The most inspirational women are closer to home than you might think…

As part of the www.100deeds.co.uk project, which celebrates the memory of suffragette  Emily Wilding Davison and asks ‘what is gender equality today?’, I decided to post an edited version of a talk I gave on International Women’s Day.

Edith Garrud (reproduced from Wikipedia)

I was asked to give an inspirational speech for International Womens’ Day in March – and was wracking my brains for ages and came up with a list of inspirational women to tell the audience about. But then I thought I’d just start with my own story – because I don’t think that it is unique or unusual, and I don’t think that women achieving things should be regarded as unique or unusual. It’s more that sometimes you have to look a bit harder to find women’s stories – so my talk ended up being about discovering women’s stories, and making women’s voices heard.

My name is Sam Hall. I set up 17Percent in 2009.

I am a writer, primarily a playwright, but formerly a journalist and editor of a trendy local magazine. I had always liked plays and when I was at school, I won a competition to write one, but I fell in with the student journalism crowd at university, stopped writing plays and carried on with journalism after for several years.

But about ten years ago, I started to get a hankering to write plays again, and after doing a short course at The Royal Court I did an MA in Plays and Scripts. It was while I was doing these and various other writing courses that it began to seep in that there was an overwhelming majority of women in the room. Maybe this inequality can simply be explained by learning styles. Perhaps women prefer to learn by going on a course, whereas a man might just jump straight in and do his creative endeavour – the ‘reading the instructions first vs. just putting it together’ argument.

Anyway, this started me thinking, that with all these women learning how to write plays, I should be being able to see lots of plays by women. But looking around in London where I lived at the time, I noticed that it tipped the other way. I could usually see about 5 modern plays written by men to every play by a woman. (And I’m not counting Shakepeare, as that makes the figures even lower.)

So I discovered that the percentage of plays on in UK theatres written by women since about 2000 has remained at about 17%. I decided to start an organisation to support and promote female playwrights called 17Percent. And with a limited amount of resources, I think so far, I have achieved quite a bit. I have a YouTube channel and blog where I interview male and female theatre practitioners, to offer advice and act as inspiration to other female playwrights. I’ve spoken on panels and given talks about female playwrights, including Aphra Behn – the first British woman to make her living from writing. For the past year and a bit I have also run a showcase night for female playwrights where over 30 playwrights have been showcased. I am currently investigating ways to develop this showcase.

So, really, with not a huge amount of time or resources, I think I’ve added just a little bit to the whole equal opportunities in theatre debate. And that is my first inspirational nugget – that one individual – can make a difference, can make their voice heard. So in whatever field you work in, whatever your passions are, whatever your situation is, don’t ever think that you can’t make a difference.

One of the major issues about women in all walks of life – is that they are sometimes not very good about publicising their achievements, so their achievements get forgotten – we were taught from an early age that a nice girl doesn’t shout, doesn’t act bossy, doesn’t play up. Also that, we do live in a society where history is mainly written by men, so their stories tend to come to the fore. Just like when most drama is written by men, the male stories tend to dominate in history.

So – and this is my second inspirational nugget – one of the major things we should do to start to address this inequitable vision of history, and also in society, in life, is to seek out women’s stories – and for the writers among us, to tell women’s stories and make women’s voices heard. It’s the only way that young people are going to be able to change the status quo, and let’s face it – it is the next generation who are going to change things, aided by us. They might learn about it at school – but don’t count on it, the story of Mary Seacole was nearly ditched from the curriculum as she didn’t quite fit in with current government thinking on the type of person kids should be studying, alongside Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Florence Nightingale, as examples of people who had a significant impact on Victorian Britain.

In fact, it is the children we HAVE to share these inspirational female role models and stories with if we don’t want to slip back into that Victorian era.

I just wrote a play inspired by The 1001 nights. There is an invocation at the beginning which says “The annals of former generations are lessons to the living: a person may look back upon the fortunes of his predecessors and be admonished; and contemplate the history of past ages and be purged of folly…” So go to the library, or the internet, or your local history society, and look for the stories of women, past and present, contemplate the histories of past, and CURRENT, ages.

