Justin Scott

Justin Scott is an acclaimed playwright, born in Conisbrough in 1971.

 

Tel: 07706 190807

E mail: justinscott@fsmail.net

Justin told us: “I’m 39 I was born on 30/12/71. I grew up on Lilac Grove and went to Rowena, then Morley Place, then Northcliffe. I wasn’t a very good pupil and spent most of my time ‘wagging’ it on the crags and getting into lots of trouble!

 

When I got to about 19 I realised that education was the way forward and enrolled at Doncaster College. I eventualy did a Chemistry degree at the University of Greenwich in London. I ended up working for Anglian Water in Cambridge, (I was living in St Neots at the time).

 

I moved back to Conisbrough in 2003 at about the same timeI wrote my first play ‘Come in Number 10…’.

Justin´s plays were featured in the Hamstead Theatre´s `Start night´ programme which enables new writers to test their craft.

`Hurt Tennis´ was then produced by Doncaster´s Litte Theatre in September 2005 and the `Wires are Down´ by the same Theatre in March 2006.

Since then he has had further productions `Come in Numer 10 your time is up´, `Sex is the Sun´ in Doncaster and `Stop at a Winner´ in Sheffield´s Lantern Threatre.

He came to prominence when he reached the final of the National screenwriting competition in 2007. Justin was shortlisted for the British short script competition which was judged by actor Kenneth Branagh and award-winning director Sir Alan Parker.

Justin said to the Sheffield Star: it’s fantastic to have professionals of that calibre reading my script.

The play takes place in the waiting room of a marriage guidance counsellor and told the story of the disintegration of relationship.

 

Writing & Directing Credits – Theatre

 

`Come in Number 10, Your Time is Up´, Sex Comedy set in a comfortable bed. Hampstead Theatre, London – January 2004

`Hurt Tennis´, Relationship Drama set in a waiting room. Hampstead Theatre, London – October 2004

`The Goodbye F*ck´, a one night stand leads to humiliation. Hampstead Theatre, London – February 2005

`The Wires are Down´, Bitter-Sweet broken love story. Doncaster Theatre, February 2006 & Rotherham Arts Centre, September 2008

`Sex is the Sun´, Comedy-Drama about a bitter divorce. HotHouse Festival, Doncaster Theatre – March/April 2007

`Bedtime Stories´, Relationship Musical-Drama. The Grapes/Winter Gardens, Sheffield – May & Aug 2009

 

`Stop at a Winner´, Exploration of gambling addictions. Rotherham Arts Centre – January 2010 & Lantern Theatre, Sheffield – February 2010

 

Film

`BioHazard´ – Apocalyptic Sci-Fi in the action genre. Commissioned Screenplay by Snow Nine Pictures and currently in post-production.

 

`Come in Number 10 Your Time is Up´ – Semi finals British Screenplay Competition 2003

`The Jogger´ – 2nd round of British Screenplay Competition 2006

`Hurt Tennis´ – 1st round of British Screenplay Competition 2007

`The Treasure of the Sierra LX´ – Finalist (last 6) `Sequel to Cannes´ 2010

`They Shoot Pool, Don´t They?´ – British Socio-realist Screenplay about the effect of pit closures on Northern Communities, currently seeking producers and recently shortlisted for the 2010 PAGE awards.

 

Education

 

MA Screenwriting (Merit) – Northern Film School, Leeds Metropolitan University 2009.

Current

 

Attached to the Finborough Theatre, London `Stop at a Winner´ to be programmed sometime in 2011. Also to be broadcast on Sheffield Live Radio in the coming months.

Presently writing a WW1 film `Known unto God´ and a Zombie Film `Lunchtime of the Dead´.

Extract from Stop at a Winner:

 

Stop at a Winner

A Play By Justin Scott

 

ACT 1 SCENE 1

NORTHERN ENGLAND, THE PRESENT.

LIGHTS ON A CHAIR. SITTING THERE IS A MAN, GLENN, HE´S ABOUT 40.

