Well, I’m back, for the time being at least anyway!

So here’s the news I’ve been wanting to blog about for ages.

Spaceboy is getting its first production this weekend! (4th/5th June) I am so pleased.

Yes, that’s tonight, I know, but depression isn’t concerned about time, so I guess I’m lucky I came back from the blackness yesterday. I have know about this production for well over a month now, but this is the first time I have been able to write about it! I was getting concerned that I wasn’t going to fully engage in the amazement of it all.

It was nearly a year ago now that the play was a given a professional ‘rehearsed reading’ by Actors and Writers London, and now finally makes its way on to the stage for the public to see.

Spaceboy is being produced because John Burgess, my mentor from the Nuffield Theatre Writers Group, put another writer, Nina Lemon, in contact with me. Nina has just started in the current Nuffields group; my group having completed the programme at the end of December.

Nina runs a theatre company called Peer Productions, based at the Woking Youth Arts Centre, a five minute walk from my house, and she asked to read some of my work.

Needless to say she loved Spaceboy and I was pleasantly surprised back in April when she asked if they could produce it.

I’ve now met both Nell King and Nathan Trapnell who will produce and direct the play as well as take the roles of Anna and Nathan. They have also cast Alex Paterson in the role of Hayden.

Alex is a member of the Peer Productions Youth Theatre, and is also at Woking College with my friends Mark Forest and Adam Amin from the Riverside Youth Theatre – Small world.

I recently saw Adam and Alex perform in ‘The Interview’ for part of their AS Drama exam at the college and having directed Adam before at RYT, knew he would be good. I was also entralled with Alex’s performance and am very pleased that he’s been cast as Hayden in Spaceboy.

For those of you who know the play and it’s origins, you’ll know that Hayden‘s part, played excellently by Tom Addy in the London rehearsed reading, is a very demanding series of monologues performed one after the other and lasting about twenty five minutes.

Hayden is my favourite of all the characters I’ve created thus far, and I’m pleased to say that Alex, having thoroughly researched his part, has just as much enthusiasm and understanding of Hayden and his issues as I do, which is fantastic and very gratifying for me as the playwright.

My play will be performed as the second in a double bill with the short piece The End Where I Begin, written and directed by Kirsten Hill.

The venue is The Black Box Theatre, a small studio style theatre in Knaphill near Woking where Peer Productions is based.

The 50 seat studio theatre is cosy and very intimate, which to be honest, as those that saw the London reading will know, suits Spaceboy very well indeed

The booking details for the show are all here and again, appologies for the lateness in blogging about this; as I say, depressive episodes are a law unto themselves.

Spaceboy
by
PAFoster

Part One – ‘If I Fall’

Single, self-employed Nathan falls for his next-door neighbour, thirty something Anna Walker.

But Anna has a painful past and a troubled teenage son; and when a local lad goes missing, Nathan’s new relationship is tested to the brink.

Part Two – ‘Moondust Will Cover Me’

Fifteen year old Hayden is a little confused and thinks he’s in love; and that would be fine, if his new found friend wasn’t hearing voices.

I am so pleased that a lot of friends are coming to support me and the cast by seeing this production.

I have also developed new friendships because of because of it, including Tony Chessman, an aspiring writer too, and Lewis Flude who was stood next to a Pet Shop Boys fan in a record store talking about the PSB references in my play! Weird or what? But that’s another story!

Lewis and I have both been following each other on Twitter for ages, but never realised we both knew a lot of the same people from different social groups – Spaceboy has revealed those connections.

Oh, and I nearly forgot!

I am honoured to have been invited to take part in an after show Q&A style discussion with the directors/cast, where we’ll be taking about the play and the writing of it. So get your questions ready, and surprise me!

Hope you can come; it’ll be good, very good. Come and see why, say Hi!

Best wishes!
A very (at last) happy Paul.

PS: Better introduce Tom (the ultimate) Fidler, a great friend and keen to learn writer from Riverside Youth Theatre, who has, since I’m now being referred to as a “minor celebrity”, lol, dutifully elected himself as my PA – After dinner speaking engagements, book store openings, breakfast show interviews, and indeed any other public appearance or product endorsement requests should be directed to Tom, lol. I’m far too busy writing!