I saw an item on The One Show about Laura Ashley. Her son was talking about his memories of her first shop and how she started what is now a multi-national business, and one of the most famous UK brands, out of her flat in Pimlico.

According to David, her son, Laura was first inspired to make the screen-printed patterned scarves that became the company’s signature, by watching Roman Holiday. She admired a scarf worn by Audrey Hepburn in the film, but being unable to buy one like it anywhere she made a version of her own.

Her husband Bernard built the screen-printing machine and printed materials and Laura made the material into scarves, tea-towels, napkins, and table mats.

They moved to Kent in 1955, and 6 years later moved to Wales, where they had a shop, then expanded so set up their factory, and the company really took off internationally, employing a large workforce. Laura died in 1985, but her legacy – the company which took her name, lives on.

One of the reasons often suggested as to why women only make up less than one fifth of the top jobs – is that a lot (not all, but generalising wildly,) a lot of women are not prepared to shout about their achievements; and are also shy to put themselves forwards. It’s that conditioning from childhood again. We are told not to walk home alone, not to talk to strangers (good advice but hardly empowering) – not to be seen as a ‘bossy boots’ or a ‘ball breaker’.

Thinking about Laura Ashley got me thinking about women in business, and that I actually know loads of female entrepreneurs / business women / freelances / call-us-what-you-will.  I can think of writers, a magazine editor, photographers, artists, jewellery-makers, crafters, designers, a theatrical agent, a therapist, a yoga-teacher, a graphic designer, freelance marketing specialists, a film-maker, playwrights, theatre company managers, web designers. I could go on…

Often through redundancy over the past few years, or through personal choice, women have decided to ‘Do it for themselves.’ I applaud you all for it. Talk about it though. Boast about it. Exchange business cards. Don’t be shy. Employ other women entrepreneurs, or do a skills swap if you’re a start-up with no budget. British people, in general, are bad about shouting about their achievements. We are taught it’s not lady-like. But it is 2013, what is lady-like anyway, and who cares?

Third inspirational nugget – employ female entrepreneurs if you can. If you are a female entrepreneur – get talking to people. Shout about your achievements. Don’t be afraid to fail and start again.

Of course, other factors such as women often being the principal carer in a family, lack of affordable childcare, and taking time out from careers to have children is undoubtedly a factor. But so is not having a decent childcare, or a returning parent policy enshrined in our working policies. The Houses of Parliament would be a very different place if mothers took their babies to work with them, like the Italian MEP Licia Ronzulli has done at the European Parliament in Strasbourg. What happened to all those work crèches they used to talk about?

According to a recent report, British women are increasingly being excluded from politics and public life. The report says:

“In 2010, 35 years after the Sex Discrimination Act was passed, Britain lay in 60th place out of 190 countries in terms of female representation in the democratic system, a startling drop from 33rd in 2001. Of western countries only Italy and Ireland have a lower percentage of female legislators than the UK.

(…) The proportion of female MPs in Westminster has increased by only 3.9% since 2000, while the percentage of women in the cabinet has decreased by 4.3%.” (from Sex and Power: Who Runs Britain? By Counting women in http://www.countingwomenin.org/)

Two-thirds of public appointments go to men, 90% of chief constables and police and crime commissioners are male, and two-thirds of local councillors are male.

“It is simply scandalous that in 2013 men still outnumber women four to one in parliament,” said Ceri Goddard, chief executive of campaigning charity the Fawcett Society. “The number of women in the cabinet is at a 10-year low. Failure to increase the number of women around the top table of politics sends a message to the next generation that excluding women from positions of power is acceptable.”

It’s not all bad news though – I don’t want to end on a negative. There have been some really big steps forwards in just the past couple of years.

Last years’ Olympics and Paralympics introduced us to a range of fantastic, different female role models and medal winners – and for the first time in Olympics history every country included women – though sometimes they were on the ‘backstage’ team. And we’re seeing more women experts getting their own TV shows – in history, science, art and natural history. Representation and visibility of women in some places is really improving. I was even interviewed this year on the BBC’s Inside Out about Aphra Behn, on a programme where the four commentators and interviewer were all female.

