New writing: What would you do if we were to ask you?

Comments

1. John R Wilkinson

   Hoping to make 28th. Some thoughts/starting points: 1. Filmic tendencies - Going by recent conversations, and thinking back on a lot of the scripts I've read this year, there seems to be a growing drift towards cinema. Work submitted for stage somehow feels more suited for a camera lens. Why? Good thing, bad thing? Is this something to worry about or utilize? Obviously intermediality and social media are important elements in twentieth century performance, but what does the softening of boundaries mean for new writing in the theatre? 2. Commercialism - I know, an old niggle. No matter how much freedom a writer is given, it always comes back to box office and the public seemingly liking what they know. Would be nice to have some sort of test spot for experimental work. 3. Adaptation - Adaptation is a different beast to writing. Would it be possible to offer some kind of mentorship for writers looking to specialise in adaptation? Moving towards putting together some kind of workable practice model. 4. Writer/Deviser - Similar to the last one. A mentorship for writer/devisers. 5. Young Writers Company - Most theatres possess some form of youth theatre, however the vast majority of these are performance orientated. Is it possible to form a similar group for very young writers (e.g. 10+).

   DATE POSTED: 17/12/2011

2. Rick Poppa

   I'd like to see the return of "Queer Up North!" which the Playhouse used to do...and then it dissapeared. I'd love to see performances during the week of plays/events written/performed by local LGBT people aimed at, but not totaly for the LBGT community. Might be nice to include in this week a performance of the play Beautiful Thing by Jonothan Harvey, which I reckon would really work well in the Courtyard Theatre.

   DATE POSTED: 17/12/2011

3. Alex Chisholm

   John - thanks those are all really good thoughts and worth discussing further. Mentoring seems to come up again and again as a suggestion. I'm with you on wanting space to try out experimental or ambitious ideas. Rick - yes please do suggest or send in plays/events by/for LGBT people. Others have approached me regarding readings - which I have done a lot of in the past. What are people's thoughts on readings - good if they lead to something? Good as they give a play exposure and a chance for writer to hear it? Or a half-arsed substitute for a proper paid production?

   DATE POSTED: 19/12/2011

4. Sam Freeman

   I think this is quite an interesting thread. For a long time I've thought there is a strange paradox particularly regionally where 400 seat+ venues are invariably the ones who lead new writing - this brings in the riskiness of producing shows - for a mid-scale regional theatre selling 350 seats out of 400 for example is marked as a success, but 200 isn't - obviously it means the production is a loss-leader and a 'failure' in terms of the perception of the venue's success. The difficulty is that 200 a night is a good result for new writing - particularly the more obscure stuff. Venue is key and also how success is managed, empty seats look bad whatever way it is spun. So, firstly it's about environment, how do you create a inexpensive space for around 200 people (the commercially viable amount) for new writing, that never feels empty and is cheap. Theatre in the round could be one solution - interesting developments by Paines Plough on that front, or is it about site specific shows, or finding those rough unloved spaces - think Arcola before the big move. Secondly it's about infrastructure. The biggest issue I'd suggest for writers in Liverpool (where I am based) is about bringing together creatives and actors. How do you find a director, where are the actors (if you're not on spotlight), where are the rehearsal spaces? How these connections are made and enabling these connections create the right conditions for new work to flourish. There are of course issues with TMA and Equity and Bectu too I'd imagine, essentially you'd be creating a semi-professional space for new writing development then cherry-picking work for the next level of development. Finally I think it's about how the work is presented, audience expectation is managed, ticket prices are kept low and quality is kept high. As an idea - one to spark controversy and conversation, what if WYP had a 200 seat round venue - a database of directors, producers, designers, actors - wanting to create great art - tickets were £8 for everything (£5 concessions) - all the box office to the performers - WYP markets the shows - but it also had 3 rehearsal rooms free to use to productions on the condition that WYP would select the piece, put a dramaturg or director or Artistic Director in for 2 rehearsals to watch, ask those probing questions and inspire? Probably insane? As a writer it's about the consistency of message from the venue too, not promising too much but rewarding entrepreneurship and that desire to get work onstage, the best companies have come from this and many of the best writers too.

   DATE POSTED: 21/12/2011

5. Alex Chisholm

   Thanks for your comments and apologies that you've had to wait to see them. Sam and Dan those are really useful suggestions and chimes with what I'm thinking. If you can please come along to the meeting on 28th Jan at Playhouse. If you can't let's find another time to talk.

   DATE POSTED: 10/01/2012

6. Lynne Taylor

   It would be nice to see new writing go beyond the stage of rehearsed readings and ten minute pieces. While these are great to hone a writer's skill, there is often a vacuum for longer plays. It appears competitions are often the only route, which relies very much on the writer submitting something that suits the judge's taste. In fact is often the writer's only claim to legitimacy by winning something. I would like to see opportunities to broaden out - allowing two new plays per month, in a 200 seater, that can become a regular slot. This should be a venue for the whole of the Writing community - from East Yorkshire to West Yorkshire. I would also like to see more workshops - but run at weekend daytime as not everyone lives in or around Leeds. One lady came to a workshop as she was from Grimsby and could only make it as it happened to fall at a weekend.

   DATE POSTED: 26/01/2012

7. Daniel Bye

   Hi Alex, I think I'd like to see the category of New Writing broadened to New Work in this discussion. For a start, writers are increasingly creating work in far more collaborative fora, of which a rehearsed reading is barely the beginning. But more to the point, there are many ways of authoring work that don't proceed straightfowardly from a single creative artist, whose work is then interpreted by craftspeople. None of this is at all new. But our institutions tend to lag behind the facts. The very title Literary Manager (which I know isn't your title any more, but bear with me) creates a bias towards a particular focal point in the creation of new work. It's a valuable focal point, and people who write singly-authored plays to be handed over to directors and actors should of course continue to be supported. But there are so many more ways of making work, and all those other ways are supported by a very small number of specialist houses and producers, the overwhelming majority of them in London. And it makes good sense for all this to be housed in one department. Some of the things about crafting a piece of work that are valuable to writers are equally valuable to devisers (certainly to me). And some of the creative visual and aural textures beloved of devisers could be written into the fabric of a text. In the sixties and seventies, the Royal Court under Bill Gaskill had a writers' group that met weekly. They'd do mask workshops, Greek chorus work, improv, all the stuff you'd expect was going on across the channel at l'Ecole Jacques Lecoq. Possibly the writers hated it. But I don't think it's any coincidence that this is the climate out of which emerged Bond, Brenton, Barker and Churchill, a generation of playwrights whose theatrical adventurousness hasn't been matched by any generation since. Churchill in particular worked regularly with devisers. I think you should do that. Dan

   DATE POSTED: 04/01/2012

8. Rain

   I suggest, were it in my power, the gift of feedback. Honest and constructive feedback, so you know not to waste any more time on that dead horse. Feedback from, say, producers or directors, not just other writers who, from the best motives, may be too kind or lack market savvy.

   DATE POSTED: 10/01/2012