Public thanks again to my close friend Tom Addy, without who’s care and support, Spaceboy would never have seen the light of day.

Thank you Major Tom xx

Last Monday, 29th June, I had the absolute pleasure of watching my new play Spaceboy being given a rehearsed reading in Hammersmith by Actors and Writers, London.

This was fantastic! The whole process of rehearsing on the Sunday and then having it performed it on the Monday evening was just brilliant.

Working with the professional actors and Director was really good for me, and listening to them bringing Spaceboy alive in front of me was very rewarding.

I think what pleased me most during the rehearsals was that none of the actors questioned what they were saying. There was no misunderstanding of the script, or wanting to change lines or words or anything. They said that was testament to the quality of the writing, which is a lovely thing for a writer to hear from an actor.

One bit I particularly remember was the big houses scene in which NATHAN, watching his beloved Heroes, receives a panicked phone call from a lost David. This was the first scene I wrote back in November last year, and to see it performed for the first time was magical. It looked and sounded exactly as I imagined it when writing — Amazing.

The performance on Monday evening, was electric.

I was so pleased that a number of friends had made the effort to come to London to see it. It was so good to see them.

Richard came too, which was lovely, because he never reads my work, much preferring to see it.

And so Spaceboy was unleashed on an audience of professional actors, directors, writers, and their and my friends, and I was just hoping it was going to do what I wanted.

I was doing sound from my Mac so was sat at the side, and it all went very well.

I spent a lot of time staring at the audience; looking at their postures, and the reactions on their faces. It was pleasing to see so much concentration, and no one looking at their watch!

One thing that did concern me to start off with was the amount of laughter in the first act.

I always expect some to start off with, because an audience never really knows quite what to expect from the beginning, however there was more than I had anticipated.

I have no idea how to write comedy, but clearly there were some very funny lines because the laughter wasn’t isolated, the whole audience were laughing, loudly!

Obviously Spaceboy is a serious drama, and the darker it got, the more silent the audience became as they became completely wrapped up in the play.

And boy was I pleased!

Part One, If I fall, is the story of NATHAN and his developing relationship with his next door neighbour, ANNA.

An underlying current is her sad son, 16 year old David, and when David’s friend goes missing, it has disastrous consequences.

We never actually see or hear David, (a very conscious decision on my part) but his unearthly presence is felt more and more as the play proceeds, getting uncomfortably darker and darker.

During the interval a number of people came up to me and said, “I really, really want to know what David’s done.” — And I wasn’t about to disappoint them.

Part Two, Moondust Will Cover Me, is HAYDEN’s story.

In terms of chronology, we go back to the begining again and watch and listen as HAYDEN’s relationship with his new found friend David unfolds. And all through this, as alluded to in the first part, the dark disturbed presence of David and the consequences of his actions are slowly revealed.

NATHAN was played by James Price and ANNA was played by Laura Fitzpatrick. Both were superb and completely understood their characters, adding real depth to my writing.

Interestingly, although it was the director Peter Mair‘s choice in who he cast, I was pleasantly surprised to find both actors matched my expectations in terms of looks and character, so I was very pleased.

They were exactly as I had imagined.

Casting HAYDEN however was a little trickier.

He is 15, and I knew casting a fifteen year old character from a group of adult professional actors wasn’t going to be easy.

There were in fact two possibles, both in their early twenties, one of whom had successfully portrayed my teenage character JASE in my short play Room 20 last December, however I’d had a phone call from Peter a couple of weeks before the reading was due to take place.

He told me that both actors were unavailable for that day and asked if I knew anybody who could play the part.

Well I did, naturally, but had no idea if it would work out that way!

My main problem was the part itself.

HAYDEN speaks in monologue for eleven different scenes; about half an hour in total. No easy feat for any actor.

Couple this with the dark nature of the piece, and the confused struggles the character has with his sexual orientation, (which he openly talks about since the monologues are mainly his thoughts) and I was beginning to wonder if the person I had in mind to play HAYDEN would be up for it.

On the plus side, he was 15 and could relate easily to the teenage language in my writing; but on the minus side, I had already been told by a number of friends who had read the play previously that the character of HAYDEN was so intense that a strong adult actor would be needed to play the part and that a young looking 19/20 year would have been my best hope.

