updates from the playwrights

Mandy-Jane said it so well:

I think an update thread is a great idea. We could have monthly, weekly or whenever the mood strikes you check-ins. It will be great to see what everyone is up to, and a great motivator for us all.

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In the last week I think I have nailed the first act of my new play which isn't that new as I have been working on and off on a first draft for about 6 months.

As I have all of this week dedicated to writing I am hoping to knock the second act into shape in the next few days. By the time the National drag me kicking and screaming out of the building in three weeks time I am hoping to have a draft that is OK to send out. Then I will workshop it and probably start again.

so are plays

On with the updates:

I am in theatre heaven. I have done more productive work on my play in the last two weeks than I have in the last six months. I have got back the confidence to deal with what is going to be a dark play and something different for me. I am on track to have a reviewed first draft by the end of my attachment here which I will get feedback on and then workshop here at a later date (fingers crossed).

I have also been reading lots of plays from a well stocked supply and have had access to the archives so you get to see all the production notes etc which is really useful. This week I've read 'Black Watch' by Gregory Burke, 'Shopping and Fucking' Mark Ravenhill, 'A Doll's House', 'Sacred Heart' Mick Mahoney and 'The Revenger's Tragedy' which are a real mixed bag but for the first time in ages I've wanted to read lots of plays.

I have also been to see (at The National) The Revenger's Tragedy which was an amazing, fast paced production, a real spectacle. Afterlife (Michael Frayn), and 'The Year of Magical Thinking' with Vanesssa Redgrave and a work in progress, a Middle East version of Romeo and Juliet by a young Russian director and composer.

It's been such a shot in the arm to be here, immersed in theatre and surrounded by people who are passionate about what they do. I might hide in the ventilation system so I don't have to leave.

I am never normally this productive so it's good to update while it lasts!

Next Please:

Hi Twosticks, good to see you here.

I am updating again. Only 'cause I have been unusually productive because of the theatre attachment. Well I finished my first full draft on Tuesday and handed it in for some feedback. I didn't write it thinking it was a National theatre play just something I was working on before I was approached to go down there and it really isn't the sort of play they do. I got very positive feedback within a couple of days from the head of Studio and have been booked in for a reading next month at the National with their actors and one of their directors. I couldn't be more made up. The literary manager will be in touch next week to give me his feedback and then (if he likes it as well) it will be passed further up the chain. Me, I just thrilled to be having a reading there and hopefully their stamp of approval will make it easier to place the play elsewhere. The reading will be to an invited audience. The sad part is I have finished my attachment and am newly arrived back home. I loved being there and hope to keep up my new found productivity.Sadly, I am easily led and distracted so I probably won't.

Good luck with the competition Mandy-Jane and good luck to everyone else as their plays progress. I really like hearing about what people are getting up to.

I as anticipated utterly failed to keep up my recent productivity and have just started writing again after a month. a month of doing absolutely nothing. On Monday I had a reading of the first draft of a new play at the National Theatre's studio in London which was good, great actors, but it made me see how much I have yet to do to improve it. I've also started a shadow scheme on a TV show after doing a trial script for them. The shadow scheme involves writing another trial script of a new storyline to the same rewrite deadlines/time frames as the existing writers. I get my story line on Friday. I'm currently doing a treatment for a new idea to send in for a competition and started work on a new play. I also have to do a new draft of the one that had the reading. I am not looking forward to that.

Congratulations and good luck in organising a workshop to develop your play.

I am going to join in with my minor update. The play I posted about having a reading is now tweaked and out to theatres being read, should start getting feedback soon so keep your fingers crossed for me. Didn't get the soap writing job, the producer who liked my work left within two weeks of me starting the scheme. Not such terrible news as if I am honest I was in it for the money not the writing. Started work on a new play a few weeks ago, hope to have a very rough full first draft by the end of March and then plan on spending a month working on that so it is ready to be sent out by May (still as a first draft) . Really thought about where I want to concentrate my energies and have decided it is theatre. Also have to do two page outlines for radio plays by April.

Good luck with the new play, KTC.