Playwrite 2008

A 10 week playwriting course

directed by

Christopher Preston

Report

Introduction

Playwrite has evolved from a number of individual writing courses such as Character, Landscape and structure. It has also expanded from the first experimental course in 2005 as part of Write to Ignite Hackney Word Festival. The establishment of a regular playwright’s group in 2006, however had limited success as there was no deadline or end point of performance.

For a writer to hear their work performed in front of an audience is the most important learning experience in the whole process.

Playwrite 2008 is a partnership between Maya Productions, Hackney Library Services and the Learning Trust.

Recruitment

1,000 A5 Leaflets were designed and distributed by Hackney Libraries to branches throughout the borough. Some distribution was also carried out on foot by Maya Productions to cultural venues such as the Arcola theatre, Rio cinema and Broadway Market. Course information was circulated by the Learning trust in the Words Unite brochure and press releases were sent to Hackney Today and the Hackney Gazette. The Maya Productions website carried information about the course. Applications were received from 14 potential participants and a further 15 potential writers were placed on a waiting list or expressed interest in a subsequent course.

Enrolment

9 Students enrolled at the first session with 2 apologies. One further student enrolled in week 2 and in week 3 a further student enrolled but had to withdraw due to ill health and one student withdrew for creative reasons.

Demographic information was collected on enrolment. Ethnic diversity corresponded roughly with overall range for Hackney. Interestingly most of the participants and those on the waiting list had found out about the course from Hackney Today. Students were also asked to carry out a self evaluation of their skills and expectations of the course. Ten had education to degree level, 3 had never written before (creatively) and only 2 had ever had their work published or performed. A majority had attended some other kind of creative writing course, none had attended a theatre writing course. Mostly they wanted to know about structure, plot, characters and understanding the process and were attracted to the course for these reasons.

Attendance

The group settled down to 8 regular attendees which allowed enough time for everyone to participate. Two students found regular attendance difficult because of work commitments though they delivered scripts by the end of the course. Two others dropped out without giving reasons.

Workshop, rehearsal and performance space

Workshop were held at the CLR James Library hall in Dalston Lane on Saturdays from 10 – 1pm. This space was also used for actor’s auditions. Rehearsals were held at the Homerton Library Hall in Homerton High Street on Thursday 11th & Friday 12 th September. The performances were also held at Homerton on Saturday 13 th September. These spaces were provided as part of the partnership with Hackney Libraries.

 Mid course assessment

A short questionnaire completed by seven of the students after the formal classes were completed in week 6 revealed that 88.6% of the students gave the course a satisfaction rating of 1.

PLAYWRITE 2008 WORK PLAN

Script Delivery & Casting

Because some of the writers chose to begin full length plays, or were unable to contain their work to 20 minutes, delivery was late. Some scripts required editing and re-formatting for actors, which unexpectedly took up several days. Casting, checking availability checking took up 2 days. Fortunately a number of actors who had worked on Playwrite in 2007 were available, but the range of characters meant that 6 actors were required, one more than planned. The writers had the opportunity to meet some of the actors in a workshop/audition situation, although this was somewhat artificial as we required a versatile company to play a huge range of characters of different ethnicities and accent. A last minute illness required one actress to be recast with an hour’s notice on the first day of rehearsals. Not all writers were able to attend the casting discussion and not all found it very useful.

Rehearsals

In 2007 we had 7 plays of 20 minutes in length. In anticipation of more plays, I had allocated two days rehearsal plus some time on the Saturday morning. This allowed 1 and ½ hours for each play to rehearse with the writer. As most of the plays were around 30 minutes, there were problems with estimating timings of the performance.

The performance

Eight plays were performed over 4 hours to an estimated audience of 50. Divided into two programmes the audience came and went in between the plays, though a significant number stayed for all 8. Refreshments were provided by the writers in the interval, which we had to cut short as we were running out of time. Several of the plays had to be cut and scenes described briefly in order to tell the stories.

Script in hand performances directed by Christopher Preston

Actors: Melanie Beckley, Sabina Cameron, Neil Reidman Robin Sneller, Jade Willis, Jacqueline Wood

 Crossroads by Paul Morris

Edwardian Husband and Wife, Jeremy and Unity are dressing for dinner. Will they resolve their differences before their carriage arrives?

All About Me by Samantha Lewis

In a mediation room at the top of a tower block, all of the characters have a secret. Will they be found out?

Edward - The Mediator Patricia –Patient 1

Paul – Patient 2 Terri - Paul’s partner - patient 3

Policeman l Policeman 2

The Painting by Sophie Lord

Norma controls her squabbling family and everyone else from her room in a Melbourne rest home. What is the story behind the painting on her wall?

Norma 85 Andrew 56 her son Peter 51 her favourite son

Wendy 42 Nurse Ben 23 Peter’s son Pam 52 Andrew’s wife

Pat 49 Peter’s wife Jessica 80’s resident Frederick 88

Mercydotcodotuk by Martina Attille

Manny has inherited his Father’s Church and is about to marry Dionne, the mother of his son. They are however travelling in different directions and asking different questions.

Stella late 20‘s Tasha early 20’s virgin Manny late 20’s

Professor early 70’s Tailor his wife late 50’s Good Friday their son 14

Dionne their daughter late 20’s Christmas Day her son 12

Manny’s Mother a widow

I Want to go Home by Olaide Oyekanmi

Agnes is trapped in the flat of her Daughter and Son in law, in Hackney. She longs to return to Nigeria. What will her old friend Remi say and will an unlikely friendship with a young hoodie help?

Remi , 59 Nigerian Agnes 60 Nigerian Hooded boys – mixed

Hooded boy 1John/Olu 10 Agnes’ Grandson

Daniel 38 (Irish heritage) Susan 38 Agnes’ Daughter

Ruby Sparkle by Grace Jardine-Wilkinson

Elliot finds himself unwittingly caught up in a French family feud involving the inheritance of an heirloom, murder, kidnapping and a trail of symbols to find the treasure first.

Elliot 43 Tim 33 His friend Bernie 35 His friend

Peter 68 (French) Elliot’s friend Janette 31 Peter’s neice

Mirabelle 65 (French) Peter’s sister Harbour Policeman 30

Philippe 30 (French) son of Peter’s best friend.

Sound Clash by Emily Pedder

A middle class couple with a new baby are confronted with unexpected activities from their neighbours exposing their fears, desires and prejudices.

Lottie Geoff Peter 60’s Tina

 For the Road by Ben Robinson

Set in in Esmeraldas, a remote, cloud-forest region of Northern Ecuador.Lillian has impossible choices to make but events take their own dramatic course helping her and the rest of the village choose.

 Lilian Bolivar, a midwife, early 40’s. Don Bolivar, her husband, a farmer, older.

Don Simon , a shopkeeper, late 30’s Tanya Winter, a villager.

John Mitchell , Texan road-builder, early 50’s.

Final feedback and follow-up

77% of the writers gave the overall course a rating 1 or 2. 20% gave a rating 3. Mostly this was to do with the casting and rehearsal sessions which were rushed. All found that attending the performances was extremely valuable. Writers have been forwarded information about new writing theatres in London and one Student has been accepted on the under 25 writers group at Soho Theatre. There is an ambition amongst the group to take their work further.

Summary

Feeedback from participants and audience has been extremely positive and with further enquiries for a further course from audience members, it would be good to repeat the course next year. The overall standard of writing improves year on year, suggesting that the main objectives and methodology are working well. The use of actors in performance makes this course somewhat of a luxury, which I believe is worth it.

Christopher Preston – Producer & Course Tutor September 2008