Welcome to Writers Talkback. If you are a new user, your account will have to be approved manually to prevent spam. Please bear with us in the meantime
My play Captured has been performed at Uni
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.
Ive been told my lecturer Alex Mcsweeny recorded the performance. When we are given a copy Ill try to post it on here so everyone can see.
Comments
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!
Shall us TBers book our seats in the West End and Broadway now for future premier performances?
[quote=St Force]My first alcoholic drink.[/quote]
Come on, now, you ain't fooling anyone.
I look forward to hearing the play.
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 Im designing the posters. Its 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.
Its 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 hes right! Another one of my characters I based of a boy at school. I knew didnt have a posh accent but the actor gave him one and for that character it suited him.
often and October is a good month for me. Hope all goes well.
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.
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...