20 May Guest Blog | Laura Turner, Playwright
Our new grants and mentoring scheme, KSF Artists of Choice, is open for applications from 1 – 29 May to UK and US artists across the disciplines of dance, theatre, musical theatre, music and film. Over the next few weeks, we will post guest blogs from some of our previous grant winners about how they used and were impacted by their KSF grant.
Name | Laura Turner
Project | Missing Parts
Year awarded grant | 2013
In December 2013 I was awarded a KSF grant for my project Missing Parts. The project itself was based on an idea for an original play based in my home county of Lincolnshire, focussing on the story of a female mechanic, Lin. Just because Lin’s life is on the brink of crashing down around her, she won’t let that stop her dreams of entering the local beachcross competition - against her ex husband. In short, the play is a romantic comedy about mechanics, motorcross and moving on.
I felt really strongly about telling this story; it felt real and authentic to the place I am from, as well as giving me the opportunity to put my stamp on a piece of work that would capture my agenda as a playwright. Receiving the funding gave me the time to write as I was able to spend some time away from other professional writing projects to focus on this original stage play. The outcome of the project was the development a calling card script which was true to me as a writer (up until this point I had worked largely in stage adaptation as opposed to original work so it really was a new venture for me) and being awarded the grant was the confidence boost I needed to make those characters come alive. Since working on the play, my hunger to write original stories for the stage - as well as screen and radio - has really taken off.
I’ve been lucky enough to be a finalist in the BBC Alfred Bradley Bursary Award as well as longlisted for the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting, to take part in the BBC Holby City Shadow Scheme and CBBC New Voices Initiative and to script my first original screenplay, Lapwing. I’m really excited about the opportunities that might lie in the future and so grateful to KSF for giving me the space and time I needed to make that first step into previously uncharted territory. It was an experience invaluable to my playwriting and my career more generally.
With the new KSF Artists of Choice grants, if I consider what I was able to do with the grant I received, it’s clear the £10,000 or $10,000 will really open the door on so many exciting new projects and invite outcomes that push the boundaries of our creativity. With money for the arts under immeasurable strain, this is an opportunity for projects that get to the heart of who we are today as artists: the work we will make not only for today, but for tomorrow and all the days after that.