The writers on the course were a diverse group: some were local to the theatre, whilst others lived much further a-field and had signed up through the SummerUniLondon website; there was a wide age range, from 17-25, and range in ability and experience. The group was also culturally diverse. The one thing they all had in common was the desire to tell their stories.
The first week the young writers worked with professional playwright George Gotts. George has huge experience of working with young people at theatres such as the National Theatre and The Royal Court, and she had devised a writing programme specifically for Write On! The first few sessions were slightly nerve-wracking for all concerned: it's never easy to hear your work being read out in front of a group of strangers. However George and the writers were always being supported by one of the Theatre503 team of directors, and slowly but surely stories began to emerge.
Some of the writers, like Jacob Dunn, had a very good understanding of theatre language and craft. Jacob is off to drama school this autumn, and his writing style has clearly been influenced by the significant amount of plays he has read, especially the work of Harold Pinter. Jacob experimented with form as well as subject, and also showed a good ear for comedy.
By the end of the first week each writer had created a short play, approximately fifteen minutes long. The stories varied widely, from fantasy pieces about princes and fairy godmothers to gritty urban tales of the homeless and disaffected. The writers were given the weekend to re-draft their plays - one of the skills that George had taught them- and on Monday the pieces were read aloud by our professional actors.
The original plan at this point was to concentrate on rehearsing the pieces for the show on Friday. However, after hearing their pieces read and encouraged by our creative team, our young writers were keen to make changes and in some cases to completely re-write their pieces. For instance one of our older writers, Rona Crawford, had written a modern version of the Cinderella story called Verity's Party.
Read on...