According to Claudia Reading/Workshop

Pleased to announce that my play 'According to Claudia' will be having a Reading/Workshop at the Dolman Theatre Studio on Tuesday April the First (honestly, no fooling).

There are parts for 4 women and 3 men in the 30 - 70 age range. Hope lots of people can make it!

Using Scrivener to write a successful stage play

On a previous post http://paperblog-writer.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/play-writing-value-of-group-readings.htmlI wrote about how useful a group reading was for my stage play ‘According to Claudia'. Recently, I was very pleased and proud that the play has been selected by the Artistic Committee of Newport Playgoers to open their new season at the 400-seat Dolman Theatre in Newport this coming September.

This represents a great personal achievement for me – especially as other plays in the season are by such renowned writers as Noel Coward, Somerset Maugham, Ira Levin and Richard Curtis. Illustrious company to be in!

I owe my success in no small part to the marvellous writing program Scrivener – and let me say from the start that I am not connected in any way with the company that makes it. I’m just a big fan as you'll see from this previous blog of mine: http://paperblog-writer.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/play-writing-value-of-group-readings.html

Since I purchased Scrivener some time ago I have found it extremely useful for all my writing, from novels to TV sitcoms.  It’s so much more than a word processor. It has various formats for all kinds of writing, a databank where you can easily store and access all sorts of reference material from photos to character sketches – and a very useful autofill function which saves you the laborious task of filling in characters’ name every time they speak.

When writing ‘According to Claudia’ I started by using the corkboard to plot the play and create a profile of each character. From there I was able to flesh out each scene in detail and then get down to the nitty gritty of writing. If I wanted to change a scene Scrivener has a useful ‘snapshot’ function which meant I could take a snap of my original scene and then revise it, knowing the first version was not lost.

When I was satisfied with the final draft I exported the play as a PDF, making it easy to circulate to potential publishers and other interested parties. Previously, I have blogged about the beauty of Scrivener – and how ‘According to Claudia’ benefitted from a group reading which enabled me to hone it to perfection. The result is that it is now being produced on stage.

I’ll be writing regular updates about the progress of ‘Claudia’ from page to stage. If you're a writer or anyone involved in theatre I hope you'll follow them and find them entertaining and useful.

You can download free trial of Scrivener here:  http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.php

Play-writing: the Value of Group Readings

To all script-writers who are wondering what to do next or questioning the value of a group reading, my advice is to go for it.

When I completed my latest stage play ‘According To Claudia’ to the satisfaction of my wife, Caroline, who acts as my editor and harshest critic, the time came to test drive it with a group reading.

I approached seven of the best actors in Newport Playgoers and to my relief they agreed to do it. Then terror set in. Showing your work to people who have performed in some of the best plays ever written is a big gamble. What would they think of it?  Was it good enough?

A group reading of your script can be invaluable

So, I was very nervous when they turned up at our house for the reading. Luckily, Caroline had prepared a range of delicious canapés and other tasty bites to ensure the evening was a success. After assigning parts, the reading began. It was a slow start as the actors found their way but it was soon moving at a cracking pace, with lots of laughter and “Oohs” and “Aahs” from the cast.

At the end, there was much debate about the play and plenty of positive feedback. Two of the most useful comments were:

 “What happened to my character? She just sort of faded away in the second act.”

“The main character is very strong and quite nasty – but you must give her one redeeming feature.”

There were also several suggestions about the characters’ relationships and how they could be developed. All in all, very useful – and it gave me lots of food for thought. So, copious notes were made and I’m now re-writing like mad. Next thing: another reading, and if that goes well a rehearsed reading in front of an audience in the Dolman Studio Theatre.

So, my advice is: have faith in your work. Don’t rely on the opinion of friends and family – they’re going to say it’s great as they probably won’t want to upset you. Put it to the test. Get some local actors round a table and give it a trial run. You’ll learn a lot about what you’re doing right – and where you’re going wrong!

