ACTOR Sam Heughan has picked the winner of his annual creative competition.
The Outlander star set up the award to encourage collaboration across the art forms of music, drama, dance, production, film and education at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS).
The contest was set up in October last year.
This year's winner is Bucket of Sunshine, a stage play about three naval officers in a Vanguard-class submarine that questions the moral and ethical dilemmas of nuclear weapons.
Writer and producer of the play, John Black, is a second-year BA Filmmaking student at the RCS.
He will receive a £5000 bursary and mentoring from the Scottish actor and industry experts to develop the work.
He is collaborating with fellow second-year film student Sophia Ralston, who will direct the play, and set designer Rachael Orr, a third-year Production Arts and Design student.
Bucket of Sunshine, which will bring together talent from across the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, is due to be staged this summer.
Sam Heughan, an RCS alumnus, said: “Magic can happen when artists join forces to share ideas – it sparks inspiration and an outpouring of creativity.
"That’s the whole ethos of Write Start – to see the potential in new ways of working, to take chances and for everyone to bring their own unique talents to the table.
“A spirit of collaboration runs through the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, a place where people from all backgrounds, with a shared passion, come together under the same roof.
"Congratulations to all the entrants who impressed with their imagination and originality.
"Special mention goes to our first Write Start winner, John Black, together with Sophia Ralston and Rachael Orr, who delivered a clear, professional and intriguing pitch.
“Bucket of Sunshine encapsulates the goals of Write Start as it offers opportunities to collaborate across the disciplines at RCS.
"It’s also topical and the visuals are terrific with light and sound playing a major factor.
"I can see this play being an immersive and intense audience experience and it has great potential to be both a stage play and a film in the future.”
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Winner John Black said: “Winning is a shock but we’re all really excited to get working on it and we can’t thank Sam Heughan and the Write Start team enough for giving us the opportunity.
“Because Bucket of Sunshine is a theatrical piece and I’m a filmmaker, I brought in Sophia Ralston, who’s also on the filmmaking course but she’s done a lot of directing in the past.
"I also brought in my good friend Rachael Orr, who I’ve known for quite some time, who is a brilliant set and costume designer.”
The runner-up was also announced as Meghan de Chastelain, who is studying on the MFA (Directing) Classical and Contemporary Text programme.
She will receive £1,000 to progress her work A Cocktailer’s Guide to Surviving a Pandemic, a one-woman show ‘using cocktails to make hard stories easier to swallow’.
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