Playgrounding A New Writing Scheme by the Polka Theatre

Playgrounding
A New Writing Scheme by the Polka Theatre
By Frauke Franz, dramaturg

New writing is one of the core areas at the heart of the Polka Theatre’s artistic policy. Playgrounding is their year-long scheme to develop new plays by new writers or writers new to children’s theatre. I was appointed as the dramaturg and project co-ordinator at the beginning of the scheme in 2003.

It is my first job in children’s theatre since coming from the background of a dramaturgy education in Germany and having worked mainly with devising theatre companies in England. What attracted me to the job was the very open and refreshing approach to developing new writing by the then new Artistic Director, Annie Wood and the Associate Director of New Writing, Richard Shannon.

Our common vision was to open the theatre to new ways of working, a place to experiment. We wanted to give the writers a chance to experience the theatrical process during the writing process, to embrace physicality and visual images.

The project was initially structured in six stages:

1. Masterclass 1,
2. Masterclass 2,
3. Submission of treatments,
4. Development workshop,
5. One-to-one script development,
6. Staged readings.

The scheme started with two different workshops open to all writers interested in exploring children’s theatre. To make these masterclasses as accessible as possible we collaborated with Soho Theatre who offered to host them at their studio space.

The first session was focused on getting the writers directly involved in the theatre process. John Wright (Told by an Idiot) got the writers on their feet and did some physical exercises with them. He then took stories he had developed with the writers and immediately physicalised them with actors on stage, showing how the physicality of the actors can influence the meaning of the writer’s story. The meaning of a scene, for example, could radically change when approached from a different mood or by simple putting on a mask that contradicted the initial mood of the scene.

The second half of this masterclass focused on childhood and was run by the Polka team. The writers were asked to draw and write a map of their childhood. Teamed up in groups of two or three they had to explain their map to each other. Then they had to look at the map again and find out what would have changed if their childhood were today. What things would be different – what would they play with now etc.

The second masterclass was a series of practice workshops in directing, music, design, and puppetry with acclaimed practitioners of the field. Each of the practitioners gave a brief insight into their skills and how they come into the theatrical process. The aim was to show the writers how much of the story can be told through music, design or movement. Polka then invited the writers to submit a synopsis and five pages of dialogue.

We had over thirty entries. Ten short-listed writers were offered the opportunity for one to one feedback on their work. But ultimately we chose five writers – they ranged from first time writers to experienced dramatists.

As with every new writing project that is open to everyone, the quality of the submissions was very varied. We got a lot of script ideas which were either too twee or too conventional. On the other hand some people entered ideas that were utterly unsuitable for children – and with some of them I would even doubt their suitability for an adult audience. Some writers tried to work into the curriculum but their stories lacked heart and real engagement. But from the ideas that we got interested in we had the whole variety from contemporary to historical topics, from fairytales to crime stories. We were pleased that quite a few writers genuinely tried something new, particularly stylistically.

Our group of five were invited to a week-long intensive workshop at Polka again incorporating music, design, puppetry plus a number of actors and our team. On the first day the practitioners and the Polka team gave feedback to each individual script idea. In the following days the writers each had half a day with actors to stage some of their ideas. Each of the writers could draw on the experience of the people involved. Noel Greig acted as mentor to the writers and took them all for one-to-one tutorials on their work. At the end of the week all the writers were able to take away early design sketches and music ideas for the pieces.

Over the next six months, the writers attended one-to-one dramaturgy sessions with Richard Shannon and myself. We had discussion with them about theatricality, how the characters interact and what the dynamics between the characters are. We looked at how much dialogue is necessary to tell the story and how much can be told by other media like design, physicality, light and music.

After finishing a first draft we invited the writers to attend a workshop in a local school to develop their scripts and to investigate how the play resonates with their target audience. The ideas in the play were explored through improvisation. One writer for example discovered that calling her play Frog Girl and having a girl turning into a frog might be a bit too obvious and revealing. Another got over his doubt that his play might tackle issues that are too difficult for children. Whereas a third writer just simply wanted to observe how children talk to each other. Our writers also attended free performances at our sister theatres: Unicorn Theatre, Half Moon, and Theatre Centre.

In November, the writers took part in the Soho Theatre New Writing Festival and professional actors read a scene from each play for a public audience. Seeing their plays coming alive through actors proved a valuable spur to complete the final drafts.

The culmination of the scheme was a two-day event in January 2004 in which each play was given a workshop performance. We aimed to match our writers with established directors – most of them unfamiliar with children’s theatre but whose style we thought would benefit this area of work. It was exciting for us to build not only new links for the writers and directors but also to develop new relationships with exciting directors from the adult theatre sector.