Well, I gave a copy of the script to one of the young actors at the Riverside Youth Theatre where I spend my Sundays. I explained I needed someone to play the part and asked if he could read it and let me know what he thought.

Thankfully, Tom loved it, and agreed to play HAYDEN for me!

I was thrilled! It wasn’t going to be easy for him, and I really admired his courage.

I have directed Tom, and knew he would be more than capable, but being 15 and acting a difficult part in monologues for half an hour (during which your sexually confused character explains he’s just wanked off a boy in the back of a bus) in front of an audience of professional actors in London would have been incredibly daunting for any young amateur actor.

What was so pleasing for me was Tom completely understood the writing, HAYDEN’s character, and indeed the play. And what’s more the whole confused sexual orientation thing didn’t phase him at all.

He did it, and what a fantastic performance too. One of the emails I received said:

Just wanted to say again I loved Spaceboy – you have a real talent for writing – keep up the good work! Also, Tom gave an amazing performance for one so young, which is another credit to you!

When the play was over I was invited on stage to receive feedback from the audience. A slightly nerve racking experience.

I was very quiet and slightly lost for words when thanking the cast and director for their tremendous efforts in bringing Spaceboy to life.

This was my first full length play to recieve a rehearsed reading and feedback, and I really didn’t know quite what to expect.

But I needn’t have worried. They absolutely loved it. There were many very positive comments on the high quality of the writing.

Though the first comment did however throw me a bit: An older gentleman clearly had issue with my decision to use the present continuous tense throughout the piece. He said it didn’t work and that I should rewrite it in the past tense like other monologues are.

Thankfully, there followed a rather large chorus of disapproval. Many said that the whole present continuous tense thing was one of the things that made the play so different and exciting, the very fact that the story was unfolding for the characters at the same time as the audience had pulled them into the story and held them there.

A couple friends told me later that I really couldn’t have expected better feedback. They were very pleased, as indeed was I.

I had many private comments from members in the bar afterwards, including some great ones from the cast who were being told how exciting the play had been to watch.

I also received some emails the next day too:

I have already described ‘Spaceboy’ as the most thought-provoking reading I have seen at AWL since I started attending in 2004. Not just in regard to content, but structure, and approach; almost demanding of the audience that ‘you better listen to this’.

And in relation to Part Two, and Tom’s performance:

I found the writing and the acting absolutely enthralling and, again, thought (and emotion) provoking…. How wonderful not to have 15/16 year old expression hijacked by clapped out comedians.

Naturally, I’m thrilled. My hard work on Spaceboy and its component parts If I Fall and Moondust Will Cover Me is bringing rewards.

Buoyed up by the excellent feedback, I’ve decided to take Spaceboy further.

I need to make a few minor adjustments; things I noticed during the whole process of rehearsing and the performing of Spaceboy and to take into consideration a couple of other minor points from the feedback: like it not being exactly clear what the relationship is between the different characters mentioned in the beginning – something that I can now see having read it again, and is easily rectified.

And then, well then I’m going to send it off to some London theatres dedicating to discovering new contemporary writing and wait and see what happens.

And if anything does, you’ll be the first to know, I can assure you!

–

Many, many thanks to my friends Adam, Chloe, Pete, Rianna, Jon, Alex, Clare and Viv for coming to see the show and supporting me by being there, and a huge thank you to my great friend Tom Addy for a remarkably professional performance. Well done, Tom!

A date for your diary – Monday, June 29th 2009. 7.30pm

Actors and Writers London will be performing a rehearsed reading of my play ‘Spaceboy’ in Hammersmith, London W6.

Spaceboy
by
PAFoster

Part One – ‘If I Fall’

Single, self-employed Nathan falls for his next-door neighbour, thirty something Anna Walker.

But Anna has a painful past and a troubled teenage son; and when a local lad goes missing, Nathan’s new relationship is tested to the brink.

INTERVAL

Part Two – ‘Moondust Will Cover Me’

Fifteen year old Hayden is a little confused and thinks he’s in love; and that would be fine, if his new found friend wasn’t hearing voices.

Space is limited, so please let me know if you want to come. £5 on the door.

Just had word that Room 20 came 3rd in the competition at AWL on Monday night!

