Tuesday 29 October 2013

Playella - a play in 12 lines

There's an interesting opportunity coming up from Descent theatre. They are offering people the chance to write a play in 12 lines, or less, of dialogue.

Is this possible? There are some examples on the Descent Blog

My favourite so far is I'd Rather You Didn't by Emma Franieczek. It reflects a common enough experience, and it's good to see the story told.

What do you think - how much do you need to tell a story? Can a story really be this simple, without being oversimplified?

The next submissions window for shorts is 4-17 November, and their submission guidelines are available online here: http://descenttheatre.co.uk/get-involved/submission-guidelines/

Saturday 12 October 2013

Short play - At the Beginning

So, near the end of the first Rochester literature festival I feel the need to return to a beginning. I'm not too fond of endings, but that is a story for another time.So, let me share with you my first short play given by the 17% treatment. Appropriately enough it's called...

At the beginning

Did you see what I did there? :-) The process of the piece surprised me, as it started as one thing and ended up being about something else entirely. One of the characters wouldn't be contained, and it led me to ask how free are we to express what we want? How far do we tramp down on our own thoughts, hungers, to be seen as acceptable? Hunger is still a taboo subject for some, after all.

It was originally performed on 6th July 2012 as part of the Lounge on the farm festival, and again at the Horsebridge arts centre in Whitstable on 18 July 2012.

Cheers!

Shall we skip to the main course...?

Friday 4 October 2013

Phew!

What a relief.

I've seen my piece added to the other worlds, other voices exhibition being shown in Rochester. It's in keeping with the theme, and in context not nearly as flamboyant as I worried about.

Re-reading the piece, yes, the Irish is simple. But it states everything I need to say, and I don't need to say anything more. That will come later, with practice - for now, this is enough. I have little Irish, but what little I have I own. I can be patient enough to go through the baby steps, and I have faith that one day I will look back and wonder why I worried so much. Learning a language, like any skill including poetry, is an apprenticeship after all.

Which brings the question, why was I so worried? If someone judges the piece, they are only engaging with my thoughts, with my words, not me. Aren't they? Isn't that how it always works? (Well, no, not really. Not always)

How do you feel before you release a piece of art or poetry into the public realm? Are you happy? Excited? Worried? Is it only the work itself you worry about?Why such a barrier when letting a piece go public, after all? For some artists, of course, through bitter experience they find that they are the news not their art.

But sometimes, like for someone invisible like me, the thrill is in releasing something new. It's new to me. Artists are pioneers, after all. Even the baby steps - what new place did you visit this week?

Wednesday 2 October 2013

Other worlds, other voices - ach dhá dhomhain difriúil?

Disaster!

I wanted to write something about the feel of the languages, the world that Irish evokes. How the feeling... feels. And compare it to English. Because of I have learned anything (and sometimes it feels like I haven't) at all it's that the words describe two different worlds....

.... and the feelings I have cannot be described in the Irish I have. Yes, the words can be found but it's the life behind them, the idioms, the feeling that I cannot understand, never mind convey.

Despair
I am beginning to wonder at what I have written. But it's too late, I'm bringing it in tomorrow. I don't know.