Winning streak

Fresh from having another of my short plays staged in obscure places - well, not that obscure really - East London in fact; I'm off to Cornwall next weekend to pick up a cheque for my winning entry in a one act play competition run by Sterts Theatre in Upton Cross near Liskeard.
I got a note of the competition from First Writer - and as I'd got a play lying around champing at the bit to be directed - WHAT'S THE TIME, VIRGINIA WOOLF? I sent it off fleet of email and sat back to write some more and forget about it. (Oh, by the way the title might seem a bit familiar - think Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor and you're on the write lines!)
Then I sent off a play for Halloween; CLOSURE about an estate agent showing a strange gentleman around a house - more particularly the basement - to a company called Goat's Theatre and sat back to wait on that. Then almost on top of each other both plays were snapped up. It felt like what they say about London Buses!
Closure was performed the other week to small but discerning audiences (well, at least they turned up and paid for seats)

 and next week I make my way from sunny Somerset down to the edge of Bodmin Moor. (The beast! The beast!).
Michael Simkins. professional actor and writer for the Guardian of all papers,

 was the chief judge of the Competition and  wrote of "What's The Time, Virginia Woolf?":
"I was most impressed. Terrific structure and the interplay between them all (ie the characters), each offering their own compelling version of the truth, was perfectly carried off."
Thank you, Michael. Although I think we may have met before, he was an aspiring actor at the Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury, when I was their TIE director!!

But there's no sitting on laurels; and between now and then must try and dash off a few more plays - you never know when the opportunity might arise for a production somewhere.

CREDITS

Closure photos from Goat's Theatre production – 31^st October 2012

Photo by Kaska Porczyk. Actors: Kim Simone and Mark Postgate. Director: Malwina Sworczuk.

What to Do on Saturday 6 October?

I thought at one point that I would be going to see the touring production of Pickwick Papers as perfoemed by Jenny Wren Porductions as I have missed seeing it so far - It's on at the Old Town Hall, Malmesbury that evening.

Then I find that one of my Nursery Rhyme Crimes - A Case of Beans is being done in Rochester as part of this Battle of the Sexes evening - at the same time. That's the one which came as a finalist in last year's Pint Sized plays competition - and is now published in Nursery Rhyme Crimes (if you didn't know).

So what am I going to do? - Well I can go an see Pickwick Papers at the Everyman Theatre Studio later in October - so that solves that problem - and the Rochester problem - well perhaps omeone out there will go in my stead - But I wish them luck all the same.

So I'll just get on preparing the script for the radio version of No Rhyme Nor Reason in November in Spokane.

 

 

Where do I go Write?

It's crazy really. You write a play - and you read it back and you think that's a good one. It ticks all the right boxes and there's a competition it would be just right for. So you send it off.
Perhaps as in my case with another play which you consider to be on a par - or perhaps not so good. A bit too cliche - a bit too straight down the middle. Whereas the first play is right on and with it and all those cliche phrases that us oldens use.
And then you wait.
And then you get the news. One of your plays has been shortlisted.
But hey, wait a minute. It's not the one that you had the faith in - it's the other cliche ridden piece of garbage that you wrote to please the judges - but just hoped that this time round - they might branch out - be daring and up with the moment. But no! It's all gone wrong. The play that you really wanted to get to be shortlisted - but hey that's only the first stage - next in the finals and then overall winner - that play sinks into the mire of overlooked, unproduced plays - of which I suspect that we all have quite a few titles.
So what is it, you have to do? - Follow the bandwagon or step outside and be ignored?
It's a funny old writing world - isn't it? But-your tastes are not someone else's, thank God! And at least one of them got into the shortlist. I now wait to see where it ends up.
But the dismissed play - the one breathing its last on the side lines - well, perhaps if I looked at the characters and made the plot a bit stronger - then perhaps - well, there's always next year, isn't there, judges?

More Dickens than you can shake a caricature at!

Just when you thought the Dickens celebrations for the year were over and we were going to get a surfeit of Shakespeare - the Olympic take on British culture! - along comes another piece.
I originally adapted Pickwick Papers - Charles Dickens's classic comic novel - for the Library Theatre in Luton way back when, as a follow up to a very successful production of A Christmas Carol.It was great fun with lots of music and laughter and the audiences seemed to enjoy it as much as we did doing it.
One of the actors in that production then contacted me about three years ago with a view to doing a tour of the adaptation throughout England and Wales - and he was offering money, so naturally I agreed.
Then earlier this year Jenny Wicks of Jenny Wren Productions based in Cheltenham contacted me with a view to doing an outdoor production touring around Gloucestershire and Wiltshire - and she was offering to pay me - so naturally I agreed.
Greed is becoming a subject of this Blog I suddenly realise.

So good luck to another set of actors,www.doc-watson.com and I hope another set of audiences enjoy it - as much as I enjoyed adapting and directing the original version.
Excerpts from the book have also been used by me on numerous occasions for the series of readings of Dickens which I've been inflicting on people for the past ten years.
But then it is a lovely book full of the most marvelous characters getting into the most frightful scrapes. Highly recommend as a book to dip into - especially in a wet summer like this. Well, Dickens wrote it originally as a series of sketches and didn't know where it was going and how it was going to end - a bit like this blog!
So if you want an introduction to the delights of this book and a lovely way of spending an evening - why not go to Jenny's web site www.jennywrenproductions.co.uk?
See you there
Doc

It's all happening in 2012

Well, I don't know if it's all happening - but there's certainly a lot happening round me. Writing this on Sunday 5th February - two days before I perform Mr Charles Dickens at the Pump Room - am excited by the prospect of that. Lovely to get back on the boards again - who's anniversary next year??
Also my first publication has not quite hit the book stands but is out there for all to buy. Nursery Rhyme Crimes - my deliciously dark anthology of short plays some of which have been winning awards and staged internationally - has now been published by New Theatre publications and is available through their web site www.plays4theatre.com
My adaption of Pickwick Papers is being performed by the Jenny Wren Productions on tour throughout Gloucestershire - with one visit into darkest Wiltshire. The tour will begin at Court Lodge Garden in Randwick, nr. Stroud on July 14th 2012 and venues will include Berkeley Castle, Cowley Manor, the Tuckwell Amphitheatre and Highnam Court. There's also a run of the play in the Studio at the Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham in October. (see you there??) www.jennywrenproductions.com
And I'm desperately trying to find time in all of this to write a book on my research on a local murder mystery (a follow up to The Suspicions of Mr Wilscher? - some hopes!) But it's a good story and I've been caught up by its intricacy - so there! More news of that later.
Also Radio KYRS in Spokane Washington state (USA) is performing another of my short plays in June?July after doing The Pail Of Water Case in December.
Isn't that enough to be going on with??
I'll now take a lie down in a darkened room and plan some more goodies!!
Doc