The beginning of June marked the end of a fantastic course ‘Writing for Stage’ with the amazingly talented Jane Pugh – supported by director and performer John Brolly.
This amazing course hosted by The Writers Block at Cornwall College was aimed at new writers, as well as those who had already written plays. So I was among talented company! Although a screenwriter myself and annual reader for the Nick Darke Award, I have never tackled writing a play. So I was intrigued by the difference between writing for the two disciplines.
The course looked at the creativity and craft of writing for the stage and explored theme, story, characters, dialogue, setting and staging. Each week was a mini-workshop with a group discussion. And when our plays had been suitably developed we gave each other invaluable feedback before we shared our final pieces at The Minack Theatre.
The event on June 8th was amazing. Despite the lousy weather for a few days before, the day was stunning and offered far-reaching views of the Atlantic ocean. With a cluster of friends and relatives for support, we congregated in one of the practice rooms in the bowels of the theatre, eager to hear each other’s play excerpts.
Jane had guided us perfectly to realising our potential and developing a collection of diverse stories. All the plays were very different with amazing characters and flowing believable dialogue. And we were all very grateful for her dedicated input and enthusiasm throughout the eight weeks.
Please click on the MP4 below if you would like to watch the read-through of my play ‘Dealing with it’.
