Chris Neville-Smith

Samples and freebies

Welcome to the sample/freebies section of the site. This section has a mixture of "calling card" samples, and a few odds and sods I'm happy to let other people use for for free. Please note that I have no plans to put full scripts online - anyone who wants a full script will need to contact me and ask.

Unless I say otherwise, you are welcome to use anything in this section for your own purposes as long as it's not for profit and you credit me accordingly - although it would be nice if you tell me about it. I will quite happily consider any interest from professional ventures too, but you will need to clear it in advance. Whether I'd want paying would depend on who you are, what you want, and how nicely you ask me.

The things I have on offer are:

Play scripts:

The First Sign of Madness:

Page one (about 5 minutes) of my most successful production to date. Originally written over a week in 2007 whilst on holiday in Cyprus, then revised in 2011, and taken to the Buxton Fringe in 2013. Rest of script may be available to anyone who asks nicely.

Christmas versus Claus:

A somewhat twisted retelling of every child's favourite story, written in 2014-2015. Half of the play available here, full playlet is about 20 minutes.

Sketches:

Macbeth in Limericks:

Written in 2005 as a bit of fun. Some people find the sonnet format and slow pace a barrier to enjoying Shakespeare. This is a way of addressing both problems.

The Unseen Adventures of Captain America:

A series of sketches I wrote in a bored moment - okay, when i say "bored moment", I mean I was really busy and ought to have been getting on with other stuff. But since I do plays and not sketches, I'm unlikely to do anything with this, so here it is for anyone who wants them.

NEW! A Christmas Confession:

Another one done for fun. Father Christmas-theme again, but this one is more inspired by It's a Wonderful Life meets The Wicker Man. Daren't perform this at my usual place because this is probably going to offend too many people. Read this at your own risk.

Other stuff

If I:

I occasionally put poetry into scripts, but this is my only stand-alone poem. Written in the summer of 2006.

Animated Cross:

When I'm not writing, directing or acting I want to be a theatre techie. I produced this animation for Chris Joby's play Shall These Bones Sing? in 2012.

There'll be Light at the End of the Tunnel:

There's a song at the end of Improbable Fiction which I had to arrange and sequence myself at great cost to my own time and sanity. I'm offering it to anyone who needs it so you don't have to do the same.

ID ID, You're my ID:

This is a song I wrote for a spoof ID cards advert during the time I worked for that bollocks government project ID cards. Yes, I know, don't blame me, they made me do it. This is really an in-joke for passport office employees, so apologies in advance to everyone else. Not sure this really serves as a calling card for what I can do, but you never know, if you need someone to do and excruciatingly bad corporate anthem, I'm your man.