So, in the spirit of the Olympics I want to introduce a fascinating and inspirational woman called Edith Garrud – aka the Ninja Suffragette, one of the western world’s first female martial arts instructors – if not the first - in the early 1900s.

Edith was the trainer and part of the Suffragette ‘Bodyguard’, which was set up to prevent the frequent arrest of top suffragette protesters.

She trained them in jujutsu at secret locations in London, and also taught them how to use wooden clubs, which were concealed in their dresses and used to defend against the truncheons of the police. The Bodyguard would protect the top suffragette speakers at demonstrations and help them to get away, often fighting with police.

“We have not yet made ourselves a match for the police, and we have got to do it. The police know jiu-jitsu. I advise you to learn jiu-jitsu. Women should practice it as well as men.

“Don’t come to meetings without sticks in future, men and women alike. It is worth while really striking. It is no use pretending. We have got to fight.” Sylvia Pankhurst.

Edith died in 1971 and had a plaque placed to commemorate her, on her old house in Islington in 2011.

I went to Dublin at New Year, and one of the things that really struck me was the number of blue plaques and statues in that city. But the more I looked, the more I looked at blue plaques and statues of men who had made some contribution to, or had some link to Dublin. The only statue of a woman we were able to find was a fetishized version of Molly Malone, whose skimpy blouse was barely covering her ridiculously ample bosom, looking for all the world like she’d stepped straight off Page 3.

Weren’t we all disgusted that there are massive companies like Starbucks not paying tax in the UK? I don’t go into Starbucks anymore and thousands of other individuals don’t either. It will start to hurt them. If only in bad PR – which can kill a company.

So what has Starbucks got to do with a porn-version of Molly Malone? If you object to the everyday sexism by the objectification of women, on page 3 for example, then hit them where it hurts – in the pocket – don’t buy the paper, think about buying your TV channels from someone else. We don’t need to take the action that the Ninja Suffragette and her colleagues took 100 years ago. The nature of protest has changed.

Individually, we can collectively hit them where it really hurts – their profits.

Think about the change you can make – just by seeking out and sharing women’s stories, shouting about your achievements, or not being afraid to try things out, fail and start again. One of my favourite shops, Lush, a company that sells delicious smelling handmade bath bubbles was first set up in the mid ‘80s as Cosmetics to Go – a mail order company. That didn’t work as a business model for them and they went bust. But a little while later, still making the same ‘lush’ smelling cosmetics and bath bubbles, they re-opened the shop in Dorset as ‘Lush’ – and there are now shops all over the world.

Have you seen Made in Dagenham? Just 187 women at the Ford plant in Dagenham made a huge difference by striking against getting less pay than men, and it lead to the Equal Pay Act of 1970.

It’s like a little trickle of rainwater coming off a field. If we each make small changes, those small trickles will grow into a stream, then all the streams will join up into a river, then you’ve got a big change, and then that river of change will meet up with other rivers and become a sea of change.

Your one trickle will make a massive change.

I just said you shouldn’t be afraid to fail. But my final inspirational nugget is don’t be afraid to succeed. Success can be a really scary, but look it in the eye and just go for it.

Progressive dramaturgy; a guest discussion

Stephanie Greer and Alan Humphreys by Eileen Long

“it’s hard to read a play that doesn’t look like a play”

“the minute you walk into a play and say ‘I know what you should be and if you don’t do that you’re not a play’ then you’re missing the play that’s doing something progressive.” David Lane

I recently read a discussion which calls for a new way of dramaturgical working, written by David Lane, who was working with Hannah Silva on her play The Disappearance of Sadie Jones.  The article is fascinating, as it discusses what a theatre/dramaturg/scriptreader/literary manager could do when faced by a play that they don’t recognise. (What I mean by that, is a work which does not follow a traditional, generally three-act structure.) The resulting discussion gives the director/literary manager a way into working with the text and the writer, and the writer a way to vocalise what they might have had trouble describing.

“We are often uncomfortable with theatre containing hugely multiple meanings, expressing the act of expression itself.” Hannah Silva.

Hannah and David have kindly allowed me to reproduce an edited version of their discussion on this blog, and I really can’t recommend it highly enough for writers, and for anyone who works with writers. Read it here.

