David Eldridge
David Eldridge’s plays include SERVING IT UP, UNDER THE BLUE SKY, FESTEN (from the Dogme film) and MARKET BOY. He has also written new versions of Ibsen’s THE WILD DUCK and JOHN GABRIEL BORKMAN for the theatre. He writes for radio, film and television including the acclaimed OUR HIDDEN LIVES.
You should write what you want and care about and not what you think you should write. It’s not about writing what you suppose is a big important subject, but what is in your heart and what you are passionate about. That could be a play about labour politics or a play about a cat.
I would read as many plays as you can lay your hands on to try and pick up the difference between writing at the speed of an actor’s thought and descriptive prose. It doesn’t matter whether you are writing realism or something non-naturalistic, all playwrights are writing at the speed of an actor’s thought.
Reading plays also helps you develop a taste and to learn how to tell a story, through action, in an elastic, theatrical way.
Go to as much live performance as possible including theatre, dance, comedy, opera, and live art. This way you can begin to see what happens between an audience and a performance and how it works.
You can only really begin to fully know how tension is wrought, a subtext grown or a joke landed when you’re able to put yourself in the audience’s shoes.
Writing ‘The End’ doesn’t mean you have completed the draft or finished the play. You have just got to ‘The End’. Work on it until you can do no more.
While there are many people out there who will give you feedback (and you should expect notes and ideas on how to improve your play if you arouse the interest of a theatre) this is not an excuse for not doing your job to the best of your ability. It is your play with your name on the front. Take pride in your work and do not give the play over or send it out lazily because you expect other people to do your job and make it better for you.
David Eldridge’s plays include SERVING IT UP, UNDER THE BLUE SKY, FESTEN (from the Dogme film) and MARKET BOY. He has also written new versions of Ibsen’s THE WILD DUCK and JOHN GABRIEL BORKMAN for the theatre. He writes for radio, film and television including the acclaimed OUR HIDDEN LIVES.You should write what you want and care about and not what you think you should write. It’s not about writing what you suppose is a big important subject, but what is in your heart and what you are passionate about. That could be a play about labour politics or a play about a cat.
I would read as many plays as you can lay your hands on to try and pick up the difference between writing at the speed of an actor’s thought and descriptive prose. It doesn’t matter whether you are writing realism or something non-naturalistic, all playwrights are writing at the speed of an actor’s thought.
Reading plays also helps you develop a taste and to learn how to tell a story, through action, in an elastic, theatrical way.
Go to as much live performance as possible including theatre, dance, comedy, opera, and live art. This way you can begin to see what happens between an audience and a performance and how it works.
You can only really begin to fully know how tension is wrought, a subtext grown or a joke landed when you’re able to put yourself in the audience’s shoes.
Writing ‘The End’ doesn’t mean you have completed the draft or finished the play. You have just got to ‘The End’. Work on it until you can do no more.
While there are many people out there who will give you feedback (and you should expect notes and ideas on how to improve your play if you arouse the interest of a theatre) this is not an excuse for not doing your job to the best of your ability. It is your play with your name on the front. Take pride in your work and do not give the play over or send it out lazily because you expect other people to do your job and make it better for you.