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My play Captured has been performed at Uni

edited March 2013 in - Writing Tales
Yesterday my play (Captured) was performed at UNI by three professional actors as part of my Writing performance module. There were fifteen plays performed in just under 45 minutes. Each actor was given a part in about five different plays, sometimes just sitting on chairs by the side making sound effects like police sirens and the such. Some plays only had sections performed because they were too long and had to many scene changes while others were able to have their entire play performed. We brought our guests (In my case, Mum) for drinks at the student bar beforehand. Afterwards we went down to a pub by Waterloo Station called the Fire Station for drinks. (My first alcoholic drink. I was told it only have 4% alcohol in it but I have no idea what it was, my friend brought it for me.)

Two of the actors Enzio (aged 50 from the Midlands) and Rodger (Aged 27 but he only looked about 18) said my play was their favourite one they were given to perform. They said it was because it was different to the others. Most of the other plays were about sex, drugs or relationships. Mine was about the war in Iraq.

I’ve been told my lecturer Alex Mcsweeny recorded the performance. When we are given a copy I’ll try to post it on here so everyone can see.

Comments

  • Congratulations on your play's debut, StF. That's fabulous news. :D
  • Congratulations on the performance.

    I assume your first alcoholic drink was a beer. Ordinary strength bitter is 3.4 - 3.5%, so 4% is a bit strong for your first drink!
  • Congratulations, SF, and that's a fabulous compliment that they liked yours best! Looking forward to seeing it.
  • Fantastic, StF, Very well done!
  • Cheers Sf, 2 firsts in a day :)
  • You clever boy. Congratulations for being so original. Well done.
  • That's wonderful, StF, very well done, and that's great feedback to get from the actors involved. :)
  • Brilliant. Well done. Look forward to seeing it. Think I've been that pub. Near The Old Vic?
  • Well done on both counts. I bet you feel fantastic to hear and see you own words spoken by someone else? Hope that you will capitalise on your success and go on to great things.
    Shall us TBers book our seats in the West End and Broadway now for future premier performances?
  • That's fantastic, SF - well done on writing the most original play in the group - hope we'll be able to see it!
  • Well done!
  • Congratulations - sounds like an amazing experience!
  • To see your work performed by proper actors must have been fantastic, Stf, well done.

    [quote=St Force]My first alcoholic drink.[/quote]

    Come on, now, you ain't fooling anyone.
  • Well done, StF - that's brilliant news! Glad the actors liked it best, too - shows you've got something the others haven't (as if we didn't know that already).
  • Congratulations, StF, look forward to seeing it.
  • Well done. That's brilliant. Onwards and upwards!
  • Congratulations, StF, and extra kudos for being different! That's the mark of someone truly creative! :)
  • What a tremendous buzz for you - well done.
  • Well done, StF. How weird did it feel hearing other people read your words?

    I look forward to hearing the play.
  • Well done!
  • Well done, SF. You must have felt proud that your creation was credited by professionals by their performing it, and also from their informal review, which is what their complimentary comments amounted to. So now you can take it from here.
  • HUrray for STF
  • Well done St. F - what a thrill that must have been for you (and your Mum I guess).
  • Hooray for StF! What a wonderful start for your uni career.
  • Yep, that's the pub near the Old Vic, Neil. I walk past it when I go to Uni. My Uni is literally just up the road by St George's circus.

    “Shall us TBers book our seats in the West End and Broadway now for future premier performances?” Actually Victoria my play, along with the others, may be performed at the Chelsea theatre in October. If anyone is in London around that time, please let me know. I have twenty tickets for £10 each to sell plus I think I’m designing the posters. It’s not set in stone yet but my friend who is organising this used to work for them and has organised book launches and plays before.

    It’s very weird having someone else read out my characters. I imagined one of my characters as loud and obnoxious but the actor thought he would be timid considering everything he went through. When I re read my play I thought, of course he’s right! Another one of my characters I based of a boy at school. I knew didn’t have a posh accent but the actor gave him one and for that character it suited him.
  • Wonderful news St Force. Hope to hear more info closer to the date you posted above. I travel to London quite
    often and October is a good month for me. Hope all goes well.
  • [quote=St Force]It’s very weird having someone else read out my characters.[/quote] Yes it must be.

    It's weird when illustrations show my characters. I rarely describe them but quite often the illustration looks as I'd imagined them, which is spooky.
  • [quote=St Force]It’s very weird having someone else read out my characters. I imagined one of my characters as loud and obnoxious but the actor thought he would be timid considering everything he went through. When I re read my play I thought, of course he’s right! Another one of my characters I based of a boy at school. I knew didn’t have a posh accent but the actor gave him one and for that character it suited him.[/quote]

    It happens.
    When I was involved in amateur dramatics, unbeknown to us the playwright attended one of our plays.
    At first glance my character was quite a hard, acerbic person, but the more I delved the more I realised WHY she appeared spiteful to others. The result was that in a specific scene I was able to add a smidgen of empathy for the audience to see WHY she seemed so unpleasant towards another character.
    The playwright - and her son - commented to me afterwards that she had never really thought about 'Christine' as anything but a rather nasty piece of work and was astonished to discover that the character had a lot more to her - and that she thought my portrayal was absolutely spot on!

    So - my point is - your actors saw things that you, the playwright, didn't, SF - and this is almost always a very, very good thing - hidden depths and all that...
  • It's also worth pointing out if you follow professional Theatre at all and read lots of reviews, different reviewers discover different things and make different interpretations despite having all seen the same play - as a matter of fact you'd think some of them had seen a different play altogether :).
  • That is really great news, ST.F. You - and mum - must have been excited at seeing what you wrote performed.
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