Not lost in translation

TREND festival, Rome April 2013

A play written by 17Percent founder Sam Hall will receive its world premiere this Friday and Saturday in Rome, Italy. The play has been translated into Italian by Valentina Rapetti.

Seven tunes on the flute is about how people and relationships change and disintegrate over time. It follows a group of friends who meet at university and whose lives are all affected when one of them is knocked down and goes into a coma. The play spans three decades, and follows the friends as they, and the world around them, changes.

Is a virtual relationship with someone less hazardous than a real one? All the relationships/lives in the play have been maintained through technology. They are linked through David on his life-support machine, and during the time he is in a coma, they project their fantasies of what they want him to be – in the same way that people on the internet project their fantasies into their long distance relationships.

It’s quite an ambitious play, it features 12 characters, at least eight of whom of female, (two other roles are not gender-specific), and follows a non-linear timeline, which dips in and out of past, present and future, and what might also be corrupted memories.

‘I didn’t want to write a play that featured a couple arguing in a room, (because I’ve done that,) but something that would tell a bigger story, and try to capture the essence of life in Britain over the last 20 or so years. Seven tunes on the flute is set in a near future where the NHS no longer exists, and examines what the consequences of it no longer existing might be for one patient, and his friends and family. Unfortunately, it appears that the play’s fictional scenario of the destruction of the Welfare State was much nearer than I thought.’

The play is featured in a festival of British writing, held annually in Rome. For more details visit the website.

The Park Theatre – opening soon!

Park Theatre under construction

Early this month I had a tour of the soon to be opened Park Theatre in Finsbury Park. Though the site is still under construction, it is due to be completed and open soon, at the start of May, with two stages – Park200 (a 200-seat auditorium) and Park90 (a 90-seat auditorium), and they have just announced their opening season.

Jez and Melli Bond, the creative team behind the theatre, say their vision is for ‘national recognition as a powerhouse of theatre for diverse audiences across London and the South East’. And their mission is ‘to be a welcoming, vibrant home for the local community and beyond, providing world class entertainment that challenges perceptions and enables people to build a new tradition of theatre’.

This is a really exciting development for north London, I know the area very well, having lived in Finsbury Park for over 10 years, and the theatre is going to be so welcome, part of the planned regeneration going on there. It’s so nice that this theatre has been designed by David Hughes Architects, with a lot of thought and best practice in mind. The space, even though a building site when I saw it, is full of light and airy. Technical developments have been incorporated into the fabric of the building which mean there will be enough ladies’ loos, dressing rooms and power sockets, which are often lacking in theatres built 100 years ago.

The Park’s first playwright-in-residence is Sarah Rutherford, and I asked her some questions about her connection with The Park Theatre.

Sarah Rutherford (from Park Theatre website)

Sarah is an actor and playwright. With a degree in English from Oxford University, she pursued a career as an arts journalist alongside a PhD on Black Farce in Jacobean and 1960s Theatre, before training at Guildford School of Acting. Her professional acting credits include popular drama series such as Murphy’s Law, Casualty and The Royal as well as theatre work in the West End and beyond.Sarah’s play What You Do To People has been showcased at the Hampstead Theatre and workshopped by Park Theatre’s Jez Bond.

For Park Theatre she has written a new play, inspired by selected real-life stories of local people, which will be staged next year. She is currently developing her third play, Tonight Is Your Answer, with Team Angelica at Theatre Royal Stratford East, and is researching her fourth. She recently had her short piece, La Barbe, performed at Equal Writes.

Do you have any particular link with the area?

I lived in north London for seven years and both of my children were born there, so I feel like I have a permanent bond with the area. It’s been great to have the opportunity to explore one of my favourite parts of London in such depth.

Can you tell us a bit about the play you’ve written for the Park and the process of writing it?

My play has come out of a project called N4 Stories. In November 2010 I assembled a team of (mostly local) actors and we spent 6 months exploring the area, just talking to people and gathering stories. Every week we would meet for a workshop where the actors would come along as the characters they’d found; we would then interview them and throw them together in experimental scenes, just to see what would happen. We interviewed over 100 people, of a vast range of backgrounds, ages and nationalities. I was looking for a story or character that would move me in some way, and after a few months I found one. We carried on working and experimenting together for another six months, and I even flew to Turkey to research the background of the characters we’d found.