Prizes were given for runner up and first place on the night, (the audience cast votes in a secret ballot) but I had no idea how we did, and didn’t want to ask because I didn’t want to be disappointed since the standard was very good.

So 3rd out of 8 plays performed and 13 submitted isn’t bad at all.

I’m very pleased.

Having just checked my email before going to bed, I have received one from a long standing AWL member who was in the audience watching Room 20 last night.

I’m so pleased, I thought I’d share it with you…

Hi Paul,

Tony gave me your e-mail address, as I just wanted to congratulate you on your competition play.

I absolutely loved it, and thought the dialogue was very real, having had 4 teenagers of my own!

One of my sons is also in the 1st series of ‘Skins’, so liked the reference.

Best wishes,

Lucy Appleby

Thanks, Lucy!

Wow, what a feeling!

The first professional performance of a play I have written took place last night in Hammersmith, London W6.

Though having any performance of a play is a great achievement for any writer, it’s important for me as an aspiring playwright to move forwards from writing and directing my own work with local amateur dramatic groups to getting my work professionally produced.

I also had my first experience of directing professional actors, which to be honest was a bit daunting at first, but I soon took it in my stride. I had a vision of the characters and how they talked etc and as soon as I got this across to the actors, they responded well and their professionalism bore more than just fruit.

Because of the nature of the evening we were allocated an hour for what should have been a quick discussion and ‘table reading’, and then a couple of run-throughs. Sadly, the actor playing the teacher was delayed and we ended up with about 20 minutes of rehearsal time in which we had a discussion, reading and runthrough all at once.

There simply wasn’t the time for me to do my usual ‘I wont interrupt but will just bring it up in passing later’ – I had to get right on in there and ‘direct’.

The actors had their ideas, having studied the text for the last couple of weeks, but they were looking to me as their director (and in this case, as the playwright too) for guidance and of course ‘direction’ on wether what they had interpreted was right for the piece.

I’m actually amazed how much I learnt about myself as a director in the 20 minutes I had working with these professional actors. I’m so grateful for the experience and really look forward to doing this more.

There was a smaller than usual audience of about 50 last night, and when it was time for Room 20‘s debut performance I was at the back – with a small hand bell!

Although I had taken my ever faithful Mac with me, complete with a sound effect of a school bell ready and waiting in iTunes, it wouldn’t play.

I download the file from the internet a few days ago, and for some reason, although it is saved as an mp3 file in iTunes, I have to be connected to the internet to play it. Weird.

Luckily I discovered all this in the interval, and then had to think frantically about how I was going to do a sound effect of a school bell.

I managed to catch the eye of the building’s manager and beckoned him outside the room to explain my predicament. Thankfully he took up the challenge of a hunt and just as the play was being introduced a couple of minutes later, he appeared with three different bells – god knows where from – and I just grabbed one and rang it as the play started in front of me!

It was great to watch, and weird, in the sense that I was rather detached.

I’d spent a lot of time interviewing some of the young people from the Riverside Youth Theatre during the summer, from which the idea for the story and indeed the style of dialogue came, and after at least twenty hours of writing and editing for what was a short play of about ten-fifteen minutes (In my haste of trying to source a bell sound effect, I forget to time it.) it was now being performed and coming to life in front of me.

It had come from inside my head and was now ‘alive’ going into other peoples’ heads, and as such wasn’t mine any more. Very weird feeling.

There were a few ‘nervous’ laughs at the beginning, as always seems to be the case when watching an evening of plays in which you don’t know if what you’re going to see next is a straight play or a comedy.

You end up laughing a little even, if a line or action wasn’t particularly funny, just so that you don’t feel a pratt for not laughing if indeed the play is supposed to be a comedy. Then when you realise it’s a serious play, the laughter stops and hopefully by then your hooked.

This is what happened last night and I was so pleased with the subsequent deathly silence from the audience, not a rustle of sweets, or shift of position on the chair, or a checking of the watch, nothing – just silence. It was great!

By Act III, (Room 20 was written as part of my Nuffield Theatre Writers Group coursework and the brief was to write a ten minute play in 3 acts) the actors had really gotten into their parts, which was fantastic considering they’d only had 20 minutes of rehearsal with each other, and ‘Jase’s last speech in which he really shows his insecurities and the true reason for his bullying was very emotional for me.

