SONGS AND SCRIPTS AND DUNKING BISCUITS

Forgive me WordPress, readers and bloggers, it is two months since I last posted.

I have no excuses, but I do have reasons. First off, I didn’t have anything to post about, but I knew you’d muddle along without me. Given the sporadic nature of my posts, I wouldn’t think you’d probably even notice.

But I have been dipping into other people’s posts as often as I can, so I haven’t been completely invisible.

I’d like to say the world has improved in the last two months but if anything it has got worse. Anyway, that’s not why I’m posting today, that’s for future ramblings.

As I was saying, my reasons for not posting are because I had nothing pressing to post about, but my main reason was to indulge in some housekeeping about life and creativity. Things had got to a point where I felt I needed to make some quite radical changes and this needed my full attention.

THE SCRIPT FACTORY

I felt my writing needed an overhaul. It needed a fresh outlook following a year or more of personal stop and start upheaval. So I signed up for an intensive five-week Script Reading course with The Script Factory based in London. This involved five two-hour Zoom sessions each Tuesday night breaking down for the first three weeks selected film scripts and spending the next week breaking them down into Synopsis, Premise, Character, Structure, Dialogue and so on, then submitting them through each Sunday to be assessed and critiqued.

The course was run by Justine Hart and Christine Bogard-MacLeod, creators of The Script Factory and both with long experience of working in the UK Film history and involvement with BAFTA. Together they run several courses for people hoping to break into film and television either as a script reader, writer or producer.  

In the 4^th and 5^th week we did similar breakdowns for television series. It was a genuinely enjoyable course with some excellent fellow participants and a lot of hard work that took discipline, thought, preparation and time. But it was very satisfying, and I came out of it with greater understanding that I aim to take with me into any future projects.

SCRATCHING THE SURFACE

The other change I felt was needed was more on an everyday personal level. In the last couple of years some of the people I knew locally are no longer around, for varying reasons. As a result I had become something of a stranger in my hometown since moving back. The first four months of my house move were taken up with decorating, switching energy suppliers and all of the long-winded processes involved with updating details blah-blah and then I got to the point of what next?

I have my long-term friends but with their own lives and families there can be weeks or even months in-between meet-ups. My family the same as they all live two and half hours away, and all work long hours. As much as I enjoy my creative pursuits much of it is taken up within my own home.

I had already joined The Scratch Network in Liverpool, who showcase scripts in development and on May 9th had part of my developing script ‘The Stop-Off’ performed downstairs at The Everyman Theatre in the city, a theatre fundamental in the early development of actors like Stephen Graham, Pete Postlethwaite, Bill Nighy, Julie Walters among many others.

Packed full of about 150 writers, actors and directors I had to get up and introduce the piece, which thankfully went down extremely well. But I wanted more of the same, not just a one-off. This meant not just on a creative level, but on a social one as well.

Beyond going to the gym three times a week and the cinema once a week, I needed to get out. But to where, and in what way? So one Sunday morning I lay in bed and realised I needed to get out and about and meet new people. This would involve a major change in outlook and approach, more than at any point in my life.

ACTING IT OUT

As a natural introvert, being around lots of people in a social situation can be, well, exhausting. But I knew I needed to turn that on its head to avoid hearing the same conversations, many of which were going on inside my own head, and falling down that step from being alone, to being lonely. There is a big difference, but the line between the two is a thin one.

So armed with a new sense of purpose, I signed up for an 8-week Acting for Beginners course at The Merseyside Academy of Drama in Liverpool. What could be scarier for an introvert than that? But scary suddenly felt good. Just days later The Shakespeare North Playhouse, just three minutes walk away from my front door, launched their own Acting for Beginners course, running for 9 weeks. So I plunged into that too.

Am I insane, I asked myself as I drove into Liverpool on that first night? Then I stepped into a room of about 30 people of all ages and ethnic mixes all asking themselves the same question. Two hours later the room was buzzing with chat and laughter. We are now half way through the course, the same at The Shakespeare North.

Few of us have any pretensions to be actors or believe we have any ability but we are having the best time finding out. In that week I must have met and laughed continuously with about 60 people I would normally have walked past in the street.

I am already looking at what I will be doing next, but it won’t involve sitting at home staring at the same four walls. I feel as though something fundamental is changing that is having a really positive impact on my life overall.

And (yes, there’s more), the more eagle-eyed amongst you will have noticed that now I’m actually putting out a blog I’ve changed the look a little. Inspired by blogging legend Hugh Roberts at Hugh’s Views and News I have gone from a Classic theme to a Block theme. It was a lot more straight-forward than I imagined it might be, though I do plan to make more changes to its appearance as I go along. They won’t be as radical as walking into a room full of strangers and acting like an idiot but it’s all part of the same thing. So cheers Hugh.

I’m sure you’ve all had instances when you have chosen or been forced to make changes that may have been daunting at the time, but have been beneficial in the long run. If you’d like to share any, it would be great to hear about them.