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Writers

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Writers who want to be part of National Theatre Wales, share ideas, get feedback from each other, and hear about opportunities

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Comment by Kevin Johnson on June 29, 2011 at 1:48

Meredydd is right, this thread is jumping! A lot of food for thought here, especially the 'emerging writers' point, and the 'New versus Old', which I agree with in that age is irrelevant to a script. I think the point being made there was that we need to bring on the writers of tomorrow, start a conveyor belt of talent, rather than 'dissing' the talent we already have, or at least that's my take on it. 

 

I've just returned after a weekend watching the RSC/NTScot in Stratford, two excellent & professional groups who develop new plays as well as old, and that is where I'd like the NTW to be, the flagship of theatre writing in Wales, a display case if you will, of the talent here. That doesn't mean just Welsh talent, the NTS accepts scripts from writers 'resident' in Scotland, I have no problems with doing the same thing here, or even expanding on it, as long as Welsh writers have a voice. I believe that the competition will actually encourage local talent. 

 

One of the ideas I had at Act Swansea was to funnel writers (and actors) through to the NTW. The contests original prize was that the winner would be produced on stage in Swansea, my hope was that the prize would become getting their play seen by the 'Pro's in Cardiff', what could be better than that for an 'emerging' writer? And by the way, the age range of our writers was between 16-70.

 

As for putting works-in-progress on, I like the idea of the theatre, in Hampstead I think it is, where they have a sort of Script Slam but which also features established writers, the same way an established stand-up will try his new material out in small clubs. Who wouldn't mind paying to see that?

Comment by Kit Lambert on June 29, 2011 at 0:36

Further to the "emerging writer" comments, this is a label that gets thrown around a lot and isn't very helpful.  Nobody seems quite sure exactly when any of us have emerged (if we ever do).  Based on conversations I have had with other writers (all with numerous professional commissions under our belts), too many of us seem to be lost somewhere in the limbo between "Just Starting Out" and "Trusted Old Pens-For-Hire".  Companies are reluctant to take a genuine risk on less-experienced writers, and so fall back to a default position of putting on script-in-hand productions of "aspiring" writers and full productions of work by names that have been around the block a few times.  In between lies a desert.

 

Too many companies seem to focus a lot of their new writing energy on attracting brand-new writers, putting on unpaid scratch performances of under-developed work.  The problem is that "New Writing" in this context becomes synonymous with poor quality and that puts off audiences, who might pay £3 for a script-in-hand but will then raise an eye-brow when asked to pay more to see something new on a main stage.  We desperately need more full productions for new writing from a range of writers, both established and less well known.  If a play is good enough, put it on. 

If you are worried about a commission failing because of an inexperienced writer, maybe there is room for the tv model of having a more experienced writer on standby to help with the development and redrafting process?  I know we tell ourselves that the playwright's words are sacred, but it doesn't stop literary managers (who, in most cases, don't actually write for a living) from wanting high levels of creative input.  I'm sure most writers would be happy to learn from a more experienced voice, especially if it means the chance to have a commission from a larger company and the opportunity to have their work taken seriously.  Just a thought.

Comment by meredydd barker on June 29, 2011 at 0:22

@rebeccagould. I'm a member, and though their hearts are in the right place and all that jazz there's been more activity on this thread in the past twenty four hours than there's been there in three months. They think good things and do good things but if we here can keep this up-

@carysshannon - I have really enjoyed reading this thread, as others have said earlier it is refreshing to see a good, honest debate happening on here, out in the open with no pseudonyms etc, constructive feedback/opinions for companies and the debate itself gathering a pace and participants as it goes.

-then we won't need to go down that road. I like what they do even if it is more than a touch reactionary, but I'm not sure about the 'everyone keep out except playwrights' shtick. I can't help but feel there's a sense of defeat about that, a sense of us and them within the industry when it should be us, the theatre professionals creating theatre for them the audience with a sense that we are all participants at the same time. Keeping all lines of communication open is the key. But I do reserve the right to go to a dark room of my own and so beg the question; what's he building in there? That is exactly as it should be!

Comment by Rebecca Gould on June 29, 2011 at 0:01
Maybe Wales needs its antelopes? Although the terrain is a little more tricky to negociate
Comment by Ian Staples on June 28, 2011 at 22:29
I've never known a writer yet who wouldn't like to see their plays performed for a wider audience.
Comment by Rebecca Gould on June 28, 2011 at 21:43

Our writing kept companies alive, kept young people engaged in theatre, pushed boundaries,

When I was at the National and Plymouth I commissioned Larry, Gary and Charlie, twice each, mainly to write plays for young people. In Wales and around the UK there has been an incredible canon of work made for young people to watch and perform over the last 20 years. [Perhaps this needs to be on a separate strand but...] In England and Scotland plays for young people have been published widely, they appear on curriculums (Eng and drama) and sell fairly well world-wide (very good figures from faber for the NT connections plays, for example). Could we do more of this in Wales? Some plays have been published already, but books need a market. I am not sure which plays appear on the WJEC curriculums but last time I looked it was only one of Frank’s, ‘Night Under Canvas’. There are more on the Welsh language curriculum. So, National institution unto national institution, is this something that NTW could lead on, making sure that Welsh writers appear across the WJEC curriculums, if they don’t already?

