Ben Musgrave
Ben Musgrave’s play PRETEND YOU HAVE BIG BUILDINGS won first prize in the inaugural Bruntwood Playwriting Competition, performed at the Royal Exchange in July 2007.
Other plays include: THE MELANCHOLY HUSSAR (a free adaptation of the Thomas Hardy story), Etcetera Theatre Camden 2003; LOVE BETWEEN TWO SHELVES, ADC Theatre Cambridge 2003 and a co-written adaptation of A TALE OF TWO CITIES which was presented in London and Paris in 2001. Ben is currently under commission to the National Theatre Studio, and to Y Touring Theatre.
I wrote PRETEND YOU HAVE BIG BUILDINGS before I had heard anything about the competition. Although it had been conceived for quite a big space, I hadn’t written the play for a specific theatre and I wasn’t sure about where it might ‘belong’. Set very specifically in Romford, Essex, I was worried that it might be of little interest to anyone beyond Romford – let alone Manchester. Nevertheless, the play advanced through the longlist and onto the shortlist – the situation becoming more and more ridiculous until one day I was standing in the middle of the magnificent Main House, incredulous, holding a heavy glass trophy, not quite sure what was going to happen to my life, and wondering how Big Buildings would settle into its new home.
The competition is special because the award is just the beginning. BIG BUILDINGS was messy and a little unformed when I submitted it, but it was expertly developed with directors Jo Combes and Sarah Frankcom over a process lasting six months. Rewarding discoveries were made, and gradually the play began to feel more and more like itself, and more and more at home in the space. The Main House is an epic space. It’s also a very public space that demands a relationship between the play and its audience. I’d recommend a trip to the Exchange to experience this – and if you’re writing a play expressly for the competition I suggest above all that you be ambitious about the world of your play (theatrically and metaphysically). What you should avoid is worrying about whether the play ‘belongs’ at the Exchange (or, even worse, belongs within some modish category of New Writing). There’s a toxic quality to this thought process that leads to panicked second-guessing – asking ‘what kind of play are they looking for?’ may mean you become a sort of literary fashion victim – creating work that has little to do with the play only you can write, and that has no chance of being staged. Because there is that opportunity here: this competition is special because if the work is good enough to win, it will get the production it deserves. And it will get a production regardless of your prior experience or standing as a writer: submissions are anonymous and the judges don’t care about the ‘sort of play’ the Royal Exchange ‘does’. Last year, the most remarkable thing happened to me (a virtually unknown writer): my debut play premiered – with a fabulous production - in the Main House of the Royal Exchange.
Ben Musgrave’s play PRETEND YOU HAVE BIG BUILDINGS won first prize in the inaugural Bruntwood Playwriting Competition, performed at the Royal Exchange in July 2007.Other plays include: THE MELANCHOLY HUSSAR (a free adaptation of the Thomas Hardy story), Etcetera Theatre Camden 2003; LOVE BETWEEN TWO SHELVES, ADC Theatre Cambridge 2003 and a co-written adaptation of A TALE OF TWO CITIES which was presented in London and Paris in 2001. Ben is currently under commission to the National Theatre Studio, and to Y Touring Theatre.
I wrote PRETEND YOU HAVE BIG BUILDINGS before I had heard anything about the competition. Although it had been conceived for quite a big space, I hadn’t written the play for a specific theatre and I wasn’t sure about where it might ‘belong’. Set very specifically in Romford, Essex, I was worried that it might be of little interest to anyone beyond Romford – let alone Manchester. Nevertheless, the play advanced through the longlist and onto the shortlist – the situation becoming more and more ridiculous until one day I was standing in the middle of the magnificent Main House, incredulous, holding a heavy glass trophy, not quite sure what was going to happen to my life, and wondering how Big Buildings would settle into its new home.
The competition is special because the award is just the beginning. BIG BUILDINGS was messy and a little unformed when I submitted it, but it was expertly developed with directors Jo Combes and Sarah Frankcom over a process lasting six months. Rewarding discoveries were made, and gradually the play began to feel more and more like itself, and more and more at home in the space. The Main House is an epic space. It’s also a very public space that demands a relationship between the play and its audience. I’d recommend a trip to the Exchange to experience this – and if you’re writing a play expressly for the competition I suggest above all that you be ambitious about the world of your play (theatrically and metaphysically). What you should avoid is worrying about whether the play ‘belongs’ at the Exchange (or, even worse, belongs within some modish category of New Writing). There’s a toxic quality to this thought process that leads to panicked second-guessing – asking ‘what kind of play are they looking for?’ may mean you become a sort of literary fashion victim – creating work that has little to do with the play only you can write, and that has no chance of being staged. Because there is that opportunity here: this competition is special because if the work is good enough to win, it will get the production it deserves. And it will get a production regardless of your prior experience or standing as a writer: submissions are anonymous and the judges don’t care about the ‘sort of play’ the Royal Exchange ‘does’. Last year, the most remarkable thing happened to me (a virtually unknown writer): my debut play premiered – with a fabulous production - in the Main House of the Royal Exchange.