A year well spent

 Plays are hard to write. I knew this from the beginning when we started the program, but I never knew just how hard it would be. From finding an idea, to creating a character and getting the first few drafts done. Even though it was hard I really enjoyed it.

I’ve learned a lot from the young playwrights programme which has helped me to create my play. Even with everything having been moved online we still had the chance to meet and work with some amazing playwrights thanks to zoom. It allowed us to meet more often as a group or individually with Ali. In a way having the programme online has helped with the writing process but at the same time I think most of us were hoping we could get back in person.

Working to create my final piece was something that I enjoyed a lot. I got to put what I had learned into practice as well as being able to research more into what I liked. We were given a lot of freedom to create a first draft from an idea which we then broke down on zoom into beats and important moments. I found the beats hard at first but after spending a while looking at the beats that had been picked out during a zoom with Ali I slowly began to see where they were in the next pages.

Working with Ali and Rebekah for development sessions was really good, I got to hear my play being read out for the first time was a bit weird at first but at the same time it was nice to hear a different voice and to hear what they thought of my play. For two sessions we all sat and worked out what needed to be moved to the beginning or the end. What needed cut and what needed something to link it in. I liked working with Rebekah, she had plenty of ideas which helped to improve my play and really brought my character to life.

Having spent this year with some kind of restrictions in place the playwright programme hasn’t stopped and as a group it helped to keep us busy, we always had a small task to do sometimes bigger ones but it was nice to have something to keep us going. With what I have learnt over this year I’ll be using to help myself in my university performance course. I feel with this new knowledge will really help when we move into different modules and write scenes as a group.

This programme is a great chance for anyone interested in learning all about playwriting, its hard work but worth it and you even get to create your own scenes and plays with the help of some very talented playwrights and readers.

Thank you to everyone who looked over my work, sent me some feedback and acted out some of my work/ideas.

Rachel Anderson

Rachel is part of the Bunbury Banter Young Playwrights Programme 2019-2020