Jo Caird: Writing a Play in a Day

Following
an initial get-together on Saturday evening, during which the writers
get a feel for the actors and directors who will be bringing their
work to the stage, the whole night is spent writing. Early on
Sunday morning the scripts are handed in, are read by the directors and
pitched to the producers, and casting decisions are made. During the
day, the plays are rehearsed while producers source props and
costumes and preparations are made for the performance that
evening.

It is
an extraordinary process to be part of for all of the participants,
but for the young writers involved, the experience is a particularly
intense one: rather than sitting at home alone, crafting a piece of
work over many months, the writers must be immediately responsive to
the other participants and produce a stageable play in just one
night. Rather than sending a script to agents, theatre literary
departments and playwriting competitions, then waiting months for
feedback, they see their work being performed on one of London’s most
illustrious stages just 12 hours after putting the finishing touches to
it.

Morgan
Lloyd Malcolm took part in the first 24 Hour Plays
for emerging artists back in 2005 and has since gone on to be
commissioned and produced by Hampstead Theatre (the play in question,
Belongings, has
just earned her a
nomination for the Evening Standard’s Most Promising Playwright
Award) and the Lyric Hammersmith (last year’s Dick
Whittington and this
year’s Aladdin),
and win a Fringe First (You Once Said Yes,
co-written with Katie Lyons).
She looks back on the experience as a fundamental one in her
development as a writer, explaining that not only did the project
introduce her to a number of very talented theatre-makers with whom
she has gone on to collaborate, it also boosted her confidence and
set her on the road to finding her own voice after years writing as part of a
team.

24
Hour Plays is unique in its scale and particulars, but
there are other projects around that offer comparable benefits to
writers even if they don’t have the cachet of working at the Old Vic.

Next
Best Page is an intriguing example. The project launched in
January, inviting writers to submit the first page of a script. The
page selected was made available to download and, week by week,
writers have been invited to submit further pages to continue the drama.
Meanwhile, readings have taken place at regular intervals to make
sure the play has been progressing in a stageable direction.
Forty-six pages of what will be a 52-page script have been completed
(if you’re interested in contributing, the deadline for page 47 is
Saturday night at midnight), and over 1000 people have submitted
pages to the project so far. The play, Power Lines,
will be produced at Theatre503 at some point in the new year and the
possibility of a UK tour has been mooted.

Next
Best Page is an undeniably contrived way of writing a play,
and the success of the piece as a complete work is far from
guaranteed (collaborative writing projects are difficult to pull off
even in the most favourable of circumstances – look what happened
with the National Theatre‘s Greenland earlier this
year), but the project is an unusual and exciting way of getting
people writing for theatre. The producers report having received lots
of really positive feedback from participants, many of whom say that
taking part has inspired them to pursue other writing opportunities.
As with The 24 Hour Plays, there in an immediacy
to the process that incentivises it – these writers aren’t exactly seeing
their work performed immediately, but they can watch the piece
develop every week and if they are unsuccessful with a submission can try again and again until they get a page selected. They also get the sense of being part of
something, itself a major confidence-booster that facilitates the
writing process.

There’s
no magic formula for forging a successful career as a playwright: it
takes talent, inspiration, confidence, perseverance, pragmatism and
not a little luck. Projects such as The 24 Hour Plays
and Next Best Page offer no guarantees, but by
turning the writing process into a time-trial challenge, a
collaborative game, a creative adventure, they have the potential to
guide their participants to different ways of writing and thinking
about their work. It worked for Morgan Lloyd Malcolm, Mike Bartlett and plenty of other 24 Hour Plays alumni and will surely work for some of this year’s crop too.

On your marks, get set, write!