Blue Elephant Theatre, Camberwell

Black History Month in Southwark: Celebrating Black Voices

Blue Elephant Theatre is seeking five Black writers to write very short monologues, suitable for primary school-aged audiences, around the theme of Black Heroes.

Each monologue will be about a Black person from history who was/is heroic or significant in some way but may not be well-known to children.

The monologue can be written as this person, as someone close to them or as someone talking to them – the choice is the writer’s!

Each writer and the Blue Elephant will agree on a subject and the Blue Elephant will provide some basic research so that the writer only needs to concentrate on writing. The monologue is expected to be 3 – 6 minutes long.

The plan is to record each piece as read by actors and share them as audio files and via YouTube.

There is a payment of £120 for each monologue, this includes:

• Agreeing on the subject with BET
• Writing and submitting a monologue by October 15th
• Addressing any small points raised on submission by October 17th
• Allowing the monologue to be recorded and shared – an agreement will be made but ideally it will stay publicly online for more than six months
• Checking that you are happy with the subtitles added on YouTube

This project is funded by Southwark Council’s Black History Month Fund and decisions have only just been made so time is very short. To apply to write a monologue, please email Niamh at Niamh@blueelephanttheatre.co.uk with:

• An attachment with a sample of your writing, up to one page long, that you think showcases your suitability for this call-out. Please include no personal details or indications of identity on this page as it will be sent to our two trustees who are making the decisions completely anonymously. Please do not write anything new for this – we are looking for extracts from pieces you have already written. They don’t need to be for children.
• Please indicate in your email only if there is anyone you would particularly like to write about or already have a lot of knowledge on
• If you are also an actor, please say in the email if you would also like to be considered for the recordings/receiving information about them. The recordings are to take place on October 19th and 20th.
• Please include your phone number in the email

The deadline to apply is 12 noon on Saturday 3rd October! Please also email Niamh or call 02077010100 to discuss alternative ways to submit an application.

As this is a celebration of Black voices, this commission is for people who are Black/of Black heritage only. With the short turnaround, we are also limiting it to people who have a base in London (if you have moved away temporarily and plan to come back, you can still apply). Finally, please only apply if you are able to commit to completing the monologue by October 15th.

We aim to notify the five writers on October 6th.