The festival was a success not only because it attracted a large audience of adults, children and young people, but also because all the writers were able to show a strong draft of their work. And not least for us because we built some valuable relationships with directors new to Polka Theatre.

But the biggest achievement of the scheme was that all the writers managed to finish a full draft that we were able to bring to a staged reading.

The five writers and their plays were: Philippe Cherbonnier Nesto (directed by Richard Shannon), Roger Lang The Shoe (dir: John Wright), Carla Lomax Cameron’s Street (dir: Arlette Kim George), Parminder K Madhar Song of the Frogs (dir: Jonathan Lloyd) and Emily Nightingale The Fast Train to Gangotri (dir: Paulette Randall).

We had two writers who were more experienced: Emily Nightingale and Philippe Cherbonnier. For them being able to work with very established theatre practitioners throughout the project, was the most beneficial element of the scheme. Especially Philippe Cherbonnier was inspired by the puppetry workshop from Sue Buckmaster and integrated some of her ideas.

For Roger Lang who has possibly written the stylistically most interesting play, it was the time he gave himself to concentrate just working on a play and being able to fully absorb in that. I also think that for him the one-to-one dramaturgy worked particularly well, he used me as a sounding board and I was able to get that bit more out of him into the play.

Both Parminder and Carla were new to theatre writing. For both of them the whole project was very exciting and they were possibly the two who learned the most in quite a confined space of time. At times this might have been quite overwhelming, especially being engaged with different theatre practitioners and taking in feedback. Our one-to-one sessions were more frequent and intense with these two writers. But they also benefited from learning from the other three writers.

At the end of the festival we decided to commission two of the plays: Nesto and The Shoe for a full production.

Nesto is set in modern day Mexico and tells the story of a young boy whose father dies. Nesto is grief stricken and retreats into a world, cut off from reality. Only his grandmother can reach him and she encourages him to go on a spiritual journey into the world of the Aztecs. He is searching for a chalchuit – the sacred stone that liberates the dead from this world. He goes to save his father from this fate and has to defeat the demon of the Night – Teclanoche. After a titanic battle, Nesto returns for the festival of the Day of the Dead, when his father comes to take the sacred stone.

The Shoe is a non-naturalistic play which brings together three street kids from around the world – Brazil, Africa and London. They enter an empty space through doors which lead back into their worlds. They are brought together by a shoe which they are desperate to sell. They build friendships and begin to reveal the secrets and pain that have shaped their lives. And there is a fourth child – an invisible one…

But we didn’t stop there. We did a rigorous evaluation process of our first project before launching the second year of Playgrounding.

Even though the first Playgrounding was successful we felt there are small improvements we can do to make the scheme even stronger. The basic structure has not changed but we re-structured the first phase of the scheme and added a new element in the last phase of the scheme. We decided to have only one big masterclass at the beginning, which we held on the Soho Theatre’s main stage and which was led by Charles Way – one of the leading children’s theatre writers of the country. The interested writers got an insight into the mind of an established writer of the field, had the chance to do some writing exercises with the Polka team and were able to interrogate the writers from last year’s scheme on the experiences.

From there we immediately went into the submission and selection process – and were overwhelmed by the huge amount of submission, which more than doubled the number of the previous year.

Instead of giving feedback to a shortlist of ten writers individually, we invited the writers to a panel discussion led by Charles Way. Each of them were able to get feedback form the panel members on their ideas. After that session we chose the final five writers.

The element we added in the last phase of the scheme was a two-day dramaturgical workshop as the last step between first draft and ‘final’ draft for the staged readings. This was led by myself and five actors experienced in improvising and devising. For each play we chose key ideas and scenes to explore them in a physical way. We started of by reading the scene, which led into the actors improvising the scene on stage. This workshop gave a great insight into the dynamics between the characters and how the physical language will shape the play. The actors also offered the writers ideas and insights into their characters.

The writers are off now to finish their plays and the festival in June promises to be another exciting showcase of five very talented writers. So watch this space…

Playgrounding Festival 2005
17th and 18th June 2005 at Polka Theatre

Friday, 17 June:
2pm: Chris Sykes: Skool 4 Cats
5pm: Hong Khaou: It’s A Long Road

Saturday, 18 June:
11am: Lizzie Allen: Under One Roof
1.30pm: Discussion of the plays
3pm: Alex Bulmer: Minutes Pass
5pm: Rina Vergano’s: The Tower

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