WRITE THEATRE - Guest blog by Brian Woolland

In Border Crossings' 30th anniversary year, playwright Brian Woolland looks back over his long association with the company, and forward to this autumn's WRITE THEATRE course, in association with Border Crossings Laboratory.

FOOL FOR LOVE (1995). Maria Gough & Miles Harvey

My first contact with Border Crossings was 30 years ago, when I saw Michael Walling’s production of Sam Shepard’s Fool For Love. As with many of Shepard’s plays, it’s extraordinarily evocative, the characterisation is complex, the language very rich. Michael’s direction brought out all these qualities, but he didn’t impose himself on the play. The audience was given space to respond to the compellingly enigmatic qualities of the play. 

Soon after that, Michael Walling and I established an excellent working relationship that continues to thrive because we share a vision of theatre as a social and collaborative art form that honours all the participants in the process – including the audience.

This blog is specifically about the forthcoming playwriting course, WRITE THEATRE, that  I’ll be jointly leading later this autumn, but it is also about the diverse nature of the collaborative process in theatre; and how running WRITE THEATRE has been as helpful to me in my own writing as I hope it has been for those who have taken part.

Collaboration and Border Crossings

None of the plays I’ve written for Border Crossings have been devised, but they have all involved various kinds of collaboration. Sometimes that takes the form of a simple dialogue about an early draft of the script; sometimes (usually at a later stage in the process) working alongside Michael and actors, trying out ideas, responding to suggestions. This can be a kind of ‘trying out,’ an opportunity to see how other people respond to material, a way of looking at what I’ve written through other people’s eyes. It’s crucial in such a process to avoid ‘defending’ the writing. There’s a temptation to tell the actors ‘This is what I intended.’ It’s much more useful to see and hear what others make of those early drafts. That word ‘make’ is central here because it gets at something that’s often forgotten when material is presented to an audience at any stage in its development: that the audience is active in making meaning, whether in a theatre auditorium, actors or students in workshop studio or a colleague in discussion over a coffee.

WHEN NOBODY RETURNS (2016). Tariq Jordan & Bayan Schbib

In the case of When Nobody Returns (which draws on The Odyssey and is focused as much on Telemachus, Odysseus’s son, as on his father) I led a series of workshops with young people from military families before attempting to write anything of the play itself. My blog for Border Crossings, Playing with Greek Fire, discusses how important these workshops were in the development of that play. 

In advance of the workshops, I formulated a set of what I call key focusing questions; questions that would not only inform and drive the workshops, but would also go on to drive the explorations I undertook in writing the play itself. These can be summarised as follows:

• What do we mean by ‘home’?
• How can people return from war without bringing the war with them?
• When is it right to forget? When is it right to resist the temptation to forget?
• How does somebody on the edge of adulthood negotiate a sense of their own identity in relation to an absent parent?

The young people were remarkably open and their responses very revealing, giving me a strong sense of the emotional landscape of the play. 

The idea of Key Focusing Questions is something I’ve found very useful. Keeping that uppermost in my mind, rather than what I want to say, is a way of trying to ensure that I’m using the writing as a process of collaborative exploration and discovery. It also keeps me more open and alert to the contributions of others. I’m not denying my authorship, but, rather, giving it full rein. 

WRITE THEATRE and collaboration

WRITE THEATRE: actors read the scripts

Playwrights have to spend a great deal of time alone on the hard graft of developing a playscript. But writing for theatre is essentially different from writing novels, short stories or poetry in that collaborations are at the heart of theatre; and that is reflected in the way that WRITE THEATRE courses are organised – with collaborative workshops, open discussions, practical exercises and one-on-one tutorials. 

The courses run over two weekends a fortnight apart. The first weekend comprises a series of workshops. Writer-participants work as a group, individually and in pairs, undertaking active writing exercises exploring elements such as dialogue, characterisation, plotting and thinking visually. These are not lectures but active workshops. Rib Davis (my colleague and co-leader) and I always take part in each other’s sessions. In the spirit of collaboration which we aim to foster throughout, we work with you, the course participants. The small numbers ensure that your contributions are always valued. The workshops are designed to enable you to find your own voice. It’s your ideas we work with.

In the two week gap between the first and second weekend of the course, every participant writes a short scene.

