Flesh & Blood Stories

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A Flesh & Blood Story

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“A Brand New Season of Plays…”
In 2026, if all goes to plan, we’ll be rolling out the first of an annual touring rep season of new plays all across Wales. This season will appear at multiple venues simultaneously, with a different play opening at a different venue on the same night before embarking on a nationwide tour. If successful, we will return the following year with another season of new plays (maybe more this time) and thus begin our aim to scale up theatre production in Wales by supplying venues with a steady pipeline of quality new work and providing audiences with more choice than ever before.
We have the theatres, we have the know-how; all we need are the plays
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What makes a Flesh & Blood Story?
A great photograph not just captures a moment but begs a question: Who are these people? What’s going on? What’s their story? But a photograph cannot fully reveal the answer. Its subjects are silent and motionless. Unlike the characters in a play, who can step forward, speak for themselves and tell us everything we need to know. So long as we need to know it, that is…
Which is what we mean by a Flesh & Blood Story: a tale worthy of our attention. Something enduring enough to speak across time and space; something vivid enough to speak across individuals; something compelling enough to set us off, keep us hooked – right until the end – just so that we can hear what the point of it all was.
And though each will be distinctive, every Flesh & Blood story will have three things in common: a beginning, middle & end. Each will demand attention and sustain interest by virtue of an inherent power – a tension at its core. It’s not about gimmicks or tricks or special effects (it’s not about being ‘groundbreaking’ or ‘important’ – we think there are too many plays out there that claim to be both, but end up being neither), it’s about a story that, when staged, is powerful enough, funny enough or demanding enough to require a strong cast, a talented crew and a skillful director. Crucially, it’s a story that that can travel: one that we can present to a wide variety of audiences, confident in the knowledge that it will be worthy of their attention.
Indeed, perhaps the best way to truly answer ‘What makes a Flesh & Blood Story?’ is to consider who our target audience is.
Our Audiences
Put simply, our audiences have something better to do. Instead of venturing out to see a play, they can easily stay at home and watch Netflix or open YouTube or go shopping on Amazon (often at the same time). If they do go out, they can choose the pub, the cinema, or simply go see their gran. The point is, with all that to choose from, they have to have a damn good reason to visit the theatre.
The good news is that we have the venues: from the Coliseum to Brycheiniog to the Met to Pontio to The Torch to the Pontardawe Arts Centre to The Riverfront (to name just a handful), there is no shortage of great stages in Wales with well-earned reputations for welcoming their audiences. There is no shortage of audiences either: from Aberdare to Abertillery to Bangor to Brecon to Milford to Newport to Pwllheli there are many who love nothing more than a good night at the theatre. All we have to do is give it to them.
What this means in practice is offering audiences something that can compete with Netflix (at least for a night): a play worthy of a person’s time and money. The story need not be familiar: it might be something we haven’t seen or heard before but, if we have, then give it a twist. If it’s a drama, make it dramatic; if it’s a comedy, make us fall about. If it’s meant to be challenging, then really challenge. If it’s based on a true story, then seek out the fundamental truth at its core that can speak to us all. (Or to put it another way, if you’re thinking about writing a piece about what it means to be ‘you’, then chances are you won’t be writing a Flesh & Blood story.)
All in all, a Flesh & Blood Story is one that works on an emotional level. It can be clever, sophisticated – intellectual even – but it still has to be felt in the gut. It has a tendency to inspire and keep us gripped; it can travel, speak to anyone and hold its own. Fundamentally, it’s a story that will entertain.
So if you think you have a Flesh and Blood Story on your hands- a story that can compete with Netflix, Amazon, YouTube or somebody’s gran – then we want to hear it!
What You Can Expect From Us
We work with the very best directors, editors, actors and technicians, and we have the backing of the very best venues in Wales. We work to the highest standards and will do everything to get your story from script to stage. More importantly, we want the very best for our audiences and so, if we get as far as production, you can be pretty sure that your work will be in the best shape of its life, and in the very best of hands.
But before all that, and following the call out, you should know that every submission will be professionally read and assessed and with the utmost care and attention.
No matter its stage of development, your work will be carefully considered – not just for suitability but also for viabilty (i.e. what are the chances of getting it to the stage in the time remaining). Submissions not considered to be viable at this point will be returned. However, should your work be returned at this early stage, we will make the reasons very clear. That means that every submission will be responded to with industry-standard feedback, not just because it’s important to us that you take something useful away, but also because we want you to feel you can come back and work with us in the future again.
Submissions considered to be viable will be shortlisted, optioned and taken forward to a development phase. How much development will depend on the condition of the work submitted but, in any event, those shortlisted and optioned will be spared the pain of a protracted development period. Instead, they will be subjected to a fast-track process which will include the assignment of a dedicated Story Editor and the working towards a rehearsal draft script. You can be assured that this stage will be intense but productive as we, at this point in proceedings, will be just a few months away from the opening of the inaugural season.
The latter stages of development will include rehearsed read-throughs (with actors, directors and other creatives) to see the work on its feet and, following the rehearsed reads, a decision will be taken to which of the optioned plays will be included in the inaugural season and formal commissioning will take place.
This Is Not A Competition
It’s important to stress again that this is not a competition. This is not a search for the ‘best writing’ or the ‘best writers’ but a hard-headed hunt for artistically and commercially viable works that we think will appeal to our target audiences. 
Our hope is that by looking for such stories, we will find a few classics along the way (plays that will likely outlive their authors!). If your work is rejected at any point, this is not the end of the story. Some plays and stories take longer to get right. Indeed, even those submissions that have been optioned but, for whatever reason, do not make it to the inaugural season, these are unlikely to be abandoned. They may even be reserved for further development and/or inclusion in later seasons.
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