I'm over here!

So Hackers - rather smart, but also really annoying.

I'm posting here to say that for the time being this will have to be my website. Although I haven't been hacked, my web host has and as a consequence they've decided to quit the business. This means my website has to be moved and rebuilt, so it will be down for a little while :-(

If you need to contact me you can find my details on Facebook

But now I've got your attention I'd like to give you a quick update on all my work.

A few weeks ago the Scriptorium (the group of emerging playwrights I run) presented their collaboratively written play 'Tapestry' at Gloucester Cathedral with great audience feedback:

'I was captivated the whole way through. From the dramatic opening through all the scenarios, this production was joyfully unpredictable. A strong cast played different parts with conviction and interacted well with each other - really listening and responding. They handled the cathedral echo well and co-operated with the unusual sound environment to enhance their performance'.

'The Mysterious Gentleman', my play about Victorian magician JN Maskelyne is going to have a three week run at the Courtyard Theatre in London opening on October 31st, and once again with support from Arts Council England. I'll be working with Director, Kasia Rozycki from Off The Cliff Theatre, and actor Andrew Thorn will be taking the lead role - image below.

I've also just been commissioned to write something, but as it hasn't been officially announced yet I can't say what. But it's a really exciting invite to join a really amazing club of the UK's top playwrights.

And for all fans of comedy and great music, I'm hoping that 'The Secret Life of Dads' will be back onstage next year - I'll keep you posted on that, but here's the new poster below.

The Secret life of a Playwright

So you’ve written a script that you’re really happy with. You know it’s a real crowd pleaser. You just have to find some way to get it onstage.

Do you send it out to competitions or submit it to theatres? Then wait and wait only to find it wasn’t their cup of tea, or that there were 2,000 entries and losing was a strong possibility no matter how good your play was.

Well I’ve tried that route and had a few small successes, but there is a third option, and that’s self-producing. Those small successes were enough to convince the Arts Council to give me a production budget.

I just need to pause here to say – Yay!!!

But then comes the scary bit.

My current production is The Secret Life of Dads, and I’ve got a really great team pulling the project together with me. Three great actors playing the dads in my play who deal with their mid-life crises by reforming their old band and playing a battle of the bands gig live onstage. I’ve got a great director adding all the visual touches that I just couldn’t put into a script, and a really smart musical director who helped make my lyrics into songs.

So it’s all good.

Now here comes the ‘but’.

In order to get a grant I needed to show there was an audience for the play so a large chunk of our income needs to come from ticket sales. If I’d given a low estimate that wouldn’t show confidence in the production, but too high and we’re left out of pocket. Added to that I’ve chosen a venue that isn’t known for theatre productions, and we’ve got nine performances to sell.

So here’s where I have to set aside my writer’s hat and become a marketing whiz – not a comfortable place for me to be.

But that’s what I have to do now if I want my play to be seen, and more importantly if I want to get paid for the work I’ve put into this production, because there’s an odd twist to this tale. As the producer I have to make sure everyone is paid their agreed fees, but if there’s any shortfall in income it’s me who has to take a cut.

Would I do this again? Well this is the second time I’ve done this, so yes. It’s not for the faint hearted but it is a thrill when you see your words coming to life on stage, which is the goal of every playwright.

So please come and see The Secret Life of Dads at the Guildhall in Gloucester this August, and feel free to say hello to the writer sitting at the back of the auditorium grinning from ear to ear, but also counting heads and trying to work out if I’ll be able to pay the mortgage this month.

http://venues.gloucester.gov.uk/Freetime/Guildhall/listings/theatre/TheSecretLifeofDads.aspx

    

Diary of a Menopause Denier

I’m pretty sure my new neighbour now thinks I’m an alcoholic.

Just to give you some context, I’m one of those people who never gives in to illness, so I refuse to admit that I am in any way experiencing menopause symptoms, even though I keep finding myself wandering around the house in my bra and pants this winter. I keep blaming the new central heating system, despite the fact that my other half is bundled up in a blanket huddling in front of the fan heater. I am not having hot flushes!

So at the housewarming party of our new neighbour, wearing a full length Victorian dress, I was having a lovely time, despite being rather warm – they have a new central heating system too. The room was full of people and as the fun started the temperature rose to the point where I was feeling rather clammy.

Then all of a sudden I started to feel extremely unwell – and please bear in mind that I’d only had one very small glass of white wine at this point, so I was not in any way squiffy – but I suddenly felt very hot and decidedly not right. Cutting short an interesting conversation with a very nice lady I found my way to the hall where my other half stared at me wondering what the heck was wrong. My first thought was to get to the bathroom where I could lock myself in and be ill in private because that’s how my mind works. But realizing I wasn’t going to be able to make it up the stairs I lurched for the front door, and on hitting the cool evening air I promptly fainted. Now I have never fainted before, and I don’t ever want to again – it was really unpleasant. To my credit I managed to stay upright by clinging to the front door, and for a brief moment I felt absolutely lovely – all floaty and dreamy. But then I opened my eyes and saw my new neighbour, let’s call her Cleo, staring at me, but I was unable to articulate that I was not drunk, just hideously overheated.

