Write For The Stage Courses
DAVID CHRISCOLE | MONDAY, 21 AUGUST 2017
Classroom Calling
Back in August last year, I mentioned that I had enrolled for the October 2016 induction of Write For The Stage Intro course, run by Mike Heath at Studio Salford. My original intention was to take my science fiction play concept (What The Future Holds) and use the course to develop it further. Despite all the good intentions however, this plan never actually came to fruition.
The course comprised of six other students and started on October 6th. just 10 days after my first ever piece of writing was staged script-in-hand by Manchester ADP. Rather than bulding on pre-existing ideas, our lessons are structured to teach you how to develop an idea from nothing more than a set of unlinked thoughts.
It's All In The Mind
Mind exercises are used to play with random ideas about themes and people, which eventually coalesce into a premise for a stage-play. It's a rather ingenious technique of mining the imagination, as our tutor Mike Heath puts it. One of the very first mind exercises quickly removed any doubt that I was in the right place to learn, as it immediately threw up something rather interesting. It's a very simple exercise that anyone can do, as below.
Take a notepad and pen and try not to think of anything. Begin writing and repeating the words "I Am Writing" on the pad. If a random word or sentence comes into your thoughts, write it down without thinking about it or anything you have written previously. If nothing enters your mind, go back to writing and repeating the words "I Am Writing" once again. Continue this pattern for five minutes and see what you end up with.
This exercise saw me gather together a random set of sentences, made up of just 65 words.
I came back to these words a few weeks later and created the beginning of a very exciting, disturbing and dark monologue for a female character. This is now under a working title of “No Hiding Place” and has grown into a five page piece lasting around 11 minutes. There's much more to come for this piece, which deals with themes such as human trafficking and forced prostitution. I expect to start blogging about this in more detail.Cars whiz by, the darkness falls on the streets.
Light beams blind me as I wait to cross.
Fumes of diesel and petrol fill my nose, make me sneeze.
A gap in the traffic, I run to the other side.
Horns blaring, tyres screeching, blackness fills my eyes.
Blue flashes, sirens wailing, trolley thumping.
Doctors prodding, touching my face, shining a light in my eyes.
Building Blocks
As we moved through the course I built up the idea of a story that involves itself with the theme of escapism, using Sci-Fi and action movies as a vehicle for the theme. As testament to the power of the teaching technique, flaws in the idea were soon evident. The story changed quite considerably over a few weeks, and is now about differing perceptions of mental health issues (PTSD in this case), and the way it affects relationships in positive and negative ways. This play comes under a working title of “Get Me Out Of Here”, and is planned as a full production for Greater Manchester Fringe 2018.
The Intro course concerns itself only with the first 10 pages of script, in which we commit to many re-writing exercises. We then prepare the piece for the Studio Salford Development Week at The Kings Arms, Salford, and a showcase event for all our work. This event was held on 21st February, 2017 and was a rehearsed reading to a live audience, who then wrote down anonymous feedback. The feedback for my piece was very interesting indeed, and has been used to enhance the piece even further.
Advancement Of Knowledge
Moving ahead to March 2017 now, and I enrol for the next stage of learning with the Write For The Stage Advanced course, again with Mike Heath at the helm for Studio Salford. This course builds on the concepts learned through the Intro course, ending up with a one hour play. I did preempt this course by actually writing the full play during the Christmas break, and in hindsight this was a good idea. It actually allowed me to get to know my characters even better, which helped greatly during the Advanced course.
In Closing
So, this is where I'm up to with writing at the moment. The course has ended, and I'm now awaiting the next Studio Salford Development Week at the start of October. My full play will again be performed as a rehearsed reading for a live audience, and for anonymous feedback to be written. Prior to this event, I am also being afforded an opportunity for a "script in hand" excerpt to be performed. More on that to be announced soon. I can't wait to hear what people think about the work done so far.