After that, I went away and worked alone on the script. It’s now nearing its final draft, and Jez (Bond, Artistic Director), and I are getting it ready to be read properly for the first time, before we move into casting and production. It’s been quite a long journey so it’s exciting to have got to this stage.

How did you become involved with the Park Theatre?

I met Creative Director Melli Bond when we were in a show together back in 2001, so when I started moving from acting into writing about five years ago, Jez and Melli were the first people I showed my early work to. They were both incredibly supportive and passionate about my writing, and Jez workshopped that piece and worked on it with me very generously. So when they acquired the building that was to become Park Theatre, I suggested that what they needed was a Finsbury Park play. They agreed, and Jez asked me to be their first Writer in Residence.

Good luck to the Park Theatre in their opening season which contains a lot of new writing, it’s a really exciting project.  Book tickets here.

Hours til Midnight – a play by Sonya Hale

Hours til midnight

‘Two half-sisters share an upbringing, an inseparable bond, and a history of addiction. When Gizzy chooses to move on and start afresh, Meg has to decide whether joining her is the solution or if she should risk staying in a place riddled with bad associations and memories of using.’

Clean Break presents Hours til Midnight by Sonya Hale, the first Clean Break graduate to be commissioned to write a play for the company, at the Southbank’s Women of the World Festival this Saturday.

Performed by graduates of Clean Break’s education programme, this short play gives a unique view from the edge, exploring addiction, resilience and women’s relationship to crime and punishment.

Clean Break uses theatre for personal and political change, producing award-winning plays and delivering a programme of drama-based education for women with experience of the criminal justice system. Sonya Hale is a graduate of their Writing for Theatre courses. She is currently developing plays for Synergy Theatre Project and Outside Edge Theatre company. She recently won Synergy Theatre Project’s Write Now III playwriting competition, and a reading of her play Glory Whispers was performed at the main stage at the Royal Court in January 2013. Hours til Midnight is also planned to be presented in criminal justice settings and at festivals during 2013.

The play is performed by former Clean Break students Jennifer Joseph (who recently appeared in the Donmar Theatre’s acclaimed, all-female production of Julius Caesar), Sarah Cowan and Cydney Denton.

Venue: Southbank Centre, London
Dates + time 11.30am, Saturday 9 March
Box office: www.southbank.org.uk
Tickets: WoW day pass: £12 / WoW 3 day pass: £30

 

 

An Act of Twisting at The Rondo

‘An Act of Twisting’

At 17Percent we really do believe that the best way to achieve equality is women and men working together harmoniously, that the theatre ‘should be a conversation, not a competition’; so though our key focus is on promoting female playwrights and theatre practitioners, if there is a play written by a man that sparks our interest, maybe because it’s got a female production team, or strong female characters, we are happy to talk about it.

An Act of Twisting is a new play by Rondo Artistic Director Ian McGlynn at the theatre in Bath, playing from 6-9 March, before touring the South West. It’s got a timely and compelling topic, with a provocative twist: in a mysterious institution, four women are set a bizarre challenge, to improve the national standards of torture.

We asked Hannah Drake, Rondo Associate Director, to tell us a bit more about the play: It “…was inspired by the question ‘What if the WI were in charge of torture?’, and while it has moved on from that premise there are certainly echoes of it in the characterisation of one or two of the roles. It features four female characters and a male hostage, which was originally written to be performed by a dummy, but I’ve chosen to enlist actors to play this non-speaking role to heighten the atmosphere. A lot of the canon of plays we have place women in particular roles – the side-kick, the wife etc – and are often preoccupied by domestic interests or being the object of romantic or sexual attention. This play doesn’t do that, which was a big part of its appeal. It’s a play that is surprising, funny and moving at turns, and I hope that people will enjoy it as a piece of theatre, rather than seeing it as a “women’s issues play”.”

