Another evening of wordplay and "stuff"

Week two of the gathering of writers and performers starts with a running order being mulled over and then working through the "new writing" pieces in reverse order. This means another outing for my THE BITTER END, Peter's lively new reflective piece (including a snazzy micro workshop) and lovely performance pieces from David (a Martin Crimp extract) and Ian before we revisit my own ALASKAN ALLY.

I was very pleased with how THE BITTER END read. The 5 characters (as read by Peter, Barry, David, Marcus and Ian) seemed distinct and the sinister aspect of Melvin's personality has crept in nicely. Not bad for two readings and I'm genuinely pleased that they seem to actually have some confidence in the strength of the piece now, so I don't have to feel quite such an idiot.

Peter's new piece was rather pleasing (I get a kind of Merseyside Raymond Chandler vibe with a hint of blues saxophone and a roomful of smoke) and is hopefully going to properly workshopped at some point. Ian's performance of the piece he first shared last week is turning into something special, and once again, I'd love to do a proper line-by-line workshop of it someday soon.

Caroline and Marcus are impressing me (as well as everyone else present I hope) with how they've "got" ALASKAN ALLY, because I really thought no one would quite get what I meant, but once again they're playing it pitch perfect to the point where even I might be convinced that it actually works.

Alice held off from rereading her book extract this week, but I get the impression that she and Martin are working quite closely on that, so I'm looking forward to hearing how that's evolved.

Marcus and Martin were both very encouraging about my scrawlings afterwards and seemed to approve of them. It's still quite difficult to know where to go with complete dramas that last less than ten minutes. THE BITTER END was written to help me discover the characters so I can use them for something else at some point, but ALLY seems so complete and self contained that the back story might almost be redundant. It's just a bit short to use for anything else, really.

Ah well. Sadly, I was shooting my mouth off about performance - in a positive way I hope (as if I know anything about it) - in the bar afterwards. The usual self-loathing I always get when I say pretty much anything to anyone else really. Why can't I just shut up and listen? I might just learn something. I'll just have to blame the adrenaline rush I got from my usual "having my stuff read" angst mixed with the caffeine I always forget is in Diet Coke... Still, Ian did mention "pub theatre" which is a concept I will have to explore further. I was all for getting half a dozen actors in a front room and just doing readthroughs whilst I did in the kitchen squirming as I listened, but that seems more ambitious. Strange. I can't do "ambitious". Not sure I could corral half a dozen actors either, truth be told. Maybe my strengths lie in areas other than "motivation"...

Still, after that digression into the darker corners of my mind, I should return to the point. I still maintain that it would be interesting to carry on workshopping all these pieces and then perform them again at some future date to see how they evolve. I guess that'll just come down to how they go down on Saturday and whether we can get beyond the "Been there... Done that... Move on!" thinking...

Actually left the house and met up with the all-new writing group

I attended the enjoyable first “proper” gathering of the embryonic “Writing for performance” group last night, which promises much, despite the fact that “new” or rather “unproven” new writing is always such a hard sell. Luckily there’s a plan to use some published “proper” works to hide the shortcomings of our own chaff in and amongst. At least things are looking good for the first time out of the starting blocks for this kind of event in a new studio space.

Ian’s monologue on voices in the head has the potential to be a very powerful performance piece and Alice’s extract from her autobiographical novel is a charming little tale much enhanced by being performed by the writer. Very talented people that made me quake in my shoes at the prospect of pulling my own efforts out of the bag. Ten minute self-contained dramas… what was I thinking? “Only an idiot would bring a drama to a monologue reading” as Jim Malone never quite put it…

My own humble offerings at least read rather well I thought, especially for a cold first viewing. Caroline (? – I’m still awful at remembering names) was pitch perfect as “Ally” and the lads made a decent fist of the other piece and at least people seemed to get what they were supposed to be about. They seemed to understand the various different characters too, who all appeared to have distinct “voices” at least, and even if these pieces are never going to slot easily into the pantheon of great works, I was happy with how they were sounding.

So that’s one of me, then.

I must suppose again that new stuff is always going to struggle to get much enthusiasm for itself until the performers feel comfortable and secure with it, and that only comes with the work actually being experienced by an audience of sorts, so there’s a bit of a “Catch 22” thing going on. Still, I suppose the only way to find out is to pop your head above the parapet and wait for the inevitable flurry of arrows, and someone has to do that. I only wish that somewhere in the dim and distant past I’d managed to browbeat someone into some kind of mentoring role, then I might have some confidence that my tappity-tappings were not the complete “bilgeage” I always suspect them of being.

I also met up with an old (school) friend and renewed some acquaintances too, and didn’t immediately have the usual meltdown I always fear in these circumstances, so all-in-all a pretty productive evening.