Draft Vision for a Birmingham Photospace
  The next meeting about this is on Tues 14 October at 6.30pm in the Library cafe, Birmingham city centre. Seek out the Birmingham Flickr group for how the discussion about this is going; this is a link to the draft vision they’ve prepared
• Flip Blog – Grads On Walls Event
  The Flip Animation folk put out a reminder for the Animation Forum WM’s Grads on Walls event on Monday (good to see people talking up other people’s events – a very smart thing to do, I’d say)
• Birminghams Most Stylish – Style Birmingham
  “The 500 people who have made it through this year’s Style Search will be whittled down to just ten this weekend at a special party at Gatecrasher”. Why am I linking to this? Um… just spreading the joy I guess
• Script screenwriting course
  “Script, in association with Outside Centre, presents an in-depth Introduction to Screenwriting Course” at Wolverhampton’s Light House
• Plus+: Fazeley Studios 2008 Plus Venue
  Is it me or does the text in the link make no sense. Basically, Fazeley Studios has been chosen as the venue for the 2008 Plus Design Festival. Shame on me for not spotting that they had a blog though, and thanks to Nicky at Digbeth is Good for pointing it out
• Facebook group – mid*point
  “mid*point is the network for independent theatre companies in the West Midlands” There doesn’t seem to have been any activity on the website for over a year but they’ve just started a Facebook group so something must be going on under the hood

Script are a registered charity based in the Custard Factory and are:

dedicated to developing and promoting new dramatic writing in the West Midlands

For their new project they’re:

inviting writers to submit a short (10 minute) play in response to the “Beijing Map Games” exhibition at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery

Images from the exhibition will appear shortly on www.scriptonline.net.  Writers are asked to select an image and write a 10 minute play in response to its themes.  Five plays will be selected and performed at the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, in front of the exhibition, on Saturday 22nd November 2008

The deadline for submissions is 24 October.

Additionally, Script are:

offering free 2½ hour writing workshops for writers in the Chinese community to provide an introduction to playwriting.  The two workshops will utilize the images from the Beijing Map Games exhibition and explore the ways in which they could be interpreted dramatically

Those are on 4 October.

For more info have a snoop around the Script website.