In the second weekend: course directors and professional actors explore these scenes, encouraging and enabling further development. That is what makes the course unique. The actors we work with are all highly experienced professionals who are enthusiastic about helping new writers, and know how to develop new writing by workshopping early drafts.

It’s not surprising, given the spirit of collaboration that we encourage throughout, that Rib and I have often find the course unblocks our own writing.

Applying for a place on the course

There is a strict upper limit of 8 participants on any WRITE THEATRE playwriting course. We do not ask for qualifications as a pre-requisite for acceptance on the course, nor do we ask participants to have had previous experience of writing plays, but it is essential to have a strong interest in theatre.

WRITE THEATRE courses take place at The Cockpit, Gateforth Street, near Marylebone.

If you’d like to enrol on our next course on the weekends October 25th – 26th and November 8th – 9th, go to the Enrolment page of the WRITE THEATRE website.

If you wish to enrol for the whole course (i.e. BOTH weekends), the fee is £500. We are offering a 10% discount to anyone signed up in response to this blog or the Border Crossings newsletter. Quote BC25.

To encourage young writers we offer a 50% discount to a limited number of writers under the age of 30. 

Writing for Theatre - Guest Blog by Brian Woolland

The Black Madonna from Brian Woolland's
DOUBLE TONGUE. Painted by Nisha Walling.

Anyone who writes – in whatever medium – knows all too well that feeling of being stuck. Writers’ Block, Blank Page Syndrome, call it what you will. Sometimes it’s not knowing where to start. Sometimes you’ve got a great idea, but then, after the initial enthusiasm, you’re not sure how to develop it. Sometimes the cop in the head whispering, that because the words on the page (or computer screen) don’t read brilliantly, the idea isn’t worth pursuing. Often it’s a case of not knowing what’s at the heart of what you’re writing. It came as something of a relief to find, when I talked about this with other writers, that even the most successful writers experience the same struggles. 

DOUBLE TONGUE was the first play of mine that Border Crossings commissioned. The discussions we had while I was working on the first draft were immensely helpful because director Michael Walling instinctively knew to ask questions about the play as it developed, rather than to make suggestions. He then organised and gently directed a rehearsed reading of an early and rather clunky draft. I knew it didn’t quite work, but couldn’t put my finger on why. The discussion with Michael and the actors during the preparations and rehearsal for the reading, and with the small, invited audience afterwards, raised further questions which I could address in the rewrites, but crucially they also enabled me to understand something in the play I’d not seen before. Writing is usually a solitary business. The great joy of workshopping a script is that it gives other perspectives in a supportive environment, it enables you to identify the key questions that need addressing, and to bounce ideas around. It’s precisely what I find so invigorating about writing for theatre. When it moves from the page to the studio it’s a collaborative creative process. 

And that is what my colleague, Rib Davis, and I wanted to create when we established Write Theatre: an environment which gives writers support and encouragement, and enables them to experience and actively participate in the development of material, to learn from others and to see their own work brought to life by excellent and very experienced professional actors. We set up Write Theatre in 2013. Our first course ran in November of that year. Our aim was to provide a stimulating, supportive and nurturing environment for people who were interested in writing for theatre. Until the pandemic and lockdowns we ran at least two courses a year. Almost everyone who’s attended has talked about how the Write Theatre experience has left them feeling invigorated and able to find their own way through and past their own writing blocks – as evidenced in the numerous unsolicited testimonials people have sent in.  

What we do on the course

The first weekend of a Write Theatre course takes the form of a series of workshops in which Rib and I lead alternate sessions. People work individually and in pairs, undertaking a wide range of writing exercises to explore elements such as: 

• Generating material and ideas
• Writing effective dialogue
• Finding a voice
• Characterisation and character development
• Narrative, structure and plot
• Visualisation, imagery and setting
• Stagecraft
• Editing and rewriting

There’s then a two week gap in which each participant writes a short scene. In the second weekend Rib and I work with three experienced professional actors to explore these scenes, encouraging and enabling further development. The course ends with short script-in-hand presentations of the re-worked scripts and discussions about how each of them might be developed further.