Hannah’s connection with The Rondo goes back to last year, and she has directed an impressive line-up of plays in a short time. She trained as a director at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in 2010 before embarking on a freelance career, based in the South West. In 2012 she became the first Directing Intern at the Rondo Theatre, learning how to run the theatre, as well as directing Alliance, Fertility Objects and Product Displacement – a trio of new plays. She’s now the Rondo Associate Director, and Ian invited her back to direct his play An Act of Twisting.

I know that the team at The Rondo programme a lot of female playwrights and plays with good roles for women – which is fantastic. As a woman, how do you feel about directing plays that are written by women? Do you feel you have more of an obligation to seek out female-led or written plays?

The gender of a playwright isn’t a major consideration for me, to be honest – if I’m looking for a play the thing I look at first is the story, or the themes, then the playwright and their previous productions. When working on new plays the gender of the playwright is a factor for me only in how it may or may not have shaped their personality – it’s my job to navigate that relationship to bring out the best in our work. So far I would say I’ve directed a fairly even spread of male/female written plays – from Oscar Wilde to Alison Farina. I feel that if I have any obligation, it’s as a director to seek out interesting stories with interesting characters, and as a member of society an obligation to present as accurate a reflection of that society as possible (in terms of a gender split) – especially when creating shows for younger audiences. So I am certainly more aware of not always directing plays weighted too much to one gender over another. I suppose my own gender and life experiences will naturally impact on the issues and stories that interest me though.

This is a controversial one – I’m being devil’s advocate – do you think there is a male/female sensibility in writing and if so, what do you think it is? Could a woman have written this play?

We all have our own judgements and stereotypes of what makes a ‘male’ or ‘female’ sensibility – whether that’s a certain type of empathy, tone, humour, topic, or even political standpoint. And I do think these can be identified in play-writing, but I don’t think a playwright’s personal gender dictates their writing sensibility. For example, Frank McGuinness writes in a poetic, empathetic ‘feminine’ way, but he’s a bloke. Similarly, Laura Wade writes with a starkness, and an aggression as she creates political worlds in Posh that might be called ‘masculine’. But these writers are also flexible and change from project to project. I don’t know if a woman could have written this play, but I also don’t know if another man could have either.

- We also asked the play’s writer, Ian McGlynn, for his views on this one:

I guess the only thing to add is that while you have to be true to the characters and the situations they’re in, I find the notions of male/female ‘sensibilities’ to be bogus – it’s all about writing for people and imagining how people feel/react, rather than getting caught up in writing differently for man or women. Of course, if you’re writing a female or a male character, you have to take into account their status/position within society, but after that it’s just about their responses as a human being within a given situation.

(Back to Hannah) What/who are the plays and playwrights that inspire you?

Oooo so many! Playwrights that immediately come to mind are Naomi Wallace, George Bernard Shaw, Shakespeare, Polly Stenham, Frank McGuinness, Simon Stephens, Fraser Grace, Martin McDonagh, Aaron Sorkin and Ben Ellis. I’m also inspired by directors like Marianne Elliott and John Tiffany – one of the most affecting productions I have ever seen was Black Watch.

An Act of Twisting plays from 6-9 March 2013 at The Rondo theatre in Bath.
Find out more and how to buy tickets on The Rondo website.

Meet the Hens and Chicks at Short Cuts 3

Fresh from November 2012’s sell out festival Short Cuts 2, and a successful transfer to The Hen and Chickens in January 2013, Sibling Productions are back with Short Cuts 3: A Box of Tricks, a dark comedy, short play festival, at their new home – The Hen and Chickens Theatre, Islington from Tuesday 5th till Saturday 9th March.

A celebration of female playwriting, Short Cuts 3 features four new one act plays from four female playwrights: Eliza Power (Feathers, Aingeal), Nia Jones, Lexy Howe (Sweatbox) and Marny Godden (The Grandees). All dark, all comic, and all downright weird.

The concept for the third festival was that each writer had to produce a short dark comedy, making use of the one same, basic prop – an innocuous cardboard box. What or who is inside it?

We asked Eliza Power, Sibling Productions’ founder and artistic director, to tell us a bit more about Short Cuts.

