2022 PS to the article below. Duns Play Fest ran a very success double festival in April/May 2022. A live festival followed by an online festival a couple of weeks later. Many of the plays recorded live and shown at the online festival where they attracted hundreds of views.
My play 'For the Greater Good' was recorded at the live festival and shown online. I had another short play, 'I'm Not There' also shown at the online festival. There were 252 views of the two plays. I'm guessing that the vast majority of those who viewed 'For the Greater Good' hadn't seen the live version, so a completely new audience of people who couldn't, for a variety of reasons, make the live performances.
Online performances create an archive of work produced not only for the playwright but the drama community.
An article on writing plays outside the Scottish central belt of Glasgow and Edinburgh.
Published in Southlight 29 2021.
For the majority of my creative life I have been based in the South of Scotland, initially in the Scottish Borders now in Dumfries having moved here in 2019. This has thrown up particular challenges getting my work as a playwright known and produced.
I would like to address some of those but in the main concentrate on the
future rather than the past. I am writing this in February 2021 when we are in
the midst of the pandemic, which in my opinion has altered the theatrical
landscape beyond recognition. Whether
traditional theatre, as we knew it, will ever return, only time will tell. My view is it won`t, but a silver lining in
this is the opportunity to re-shape the theatrical landscape.
One of the main challenges of being based in the South of Scotland is
what I term the illusion of distance, a belief
that the South of Scotland is separated
not only in miles but culturally from the contemporary mainstream, which
basically means Scotland`s Central Belt.
Writers, wherever they are based, need oxygen to survive and all live
under the same sky.
I would imagine most playwrights have the feeling the writing is the
easier mountain to climb. Getting your play to a stage is akin to reaching that
first summit only to discover a whole range of summits still to conquer. To paraphrase the Godfather though, `This
is the life I have chosen. `It’s a fortunate existence where on a daily basis I
get to do that which I love.
I have worked with fine people across the Scottish Borders including
Firebrand Theatre Company, Rowan Tree Theatre Company, Cross Country Theatre
Company and Treading The Borders Theatre Company, all supporting and making playwriting
visible to a wide audience. Beyond the
South of Scotland I`ve had work performed at The Traverse Theatre, The Arches
and more. In Dumfries and Galloway I am
involved with an excellent and supportive playwriting group based at the
Theatre Royal. The group has had various
readings, involving locally based actors and director, at the theatre, work
written and discussed at the meetings. I
have had a play Sins of the Father
recently published.
So why does the feeling nag of the
illusion of distance? Is the illusion
on my part? I have been pondering this
of late and my answer to myself is, yes in part. That said only in part. More
needs to be done to dispel that nagging feeling once and for all.
Change has been coming in the last few years. Before the pandemic there
has been sterling work by the Playwright Studio Scotland across South of
Scotland. I was fortunate to be involved
with the Playwright Studio Scotland Talk Fest from the Scottish Borders with my
play What Lies Beneath by Firebrand
Theatre Company.
In Dumfries we have the innovative Bunbury Banter Theatre Company based
at the Theatre Royal, producing excellent contemporary work, both in the
theatre and site specific in the community.
They also encourage and support the up and coming generation with their
young playwright’s scheme. Recently The Stove Network based in Dumfries
produced a podcast of Lowland, a community play, involving local writers and
actors. This was initially scheduled to be performed in community spaces but
the pandemic intervened.
A lot happening in the South of Scotland but all this commitment, energy
and hard work has to be maintained in the new world we find ourselves in.
Further change has been accelerated by the pandemic, not only in the
South of Scotland but Scotland wide.
Playwrights through necessity have drawn closer through social media and
the proliferation of online performances.
There have always been artists organising readings and performances of
new work outside mainline theatre. What is different and exciting is the sheer
range of work and playwrights involved, and most importantly that the work is
reaching a far wider audience than ever before.
There has been an energy released for getting things done rather than
waiting for it to happen or for someone else to decide if it does through the
funding mechanism.
During the pandemic I had a play Devil
Gate Drive premiered online by Awkward Theatre. This attracted views from
across Scotland and abroad. I have also
had a short play premiered by a theatre company based in America and broadcast
online coast to coast in America. I have
attended many worldwide performances online over the last few months.
I`m not saying the future is online.
I love live theatre but I do think online has added another dimension,
or opportunity, for writers.
For myself and others I believe this new landscape offers an opportunity
to organise from a local base. In terms
of Scotland each area should stand on its own but be an equal part of a Scottish wide theatre environment.
This is where future funding needs to come in, for both traditional
theatre and online. It needs to
recognize that everyone scrambling and competing against each other is
detrimental, energy sapping, and fosters disillusionment, as is funding determined
by some pre-determined criteria. Let questions and not necessarily answers rise
naturally from the writing.
If funded properly, online can provide opportunities to work alongside
traditional theatre to give increased visibility to a broader base of
playwrights throughout Scotland.
A national ticketing system needs to be devised for online theatre. Many if not all the online performances I
attended were free or donation. This is
okay for the short term but not the long term.
Online performances could be part and parcel of a play`s tour. Not a
filmed performance but a special online performance allowing for greater
audience access. The world can be the
audience. In the past I have missed many
plays I wished to see because I could not make a performance.
I sincerely hope we take advantage of the chance we have to develop this
new landscape to the needs of a widest possible variety of writers. There has been an abundance of energy and
innovation during the pandemic. Let`s take that energy and build again from the
ground up and locally. Then let those
local initiatives be shared. Let`s dispel once and for all the illusion of distance.
