Winning makes you feel…

Alright! I admit it! I haven’t posted in ages; but as per normal I have a series of excuses.

1. My studies have got in the way (I had no idea doing an MSc in a subject I enjoy so much takes up so much of your time).
2. Work has stepped up a gear with loads of projects needing to be completed at the same time.
3. I’ve been acting in one of my plays!

And it’s point 3 that I want to concentrate on today. The Academy Players produced Denim from the 21st to 23rd of April this year. It’s fair to say there were some nerves in this production, as many of the principle actors had never stood on a stage before, there were fears they would never learn their lines – and advanced ticket sales were beyond poor (indeed, days before we opened there were discussions regarding pulling one of the nights).

But we opened on the Monday night and were delighted to have around 20 to 30 people in the audience. We were over the moon when our ‘newbies’ pulled something remarkable out of the hat, in that they played their parts so well, the other members of the cast we doing their best to concentrate on their roles; rather than stand back in shock at how well these newcomers were doing.

For the first time in my playwright career I saw the power of ‘word of mouth’. Sure advanced ticket sales were poor, but the second night saw so many people just pitch up at the door having spoken to someone that saw the play on the Monday. Then on the final night, where we only expected 15 people in the auditorium, we ended up with 60+! Just walking the bazaar’s in between productions all of the cast were hearing people saying “you’ve got to go, it was fantastic!” and one that stopped me dead was from a student attending the Advanced Command and Staff Course (ACSC). In this course there is a large academic element. At this point in the year they are required to submit an 8,000 word MA essay and a 15,000 word Defence Research Project. To say this takes up a lot of their time would be an understatement. I watch these guys daily stressing so much and challenging their time-management to destruction point. One such student explained to me:

“What with all this going on, the last thing I needed was to go and see some
amateur play. But seeing as the boys (two of the cast were ACSC students)
were in it, we reluctantly agreed to go along and support them.

And I’m so glad we did. It was great! I was cracking up from beginning to end. There
was nothing amateur about it – this was real theatre. I would have happily
have paid to see this in a ‘real’ theatre. I’m not joking, this was one of
the highlights of the course for me.”

Moreover for me as a playwright, the final night had greater importance to me. I was our adjudicated performance for the Royal Navy Theatre Festival. We had the great fortune to have Sonia Woolley as our adjudicator who not only made the cast and crew feel at their ease during the production, but gave amazing feedback to enable each of the cast to grow as actors and enable the production crew to make the whole experience of going to the theatre more enjoyable and more exciting.

On Friday night, we had the Awards Night where 19 awards are presented for theatrical endeavours. We walked away victorious! The Academy Players won:

Best Overall Production: Festival Champion
Best Director (Paul Graham)
Best Stage Set
Best Lighting
Best Technical Achivement
Best Actor (Stuart McQuade, playing Pete)

We also collected ‘Highly Commended’ awards for:

Best Supporting Actress (Tamsen Clark, playing April)
Best Female Newcomer (Melanie Wright Cooper, playing Hazel and Charlotte Causton, playing Zoë)
Best Male Newcomer (Brian James, playing Customer 1 and Nick Brittain, playing Customer 2)
Best Actress (Melanie Wright Cooper, playing Hazel and Charlotte Causton, playing Zoë)
Best Actor (Brian James, Customer 1)

My congratulations to all involved! It was a great run that truly entertained our audiences. But don’t just take my word for it… Chris Mills, our producer, has uploaded a 10 minute extract of the play on YouTube... have a look!

But the night didn’t end there. I had entered my new manuscript ‘Error of Comedies: Occupations’ in the Best Original Stage Play category. Winning was great, but the review given by Sonia Woolley took my breath away. Making comments like “A concept worthy of Ayckbourn…”, “Great commercial potential…", "Inspired…” made the process of writing worthwhile.

There has been a slight attitude within the Royal Navy Theatre Association that I play at being a playwright. I saw a fundamental shift on Friday evening. People spent the evening coming up to me and asking about my plays as they were thinking about what they had to produce to win the festival (seeing as this production brings my tally of winning the RN Theatre Festival to 3 times) and asking for copies of Error of Comedies: Occupations.

This has reinvigorated my interest in writing for the stage. I now know more than ever that I want to be a full time playwright. I have a few years left in the service, and now my goal is to find a means of making play writing my full time career when I leave.

Winning doesn’t just make you feel good for a few minutes, it can make you think about where your life is going… And what you are going to do to change it.