This is the third time you’ve hosted Short Cuts. How would you say the festival has developed?

I initially started Short Cuts as a trial run – a one off festival to test new work from some up and coming writers. I didn’t expect it to have the success it did. From its humble beginnings, it’s grown from a two show small event, with one matinee and one evening performance, to a full weeks’ run. Short Cuts 2 was picked up to be included in The Hen and Chickens own festival in January. While we were based there, The Hen and Chickens personally expressed their interest in bringing Short Cuts to their theatre for a longer run. It is lovely to not only expand the time period of the festival, but also to be requested by a theatre. It means we are going somewhere! I took that opportunity to expand it from 3 short plays to 4, so we were able to include another writer and production team within the festival. Thanks to the sellout shows we’ve had, it means more and more people are hearing about the festival. This is the first time I’ve had constant tweets and facebook messages asking about the festival, and how people can take part. A large number of people now seem to be taking an active interest in Short Cuts and it’s a wonderful feeling to know so many want to be involved. Our ethos is to create a pool of artists to collaborate with, and thanks to the growth of the festival, that plan is coming to fruition. I’m looking forward to Short Cuts 4 already!

How did you find the work for this festival – was it by open call?

The previous Short Cuts have been a mixture of open call and commissions. When I started the festival, I approached new writers I had either previously worked with or those I whose work I had already seen. We were such a small festival at that point, I felt it was safer to start with writers I knew. However the plan has always been to provide an open call for new writing, from worldwide. I would love to see work from different cultures and other parts of the world included in Short Cuts. I also wanted the festival to become a vehicle that promoted female writing primarily, and where we could, focus on working with female directors and a predominantly female cast. With Short Cuts 3, I knew that I wanted a basic theme – this time, the use of a a basic prop – within all the plays, to link them together. One play was sent to me by a new writer, Nia Jones, who I had never met. Her play fitted in so well with this idea that I instantly asked her if we could include it. Lexy Howe and The Grandees were commissioned to write their plays around this central theme.

When is the next festival and how should people contact you about the next one?

I am hoping that Short Cuts 4 will take place at the end of June 2013, and fingers crossed again at The Hen and Chickens for a week. This time round however, I want to include more short plays – ideally about six. The theme for the next festival is ‘Metamorphosis’. Our play requirements are simple for the next festival – each play should be around 15 minutes in length (5 – 10 minutes shorter than our current crop of plays), use minimal props, primarily be a dark comedy play, and have no more than 3 performers in each production. The deadline for submissions is going to be 1st May 2013. If people would like to submit ideas or scripts, they can email details through to info@siblingproductionsuk.com. I look forward to reading the submissions!

What is your eventual aim with this festival?

Within the next year, I would like to see Short Cuts expand to producing around 8 plays within the festival, through an open call for performers, writers and directors. We would then assemble the team, and cast the productions from the casting call. It would be great if Short Cuts could expand to a two week run, in order to get more coverage for our new writing and to give us the opportunity to work with a bigger team. We would then alternate plays across each night. We are applying for arts council funding for Short Cuts 4 too, in order to be able to put more finances into the production side and set design for the festival. As the festival grows, I would like to develop it into a multi-genre festival – including dark comedies, drama, abstract, clowning – and produce a wide variety of work. However one thing will remain – Short Cuts will always be a platform for female writers and performers. We want to work with the male of the species obviously, and produce plays by male writers, but Short Cuts was started by women, for women in the arts. And that is exactly the way we plan to keep it.

SHORT CUTS 3: A Box of Tricks
A Short Play Festival
The Hen and Chickens Theatre, 109 St Pauls Road, London N1 2NA
Box Office: 020 7704 2001
- Tuesday 5th to Saturday 9th March 2013 at 7pm
Tickets £8 (www.ticketweb.co.uk)

 

 

 

Scribbler Girl – a new play by Shiona Morton

Way back in October 2010, we profiled playwright Shiona Morton, as she gave us her insights into being writer-on-attachment at The Bristol Old Vic. (Read the interview here.)