Back at our house after a cool shower and a pint of iced water I felt absolutely fine, but my other half refused to let me go back to the party wearing a bikini, which was probably wise as I don’t think it was that sort of party and at no time had we been asked to put our car keys into a bowl. The new neighbours seem like nice people, although they’re probably thinking twice about their new neighbour who they probably think is a lush, while I adamantly refuse to admit I had a major hot flush and continue blaming overly efficient central heating systems for my symptoms.  

Invisible me

I know I've been a bit invisible for the past few months. I am still here, but I've been doing all the things a writer has to do, but which are far too boring to share. Such as working out funding applications, having meetings with people, and bouncing around hundreds of emails with other creative types to work out future collaborations and partnerships.

But now that's nearly all done I will soon be able to start telling you all about the fabulous projects I've got lined up to do over the next couple of years. There are still a few things to pin down, but there will be at least one new play next year, as well as exciting plans for my fabulous Scriptorium writers.

So I will try to be a bit more exciting from now on and to keep you posted on developments about 'Urban Myths', 'The Secret Life of Dads', 'Aethelflaed', and much, much more.

Theatre Review

Often as a writer watching other people's plays I see things I would do differently, but if a play is working well I just find myself sitting back and being drawn into the experience, which is what happened with a play I saw last night. 

The Visit is Spanish writer Nieves Lopez's first play written in English, and it's a claustrophobic drama that is keeping the audience on the edge of their seats at the Olympus Theatre on Barton Street this week.

The play opens with a young girl telling us her story while a video is played showing the event that triggers the action about to happen. This worked really well as a shorthand way of feeding us the back story, and from then on we were straight into the action. Two sisters, played with genuine warmth and affection by Monica Crespo and Fleur Hanby, are forced into an absurd situation with seemingly no way out but for someone to die. The rest of the story is a game driven by the extremely creepy Isabel Vargas, and the silent but deadly Lara Hall. The all female cast beautifully underplay their roles, allowing silences to speak vividly, and creating an extremely creepy and intense feel on stage.

The simple setting of the piece in a small apartment adds to the claustrophobic effect, and the audience were carried along with the story, and kept guessing about how the story would be resolved until the very last moment.

This is an extremely accomplished piece of work from a Gloucestershire based writer who is certainly one to watch as her career progresses, and I'm thrilled that she's part of the Olympus Scriptorium writers project.

 

As a bonus to the play there is an introductory appearance from Eve Loiseau as Edith Piaf, poignantly setting the mood before the play starts. And, keeping the audience glued to their seats during the interval was local singer songwriter Joel Ramsey.

The Visit offers a truly good night out at the Olympus Theatre, which is giving local talent a much needed space to develop and flourish.

 

Tom Cruise has never won an Oscar

It's worth pondering the fact above because it's relevant that one of the world's most bankable actors has never been honoured by the industry for his work.

Anyway, it stuck in my head while I've been struggling over the past few weeks to rewrite a play which was put before an audience a couple of years ago as a script-in-hand performance, and had unanimously positive feedback from the audience and the actors performing it. 

So why the rewrite? We’ll if I want to submit it to a theatre it needs to be more…well…theatrical or it just won’t be taken seriously.

So what does that mean? Well it seems that despite years of comments about theatre turning off audiences with impenetrable political issue-driven plays, if you want to be taken seriously by theatre professionals that’s what you need to be writing and putting out there. 

So I’m at a decision point. The plays I’ve written and put on stage have all received extremely positive feedback from audiences. My plays for kids have been seen by over half a million children, and some have been touring constantly for over twenty years to rave reviews. I’ve made a decent living from my writing, and I’m now teaching and mentoring a new generation of writers. 

But that’s not classed as success. As far as the theatre world is concerned I am a nobody, and in order to become a recognised talent I would need to drastically alter my writing style and to produce work that is designed to satisfy the tiny number of theatre folks who decide what is worthy, rather than simply engaging audiences.

So rant over, and decision made. If I want to keep paying the bills and doing what I love, I don’t think I’ll be winning any awards in the near future, but I will be putting something on in a theatre near you sometime soon which will leave you feeling happy, entertained, and hopefully like you’ve been transported to another world for a short while.

Isn’t that what good theatre should be?        

And I'm not the only person saying this. Playwright Anthony Neilson said this ages ago 

http://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2007/mar/21/features11.g2 

The Mysterious Gentleman

So rehearsals have finally started for this production.  The script was written a few months back, but since then I've been working with the fabulous Jenny Wren Productions - director Jenny Wicks, and three brilliant actors to develop it further. Playing JN Maskelyne is an amazing actor and magician Peter Clifford. The sublime Mr Derren Brown says of him 'Peter Clifford is one of my favourite magicians and one of the loveliest people I know.'  Peter has been busy creating incredible illusions for the play, and the other actors Elise Heaven and Murray Andrews have been busy learning all the magic they need to perform.

It's been a fascinating process writing and then adapting a script to include magic effects, but collaborating with a huge team of people is going to make this play really spectacular on stage. We've got a great team building all the effects, and our set designer has come to us after working on Game of Thrones, so it's going to look amazing.

There's been so much interest and support for this project all along, and tickets are selling well, but the BBC are going to do a feature next week so if you're thinking of coming I suggest you book before that goes out on the telly!  Tickets only £10.  Dates 8,9,10th May

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