Simon warned earlier this week that all the shows he’d worked on had got cool receptions from audiences at least once during their runs. I was starting to feel a bit complacent that it wasn’t going to happen with Salt’n’Sauce, but it happened tonight. Things were looking good at the start of the evening. The […]
Wednesday, 1 November 2006 Not such a great house tonight (17), although the audience responded more expectedly to the play. Bristol Evening Post‘s reviewer, Harry Mottram, was in and congratulated me after the show — he seemed to like it, although, as the play points out, this doesn’t necessarily mean a thing. Thursday, 2 November […]
There was a good preview for the show in today’s edition of Metro, a free daily newspaper given away on the local buses that many passengers pick up as they board. It’s well-researched and written and sums up what the show’s about nicely, and it’s illustrated with a shot taken at yesterday’s tech and dress […]
Following Saturday’s rehearsals I feel that the cast has nowhere to go except to perform the play to an audience. Sam ran the show three times at the weekend and picked the actors up on a few points, but I didn’t have anything to add. The only thing left to practise is cueing and timing […]
While I was pleased with the above, I was worried that a lot of the lines didn't come across as I'd hoped and wondered if the audience would be able to follow the action. I'm always keen to trust the audience and know that it's important not to spell everything out, but doubts about whether […]
Interestingly, the read-through showed that the transitions often marked dramatic beats within the scenes and came out of what was going on in the subtext. In the penultimate scene, for example, Emily, who John fancies, tracks down John and Paul enjoying an early afternoon pint. She's wearing a T-shirt advertising Crispin, John's archrival's show, and […]
We're holding the first two days' rehearsal in the Coopers' Loft at Bristol Old Vic, and everyone had arrived by the time I puffed and wheezed my way to the summit of the building at 10am. Alison and Ann from Theatre West joined Sam, the cast and me for the initial read-through. Sam kicked things off […]
Steve's play, which tells the life story of the Russian novelist, dramatist and short-story writer Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol (1809-52), is directed by Andy Burden and performed very energetically and imaginatively by Martin Aukland and Julia Gwynne. The script is an absurdist comedy featuring inventive use of props and puppetry, which merges cleverly into near-realism when […]
It was the first time I'd heard any of the script aloud and I was pleased that the dialogue came off the page well — there were even a few laughs from the performers. Sam began by asking the actors to do some readings to judge their instinctive interpretations before giving them ‘brushstrokes’ of direction […]
When we set up the meeting on Sunday, Sam said he had some ideas for the play, and I was a bit apprehensive about whether we'd have similar thoughts about its staging. I've got no directorial ambitions and feel that playwrights who direct their own work jettison an invaluable fresh perspective. In the same way […]
Establishing that the construction of an academic discipline is a process of institutionalisation, this essay draws parallels between creative writing and the academic study of English literature. Through a historical description of progressive literary theorising, the work aims to demonstrate that theory is ultimately a redundant, circular process. The conclusion posits that creative writing and literary theory exist in opposition, asserting that creative writing tutors should resist the institutionalisation processes which befell ‘literature’.
This work approaches writing manuals through a consideration of the ways in which they might instruct and influence the inexperienced writer. Using a number of ‘how to’ books as illustrations, the essay divides the writing process into the technical and the creative, looking particularly at how these divisions interact. The work concludes with a consideration of the relationship between books on creative writing and proactive experience in the form.