Making "ghosts" for 'Blithe Spirit'

Recently I had the pleasant job of photographing members of the cast of Newport Playgoers' production of Noel Coward's supernatural comedy 'Blithe Spirit'.

The play is about a man who, for a dinner party amusement, arranges for a medium to come and hold a seance - which conjures up the ghost of his first, mischievous wife, Elvira. Only he can see and communicate with her - much to to the consternation of his present wife.

In the play, Charles Condomine (David Constant) 

accidentally summons up the spirit of 

his dead first wife, Elvira (Eloise Rossiter) 

much to the annoyance of his second 

wife Ruth (Rosamund Jones-Griffiths)

I thought it would be good to use Photoshop to actually create a ghostly image of Elvira and these are the results, achieved by taking two photographs and overlap them using layers, then adjusting the opacity and adding a slightly green filter to give a spooky effect.

These are the results. Next project is to make a video trailer for YouTube in which a see-through Elvira talks about the play - and hopefully entices people to come along and see what promises to be a truly haunting production. Noel Coward’s sophisticated comedy ‘Blithe Spirit’ is at the Dolman Theatre from Wednesday 12^th – Saturday 15^th September at 7.15 pm, with an extra matinee performance on the Saturday at 2.30 pm. To book tickets call 01633 263670 or visit www.dolmantheatre.co.uk. More information is available online at www.newportplaygoers.wordpress.com. New members are always welcome to become involved both onstage and behind the scenes!

Creating 'The Hypochondriac' poster

In an age when you can download anything from the internet, copyright of images is always a problem. So when I designed the posters for Newport Playgoers' 88th Season (2011/12) I decided to create a series of posters that had a corporate look, each one featuring an original piece of artwork.

For some weird reason I actually designed the posters chronologically working my way through from the first to the last in the season. So the final one I did, with a sigh of relief, was for 'The Hypochondriac'. This was great fun to do - and not just because it was the last of nine posters. The play is a hilarious re-working by legendary Liverpool poet Roger McGough of Moliere's classic comedy. I knew it needed a caricature face - an anxious man suffering from 'le malade imaginaire' (that's your actual French).

I spent a long time drawing various pen and ink versions of the face until coming up with one that I was happy with, complete with worried expression and nightcap. After scanning it into my PC, I set about adding colour using a marvellous (free) program called Artweaver. Much like Photoshop, it enables you to work in layers and employ various brushes to get different styles.

Once the hypochondriac himself was finished I set about drawing various medicine and pill bottles - the shape of which I researched on the internet. Again these were scanned in and coloured. Finally I put all the artwork together using Adobe InDesign, jigging the ingredients around until I had the poster below.

For more information about 'The Hypochondriac' visit http://newportplaygoers.wordpress.com
If you want to try out Artweaver you can download it here: http://www.artweaver.de/

Countdown begins to No Holds Bard!

So we’re a mere 13 days away from the opening of the No Holds Bard festival, which features my one act play ‘Poor Yorick’ – and panic has begun to set in as we’ve yet to run the play all the way through..

Yorick (Will Smith-Haddon) makes himself at
home in Hamlet's (Chris Powell) room
at Elsinore

 Focusing on Hamlet’s story as seen through the eyes of his court jester who has gone on tour pioneering stand-up comedy, the play is at least getting plenty of laughs from the cast during rehearsals.

It’s quite a cast too! Will Smith-Haddon is great as Yorick, the clown who’s ahead of his time with his observational humour – “What is it with the Black Death? That's a bit depressing isn't it?” 

Yorick (Will Smith-Haddon) and Bess
(Clare Drewett) may not have much but at least
they have each other

Clare Drewett plays his bawdy wench girlfriend Bess who specialises in knocking back ale and making rat stew. Chris Powell excels as a whinging Hamlet who is fed up of his moaning mother, Gertrude – played to perfection by Sue Morgan in a glittering gown, tiara and Marigold gloves. Bruce Campbell makes a brief appearance as a surprisingly chirpy ghost of Hamlet’s father, offering words of advice such as "Don't drink the wine".