Many courses about writing for theatre borrow an approach which might work for Hollywood films, but is often inappropriate and unhelpfully constraining for theatre writing. One of the great joys of theatre is that good plays can take many forms. From the start of the first weekend we state clearly that we DON’T offer a rigid, prescriptive formula for how to write plays. We aim to enable participants to USE what we offer to find a process (or processes) that works for them, and will stand them in good stead when working alone.

If you’d like to enrol on our next course at The Cockpit Theatre on the weekends 12th - 13th and 26th - 27th October, please contact us at theatrewriting@gmail.com. Please send us two short paragraphs about yourself.  In the first, please give a brief account of your writing experience to date. In the second, please state what specifically you hope to gain from the course. This information will help us fine tune our planning. We will then respond within two days telling you whether you have been accepted onto the course.

We are offering a 15% discount to anyone signed up in response to this blog or the Border Crossings newsletter. Quote BC24.

Write Theatre

This Flesh is Mine: Andrew French and David Broughton Davies

Border Crossings Laboratory has been partnering with WRITE THEATRE to run a series of intensive courses for emerging theatre writers.  The course leaders are Brian Woolland (who wrote our recent hit This Flesh is Mine, as well as the earlier production Double Tongue, and has worked as a dramaturg on devised projects), together with Rib Davis.  Rib has written plays for BBC radio, television and stage. No Further Cause for Concern, later made into a television play, won a Fringe First Award at the Edinburgh Festival.

Like all writers, playwrights have to spend time alone on the hard graft of developing a playscript. But writing for theatre is essentially different from writing novels, short stories or poetry in that collaborations are at the heart of theatre; and that is reflected in the way that WRITE THEATRE courses are organised – with collaborative workshops, open discussions and practical exercises as well as one-on-one tutorials.  What makes the course unique is that on the second of each pair of weekends we are joined by experienced professional actors; and the writers get the chance to work with these actors in groups and individually.  All day Saturday and Sunday morning are spent exploring and workshopping extracts from scripts written by those attending the course – with script-in-hand performances of these extracts on the Sunday afternoon. 

The most recent course was held over two weekends in June.  The three actors joining us for the second weekend were Hannah Watkins, Andrew French and David Broughton-Davies.  Andrew and David were both in This Flesh is Mine – as Achilles and Agamemnon. Here’s what some of the participants had to say:

“WRITE THEATRE might not be cheap – but it’s excellent value for money.  I loved your teaching style. You created a learning environment that offered a safe place to share, explore and take chances. You gave us guidance and support, insight and generosity of knowledge and spirit, encouraging us in a constructive, helpful way.  You provided a solid, professional framework for the course and a series of exercises that proved perfect for expedient learning by doing. I feel like I’ve achieved 6 months’ worth of information and experience in just 4 days.  The opportunity to have our work read, workshopped and performed by such quality actors was an absolute thrill. It was one of the most exciting things I’ve done ever and they were so wonderful to work and experiment with. Thank you for an incredibly enriching, absorbing, challenging, intense and wonderful experience.” 

 Lara Cetinich Cory

“Absolutely thrilling to see my work performed for the first time by professional actors.  Hard work; great fun; transformational; how magic happens.  This is the writing community I’ve been searching for.”           

 Lindsey Armstrong

“I found the whole course immensely rewarding. Having  professional actors work on one of my scenes moved me to tears. Brian Woolland and Rib Davis are great teachers and highly regarded playwrights.  Great value for money and a really great course!”                                                                       

Richard Barrett

Rib and Brian … are simply so generous with their experiences, yet so playful about the art of writing…. Two of the most inspiring weekends of work and play I could possibly have wished for…. To see real actors play a scene of my writing was a mind blasting experience...  Hugely inspiring. The climate was very warm and very intelligent.

Camilla Josephson

“That was truly inspirational. Wow!  What a difference you guys made.  I arrived trapped in a plot driven hole that I had dug myself and left released not really knowing where the characters in this new play are going, but thanks to you they are alive and going somewhere.”                                               

David Howgego

The next WRITE THEATRE course will be held at The Cockpit, London over the two weekends of October 25^th – 26^th and November 8th – 9^th.  There is a strict upper limit of 10 participants.  We do not ask for qualifications as a pre-requisite for acceptance on the course, nor do we ask participants to have had previous experience of writing plays, but it is essential to have a strong interest in theatre.

http://writetheatre.com/

http://thecockpit.org.uk/class/write_theatre