This is how it happens...

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You start off with the hint of an idea…a tenuous possibility that you fear won’t hold out under any kind of artistic scrutiny…so you think about it for a while and it starts to take shape…not in any easily describable form, but it’s not the spectre it once was, it’s starting to have a shape and it’s looking like you might have got something that will work.  This idea grows, not consistently but in flashes and spurts…moments of excitement when another piece of the puzzle slots into place.  Then you see who else is interested in realising this idea with you and you find out 28 are…which is brilliant but awe inspiring also as that’s a lot of characters to accommodate. 

There are all sorts of other obligations you have to meet and you start to get impatient because you feel like at least a part of it is ready to be set down on paper and finally you find the time and are delighted because it is ready.  You begin to write and then you write and write and write…oftentimes your fingers won’t type as fast as the words in your head want to tumble out but you ride the frustration and keep working on it…it’s a little worrying having so many voices in your head but at least you’re never lonely…a strange thing in a line of work that is so solitary.

It’s not a linear process, you dart around the forming manuscript, adding a scene here, extending another there…introducing ideas and elements of characters and finding resolutions as you go…occasionally you send it out to your collaborators who motivate you with their comments…eventually there are more resolutions than introductions and you get a sense that completeness is around the corner…

Once it is done and printed the read through is next, full of hope and frustration as the final set of errors are unearthed and sorted…then we’re into rehearsals…a joyful process that gathers motivation throughout as actors discover things about their characters, themselves and acting to varying degrees…a journey punctuated with games of that’s out and this year getting sunburnt…well for some of us…

Ultimately the performance is such a fraction of the process but you watch the whole thing with your heart in your mouth hoping that each cast member shows the audience the brilliant work they’ve done and that the play holds up to public inspection…and then it is all over…put in the rich cupboard of memories already full of Nostell loveliness…and you’re left with the nagging thought of what on earth can I do next year…

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