GLENN: In 1977 I were 10 year old…every year in our house, when I was a kid, the Grand National was an event to rival Christmas, we´d get up at the crack of dawn and wait for me dad to come back from the paper shop so we could see all the runners, there was a map of the course and all the fences had names, then we´d wait for Grandstand to come on the telly and watch all the build up, then the race itself, a load of horses running at the fences, this was back in the days when the fences were higher, the fields were bigger! Until then I´d never had a bet in it, I was too young but I still watched the race. So this year, 1977, I pestered me dad to let me have a bet in it, I didn´t have any money so he gave me a few chores to do, I´d fill the coal bucket or nip to the shop for `10 Park Drive´, back in the days when a 10 year old could buy fags from a shop…eventually, 2p here, 5p there I´d managed to get 40p together so I could have a bet…now I´m up at the crack of dawn to wait for the newspaper so I could pick a horse out for my 40p…at the time I used to watch a TV show `Andy Pandy´, I´m looking down the list of horses and there´s this horse running called `Andy Pandy´, so that was my horse, my very first bet, `Andy Pandy´ for the 1977 Grand National…me dad went down and put the bet on, he comes back with the slip, a yellow piece of carbon paper. I can´t remember `price it was, all I know is that my money´s on it. So we all settle down to watch this race, it was exciting as all these horses charged to the first fence…and this `Andy Pandy´ is in front, it stays there all the way to `Beechers´ the second time around, and then the horse unseats its jockey, but the horse didn´t fall it just kept on running, jumping the fences so I thought I still had a bet…come the winning post this loose horse is still in front and crosses the line first, I cheered, I thought I´d backed the winner, then me dad tells me that it doesn´t count because the jockey wasn´t on it…I burst into tears!

So that was it, I´d be shovelling coal and running to the shop and then every Saturday I´d pick 3 horses out and me dad would put 3 5p doubles and a 5p treble on for me and then watch Dickie Davies do the ITV 7, chasing that first 40p on `Andy Pandy´…the Demon got me young…by the time I was 14 I didn´t bother going to school, I just wanted to stand in the bookies all day. I didn´t have a job so I´d find the money anyway I could, paper round, petty crime, I used to take the money out of milk bottles that the old folk used to leave for the Milkman, the Demon took me low…by the time I was 16 I knew the names of every jockey and trainer, the result on any race from the last two years, the best draw on any track in any going…then when I got a job I´d do my wages in there too, my mother got sick of me borrowing all the time and never paying any back, she used to say `I lived in that bookies´, she was wrong, I lived for the bookies… You get a woman, but she´s p****d off because you´re always down to your last tenner. You can´t take her anywhere or buy her anything but they soon get tired of that and leave. Then you meet another one and you get serious, you´re living together…you´ve got a mortgage but you´re always missing bills because you´ve done it in again, you´re out of control, you´ve only gone to bet £20 but that lost, first dog race, so you run to the Cash Machine to try and win it back and lose that, within an hour you´ve made 3 trips to the bank and now you´re really done…that´s when the lying starts because now you´ve got to go home and tell her you´ve blown the rent again, but you don´t want to do that, you can´t bring yourself to tell her, not after the last time…so you borrow the money to cover it but you get this idea that you can take the money you´ve borrowed and win it all back…and then you blow that as well…and now everything´s twice as bad…and now you´ve really sinned because no-one wants to lend you money anymore because they know what you´re like, so you have to tell her. But she can´t take it anymore and she keeps crying. But you can´t walk past the bookies when the door´s open and you hear the commentary, but she keeps crying because everybody´s had enough but you can´t stop, you´re out of control, and now you´re crying because you´ve had enough, everybody´s had enough but you can´t stop!!

LIGHTS UP TO REVEAL A SEMI CIRCLE OF CHAIRS AND 3 MEN SITTING IN THEM.

GLENN: (Pause)…until you have to…(Quietly)…my name´s Glenn and I´m a compulsive gambler…my last bet was on the 4th of April 2008.

THERE´S A ROUND OF APPLAUSE FROM THE REST OF THE GROUP AND OFFERS OF ENCOURAGMENT.

ADAM, LATE 30´S, WEARS A SHORT SLEEVED SHIRT, OBVIOUSLY WORKS IN AN OFFICE SOMEWHERE.

CLIVE, 30, TRENDY, GOOD HAIR, VAIN.

PAUL, IN HIS 50´S, HE´S RUNNING THE GROUP.

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Justin’s plays are for an Adult audience – if you want to read the full play then contact me or Julian at his email address above