Yorick and Hamlet discuss vacancies for court jester
while Queen Gertrude (Sue Morgan) attempts to
clean the room

The festival is Newport Playgoers’ contribution to the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Open Stages project which aims to reunite the worlds of amateur and professional theatre. With four plays offering a mixture of slapstick, bloody sword fights and romantic mix-ups it promises to be an evening of lively entertainment that gives a thoroughly modern take on Shakespeare and turns his plots into plays for today. For more information check out http://newportplaygoers.wordpress.com/

We're all really excited that our local newspaper, the South Wales Argus, is sponsoring the festival.  Please come along and support us from 15 – 17 March at the Dolman Theatre, Newport. Tickets, which are just £5 and £7, can be booked by phoning the box office on 01633 263670 or visiting www.dolmantheatre.co.uk.

Creating Posters for Newport Playgoers - 'St Trinian's'

As well as designing the posters for all eight forthcoming productions by Newport Playgoers, I also agreed to do the one for Dolman Youth Theatre's 'St Trinian's' which is at the Dolman Theatre from 8 - 10 December.

My first attempt at re-creating
a Ronald Searle St Trinian's
schoolgirl

This was a joy to do as I've always loved the drawings of Ronald Searle who created the fiendish schoolgirls as cartoons for magazines and books before they were turned into a series of highly successful films.

One of my personal heroes, John Lennon said, "The two people who have probably had the greatest influence on my life are Lewis Carroll and Ronald Searle" and you can see that influence at work in Lennon's very loose, surreal drawings.

A hockey-wielding schoolgirl

Searle probably isn't as celebrated in the UK as he once was, but his influence has been immense - you only have to see his work to appreciate this. Another of my favourite artists, Quentin Blake, is clearly influenced by Searle.

Wouldn't want to meet her on a
dark night...

Among his other work, Searle created the images for films such as 'Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines' and 'The Lavender Hill Mob' as well as scores of illustrations for advertising campaigns, books and magazines. Some great examples of his work can be seen on this excellent blog dedicated to Searle:  http://ronaldsearle.blogspot.com/

A blonde bombshell - originally
drawn by Seale smoking a cigarette
which I omitted from my version

For the poster I decided to do my own versions of some of Searle's wildcat schoolgirls. However, his very free style is not easy to imitate - it takes years of practice to draw in a style that looks effortless - and it took me many attempts before I was happy with the results.

When I had five that I thought were good enough, I coloured them in - using a similar watercolour wash employed by Searle - then composed the poster using InDesign. 

Creating Posters for Newport Playgoers - 'Humble Boy'

First attempt at drawing the title character

I had never heard of the play 'Humble Boy' by Charlotte Jones when I began the task of creating a poster for it.

Once again the internet came to my rescue, providing examples of other posters and various synopses. Apparently it's a re-working of 'Hamlet' - and bees and bee-keeping play a big part.



Second attempt at drawing Felix



I decided that I needed to draw the title character, Felix Humble. He's a lecturer at Cambridge University so I added glasses to make him look academic.

The action of the play takes place in a garden so that's where I wanted to put him, surrounded by bees - possibly with a bee landing on his nose.



Coloured version



The cartoon bee





I wasn't happy with my first attempt at drawing him, so started again. I knew I wanted to create the face and the bee separately and then put them together when I composed the final poster.



For the second drawing of the face I added more detail and once happy with it, used Photoshop to add basic colours. I then drew a large cartoon-style bee and coloured that. After that, I drew some flowers and a swarm of bees; then put the whole lot together to make the poster below.

Creating Posters for Newport Playgoers - 'Fawlty Towers'

When I rather reluctantly agreed to design the posters for Newport Playgoers' 88th Season, I decided that, in order to avoid any problems with copyright, I would create the images for the posters myself.

