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.