Shiona’s first play Baby Bank was set in her native Glasgow and produced at The Everyman Theatre Cheltenham in 2004. Since then she has written At the Hop for Forest Forge Theatre Company (2005), The Rain Has Voices (2006 Play for Somerset), Bailey Bridge for NTC Touring (2007), and The Gliding Hour for The Point Young Peoples’ Theatre, Eastleigh (2007). Theatre West in Bristol produced Mary Mary (2007) and Shut Up (2008). In 2008 Shiona created Seaworthy, a site-specific performance for Plymouth’s Hidden City Festival. In 2009, Shiona was writer-on-attachment at The Bristol Old Vic.

Shiona has written a new play – Scribbler Girl – which is being performed as part of Northumberland Theatre Company’s 4Scene – Passion Power Politics Pleasure which tours in the north-east in March 2013. (Visit 4Scene here for dates and more info.)

Shiona’s play is about Mary Leapor, a very real poet and kitchen maid who died of the measles at twenty-four and yet wrote some wonderful verse about her own world and plight of women in the early eighteenth century.

Of the piece, Shiona says:

“For the last couple of years I’ve been working on a play set in the eighteenth century. Part of the research was to find out about the levels of literacy among women at the time. My daughter, who was studying English Literature at university, mentioned a woman called Mary Leapor, a kitchen maid and poet who died of the measles in 1746 aged only twenty-four. Despite her young age, Mary already had a significant body of work. She had learned to read early, possibly at a local free school, and was always “scribbling” which upset her parents no end, as her mother in particular felt she should be occupied in “profitable employment” ( sound familar?).

“Fortunately Mary ended up working in a household with a sympathetic mistress and a library and thus her real education began. She was introduced to the classics and read voraciously, her favourite poet being Alexander Pope. We don’t know why she didn’t stay in this house, but she had other, less supportive employers, who, like her mother, complained abut the excessive “scribbling”, done even while she was turning the spit in the kitchen. She was sacked from that job.

“Mary’s experience of work, and writing, seems very contemporary. She overcame the obstacles of class, family disapproval, lack of education, and the expectations for women of her time, only to fall foul of the measles at a young age. Her poetry was published after her death and was recognised again in the twentieth century as worthy of note. She writes about her work, about the status of women, and about the ageing process. She is witty and at times caustic in her comment.

“My 30-minute play selects three moments from Mary’s short life and emphasises her passion for writing. She meets a stream of characters, who help or hinder. The style is fast and furious, often funny, and tries to emulate the cartoon quality of a Hogarth print. I hope that the play entertains (as Mary’s poetry does) and inspires us to write, whatever our circumstances.”

There is no I in collaborate

On Tuesday, I attended Butterfly Psyche Theatre Company’s ‘There is no I in collaborate’, an OpenSpace forum about working together better. This was a really interesting day with some West Country-based theatre practitioners, who discussed a range of topics, including Where to look for collaboration/funding etc, Who owns a piece of theatre? What do you think a future documentary looks like? and also about how to get more female representation in theatre, and how best for writers to work with and present themselves to directors.

Hopefully the day will lead to some interesting future collaborations!

The write-ups from the sessions are on the Butterfly Psyche Facebook page. Thanks to Alison at Butterfly Psyche for arranging the day.

You have till 17 Feb to send a short script…

Crash Test Drama in Reading are looking for (up to) 10 min plays  written by women for their Feb 24th rehearsed readings. Please send your scripts by Feb 17th 2013. This is what they say:

“We’re coming out of hibernation and we’re ready to perform!

In recognition of International Women’s Day on March 8th, this CTD we are encouraging all women writers to get cracking and send us their  scripts!

Ladies – your ten minute play doesn’t have to be perfectly polished.  CTD is the perfect opportunity for you to trial a work in progress. Our  fantastic group of actors will breathe new life into your words and our  audience will soon let you know what works and what doesn’t.

Who runs the world? Well, um, not any of us, but, you know, it’s nice to dream….

(Male playwrights – continue to send in your scripts as always – there are many more months ahead!)

More information – event on facebook http://www.facebook.com/events/486554021408720/

http://crashtestdramauk.wordpress.com/about/

***EMAIL SCRIPTS TO crashtestdramauk@hotmail.co.uk by FEB 17TH***”