Original line drawing of Basil

First production of the new season will be 'Fawlty Towers' featuring a range of instantly recognisable characters such as manic hotel owner Basil, his wife Sybil, hapless Spanish waiter Manuel and Polly the maid. There was plenty of reference material available for their faces - from photos to drawings.



Coloured and cleaned-up version of Basil

 The one I spent most time on was Basil, as played on TV by John Cleese. I decided to concentrate on the characters' head and shoulders, using simple clean lines.

 After doing a version I thought captured the character I put it into Photoshop where I added the colours, layer by layer.

As well as the characters, I realised it was also important to draw the shape of the iconic sign from outside the hotel for the title of the play to go in.



Cartoon in colour of Manuel
the Spanish waiter

 With all the artwork finished, it was then a case of importing them all into Adobe InDesign and playing with a range of different compositions  to create the final poster, which would serve as a template for all the other posters.

Next: Creating the poster for 'Humble Boy' by Charlotte Jones. Click here to read it.

The drama of crazy golf

My play 'Bunkered' finally had a full cast for a rehearsal - and it was marvellous to see them all bringing my characters to life. More people also equals more laughs.

Particularly good to see Alex Wilson become belligerent businessman Bulstrode and playing crazy golf with his very bored "personal assistant" Poppy played by Sam Jones.

Here's a photo of them in action.

To see them in the flesh come along to the Hole in One Act Play Festival at the Dolman Theatre in Newport, 12 - 16 October. For tickets and more info phone 01633 263670.

From page to stage

It's amazing watching a play you've written make the transition from page to stage, and seeing the characters that once only existed in your imagination brought to life by talented actors. Last week's rehearsal of my play, 'Bunkered' which is part of the Hole in One Act Play Festival at the Dolman Theatre, was amazing. I sat snapping away as my wife, Caroline, directed the action, and then put the best photos into this short video. Hope you enjoy it.

Wishes do come true (when it comes to crazy golf)

So there I was, desperate for a crazy golf course to take photos of the cast of my one act play 'Bunkered' which is part of the Hole in One Act Play Festival.

Where shall it be? I wondered. Barry Island perhaps - there's a very good pirate one there - or possibly Tredegar Park.

Whilst I was pondering this, as part of the Big Splash event held over the August Bank Holiday weekend a crazy golf course was built on the doorstep of the Dolman Theatre.

A quick chat with the owner, Dave Lovatt, revealed that he's a theatre director from Bristol with a passion for crazy golf courses. Could we take photos of our cast on his course? No problem, he replied. So we did, for which, much thanks, Dave. His crazy golf course, by the way, is brilliantly fiendish and includes a pool table!

Dave is pictured, centre, at the photoshoot with Playgoers Bruno Cook and Lauren Brown. More details about the photos can be found here: http://newportplaygoers.wordpress.com/

Information about Dave's show 'Carny Village' can be found here: http://invisiblecircus.co.uk/invisible_circus/TheInvisibleCircus/Home.html

The play’s the thing

I was really pleased to hear that one of the plays I entered for Newport Playgoers’ One Act Play-Writing Competition had been selected for the forthcoming festival.

The theme of the plays was ‘golf’ of which I know precious little, except for the occasional highly competitive game of crazy golf I play with my wife Caroline. So I wrote about that – a down-at-heel crazy golf course that’s on the verge of bankruptcy because it’s at the wrong end of the recently revamped seafront.

The plays were judged by Frank Vickery, regarded by many to be Wales’s top playwright, and out of the 40+ plays entered, he chose three from a shortlist of 11. My play ‘Bunkered’ will now be part of the Hole in One Act Play Festival at the Dolman Theatre in Newport from 12 – 16 October 2010.

Caroline will direct it and we’re currently putting together a cast and desperately trying to find items for the set – namely, a small shed and a large ornamental windmill obstacle! As things progress, I hope to make a video diary of the play’s progress from page to stage, and will be posting it here.  For more information about the Festival, visit my blogsite: http://newportplaygoers.wordpress.com/