24 Hour Plays
It was an absolute delight to take part in the inaugural 24 Hour Plays at the Theatre Royal Plymouth this month. I was asked to take part as one of four writers who were paired up with a director, three actors and a title (all drawn at random from actual hats), to produce four 15-minute plays in 24 hours.
As a writer, my job was to take the title on Thursday evening, have a quick chat with the rest of my company and then write a play overnight for submission first thing in the morning. It was pretty intense! I did however, hit the jackpot with my director (Lee Hart) and actors (Ed Larkin, Kate Edney and Cristina Varga). All the companies were amazing, but I was blown away by the talent I got to work with. Our title was JACKIE WEAVER, which was certainly a challenge as I had forgotten who this was. Frantic googling, lots of sugar and not having any time to panic about it, meant I was able to write a first draft by 3:30am.
The event came during a really busy few days for me, which wasn’t ideal, but certainly added to the sense of achievement. Producing a play overnight on virtually no sleep, between a blood donation appointment and an orthodontist appointment, while dealing with children and having a really bad asthma attack between first draft and the edit, was a challenge. But you know what? I loved it! (Not the asthma attack - did not love that).
I was gutted not to be able to attend the rehearsals, but there was also a sort of magic in turning up mid-afternoon and finding that the rest of the team had breathed life into my little fever-dream script. I’d spent all morning worrying about whether they even liked it. When I picked up a message on my phone from the director that was so enthusiastic and encouraging - low on sleep, oxygen and red blood cells, high on sugar (but now unable to bite solid food - thank you orthodontist) - I basically just burst into tears of relief.
I got through the evening on pure adrenaline. And it was wonderful. I don’t think I could ever get tired of seeing my work on stage, and hearing the audience laugh when I wanted them to. To be employed as a playwright was a dream, and every one of the team the Theatre Royal was such an amazing, committed, wonderful person to work with. Thank you so much to the Theatre Royal for inviting me to take part.
