West Midlands theatre writing competition turned into a TV pilot

Last year, aspiring screenwriters and playwrights were given the chance to take centre stage with two regional writing competitions, namely ‘Enter.Stage.Write' and 'Amplified', culminating in a red carpeted annual awards screening and gala in January 2022.

Both competitions are the brainchild of the Birmingham born Natalie Yesufu-Edwards, founder of Transition Stage Company and ‘Enter.Stage.Write’. ‘Enter.Stage.Write’ has been running successively for the last three years in Birmingham, bringing people from all backgrounds to celebrate the intrinsic value of new writing and visual arts, and changing the life of aspirational screenwriters firmly planted in the competitive world of stage and broadcast TV, such as Abraham Adeyemi and Tonia Daley.

Natalie not only launched ‘Enter.Stage.Write’ but for the first time, ‘Amplified’ (part of the ‘Enter.Stage.Write’ franchise), a comedy competition for diverse voices. Through ‘Amplified’, Natalie wanted to create more opportunities for British Asian and Black comedic voices and bring back the 00's diverse renaissance of comedy of Goodness Gracious Me and the Real McCoy.

These two annual West Midlands scriptwriting competitions, where budding writers from the UK have the opportunity to see their work brought to life on stage, have been filmed and transformed into a factual entertainment television pilot.

With the restrictions now lifted, Natalie said 'the show must go on' and decided to do a screening gala of the filmed shortlisted scripts at Millennium Point on 20 January  2022. 

Television moguls globally and creative leaders from the stage world have collectively thrown their support behind the competitions here in Birmingham with the aim to find the next big screen or stage writer. 

Sara Asante, the Commissioning Editor of Comedy UKTV, part of BBC, is judging and throwing their weight behind 'Amplified'.  Furthermore, the BAFTA-winning Lisa Walters is the headlining judge for 'Enter.Stage.Write'. Darcia Martin, a prolific award-winning director of multiple BBC shows, is also judging the competitions this year once again. Last year, one of the previous year's finalist writers were lucky enough to have their script optioned by Darcia Martin.

Other notable judges were Louise Le Puloch from France who works with Mediawan who are currently working with Netflix, and the American director Miguel Paguel who has won a prestigious Emmys for his work in the screen industries.

Natalie, who recently won the ‘Downtown in Business’ award 'Woman Of the Year' for her endeavours with Transition Stage Company said it is time to take ‘Enter.Stage.Write’ to the next level and turn this theatre competition into a TV format similar to a scriptwriting X-Factor using Birmingham as a conduit and showcasing talent on a larger scale globally. 

To book tickets to attend the gala screening, please click here.