 

Greg I agree it is partly (probably mainly) Welsh writer’s talent that has kept the Welsh TiE and community companies alive, when in my last post I said 'proper' audiences I certainly didn't mean young people, who are the most proper of proper audiences in my book. However, I did mean audiences around Wales who’d come for a night out, rather those involved in the business talking to themselves.

 

But the fatal weakness in Wales was that we had nowhere to go once we'd reached a certain level of expertise

 

Again I agree, hence the need for a dedicated space. Again perhaps a side issue but why don’t more Welsh writers write for English theatres? I remember a Welsh writer at a MIW event, saying to Jack Bradley, then Lit mgr at the national, ‘Welsh writers don’t want their work on in London’, we’d invited Jack down to talk – I was embarrassed, Jack looked a bit confused. Is this still true, was it ever true? I am a little out of touch here. I know that some writers are doing well over the border and that, for example, Charlie’s plays are translated all over the world.  I keep banging on about Scotland but their playwrights –David Greig, Gregory Burke, Douglas Maxwell and Rona Monroe- and this is just the recent ones, are put on by everyone, all over, it doesn’t make them less Scottish. If there were more new plays on in theatres in Wales, would/could this translate to more Welsh playwrights being performed across the UK? Is this even something Welsh playwrights would like to see?

Most of my comments so far on the site so far have been directed towards funders, which is personally where I think the revolution needs to happen. but I’m also fascinated by what comes first, how do we achieve writers having somewhere ‘to go’ once they’ve reached a certain level?  What are the right conditions for new writing? Do we mainly need to be bold, or is it just more money or is it both at the same time?

Comment by National Theatre Wales on June 28, 2011 at 11:57

Sneaky attempt to have the last word before everyone goes to bed, number 1:

I do think that a key role for NTW is to be at least part of the answer to the issue Greg raises. It's really important that we commission mature writers. That's one reason that we don't focus our resources first and foremost on script-reading/writer development.  The Sherman has a committed literary department, and we try and work productively together to spot and support writers, but I think that NTW often needs the experience and flexibility of an experienced writer to steer its commissions; and also needs to be part of an environment where mature writers can continue to thrive.  I also hope that we can work with other organisations like the BBC to support a strong environment for writers in Wales. 

Okay, I'm going to bed now. Don't answer this. Well, not till after the cornflakes...

Comment by Tim Price on June 28, 2011 at 11:55

You're absolutely right Greg. I'm happy to substitute emerging writers for 'writers' in any thoughts I post here. I get tired of the endless under-25s writing groups...

 

All hail the ever-finessing wonders of forum chat triumph.

 

Perhaps we should write a manifesto next.

Comment by meredydd barker on June 28, 2011 at 11:34

Yes, Greg

...but the fatal weakness in Wales was that we had nowhere to go once we'd reached a certain level of expertise.

Yes indeed. If we could identify the solution to that, we'd be in new territory in more ways than one.

Comment by Greg Cullen on June 28, 2011 at 11:22

Emerging writers...yup. As an older writer, who since the eighties (Thatcher and another pernicious, reactionary, philistine government) helped keep any form of new theatre writing alive in Wales can I just express my (you might say jaded, but do so if you wish and at your peril) opinion that theatre writing, like sex existed before your generation, Tim. Larry Allen, Charles Way, Ed Thomas, Dic Edwards, Lucy Gough, Alan Osborne, Gareth Miles, Frank Vickery and Sion Eirian to name but a few, fought against the odds to keep the art form alive.  The acid cries about emerging writers as if they are the literary equivalent of the starving masses is on the one hand a just rallying call, but on the flip side in danger of sounding like rather petulant, generation bound, myopia.

 

"Emerging writers" become the pet projects of directors and producers who enhance their careers through the discovery of "new talent". Like so many aspects of disposable culture writers are chewed up, spat out and discarded as soon as they don't deliver "sensation", or become too drawn into their thirties to be considered "Young writers", or "emerging talent" any more.  As writers we should not allow ourselves to become the vanity projects of these directors and producers. "Young" and "emerging" writers would do well, like all young people with regards to their place in the flow of all history and pre-existing humanity, to become aware of their tradition in Wales. Not least because they might become disregarded and forgotten, but because theirs is a rich legacy of beautiful writing that few know about because we were fighting a guerilla war. A war we by and large won. Our writing kept companies alive, kept young people engaged in theatre, pushed boundaries, involved entire communities and also fed the careers of Welsh TV, Radio and film producers. Did any of us make a career out of writing? Well maybe, just about, but the fatal weakness in Wales was that we had nowhere to go once we'd reached a certain level of expertise.

 

The Sherman and NTW must put massive resources into the "best writing", not just "emerging" writing, because before too long the emerging writers will find themselves with nowhere to go. We don't all see the next logical step as writing for TV, or Film. Some of us have and will want to write for theatre because we love it, it suits us, we believe it to be the most fundamental medium. Cassettes, mini-discs, video, super8, Cds, whatever...Theatre will be here forever because it's real people in front of real people.

 

Yes we must secure a better road into writing than my generation in Wales had to endure, but we must also trail blaze a new path for our "emerged" writers so that the same shit doesn't happen to our wonderful, gifted, young.

 

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