You’d have thought I would have been fine with it, but for me it was exactly the same as if I had been watching a moving part of a film or another play. The fact that it was my play and I had written it and I knew exactly what was coming didn’t make any difference.

I was very surprised to have felt like that, which is a true testament to the quality of the acting: In fact a couple of members of the audience said it was ‘powerful’ – which was a great compliment.

Talking to the actor afterwards, he said he could really feel for ‘Jase’ at that point and had felt he had ‘got inside him’ which for me was an odd thing to hear, but I could see exactly what he meant, and it had definitely showed.

Brilliant.

I must thank the actors Lee Peck and Phil Gerrard for a great performance and bringing the characters of the bullying student ‘Jase’ and the caring teacher ‘Tim’ to life. It was great to watch. It really was a pleasure to work with them and to see the results of their hard work – Thanks guys!

Also, thanks to Mark, Adam, Fleur and Viv, from the Riverside Youth Theatre who came to see the performance. It was so great to have your support, guys – Thanks!

So, the first professional script-in-hand performance (rehearsed reading) of my work has made it from the page to the stage as they say, and boy am I pleased with the results.

It didn’t win the competition, but I’m not surprised given the high standard of the entries. I was up against professional playwrights all used to having their work performed, so it was really comforting to hear that mine was of an equal standard and didn’t stand out as being any different from them in terms of the quality of the work.

So, onwards an upwards. Time to get on with some more writing. I’m working on my next piece of coursework for the Nuffield Theatre Writers Group, a 44 minute radio play suitable for the afternoon slot on Radio 4. The third speaking character that I have been looking for but has held me up for a few weeks, came to me as I was waking up this morning, so I’m really pleased.

I now need to put in a lot of work, as it’s due by the middle/end of February, and the rest of December is basically booked up with event work in Coventry and a Christmas holiday with Rich in Italy. (Lake Garda with day trips to Verona on Chistmas Eve and Venice on Boxing Day! Lovely!)

Right, I’m off…

–

Oh, and a PS: My one act play ‘A Spade, A Clock and Pair of Bloody Scissors!’ (written in February 2006) will be getting performed in the New Year, (4th Jan) but more on that in another post.

Oh and a PPS: Happy Birthday, Dad!

Just a quick reminder that my short play Room 20 (written as part of my Nuffield Theatre Writers Group coursework) will be performed in London next Monday (15th).

SYNOPSIS
Room 20 is in silence – at least it should be. 15 year old Jason Azim is nearing the end of his second day of Isolation for the relentless bullying of another student, but Mr Brooks is supervising the last couple of periods – and he’s not in the mood for marking.

CAST
Jase: Lee Peck
Tim: Phil Gerrard

VENUE
Actors and Writers London (AWL)
Bridge Room/Bar
4th Floor
The Polish Centre
238 King Street
Hammersmith
London W6 0RF

DETAILS
Room 20 will be one of eight plays performed as part of an AWL competition night. The performances will be script-in-hand rehearsed readings.

TICKETS
£5 on the door.

Please let me know if you intend to come so I can meet up with you.

Just a quick one, as I have now started writing a radio play which I am very exited about!

Something else I’m very excited about is: Room 20 will be performed in London.

I am a member of Actors & Writers London (AWL), London’s longest-running professional play-reading forum for actors and writers. The group meets in Hammersmith, London W6, on alternate Monday evenings for rehearsed readings and chaired discussions of new plays.

A couple of times a year, the group holds a competition night for their writers, and I’m pleased to say that Room 20 has been selected to be performed in the next competition on December 15th.

My play is currently being cast; I’ll keep you posted.

Hammersmith, and an interesting introduction to Actors and Writers London – London’s longest-running professional play-reading forum for actors and writers.

Invited along by Viv Lake, a writer I met at the Riverside Youth Theatre, I left home at 5pm and drove to her house in Ashford. The plan was to catch a train from Feltham to Richmond, then go four stops along the District Line to Ravenscourt Park. Simple. We’d be in Hammersmith by about seven for a drink in the bar before the rehearsed reading of a new play started at 7.30pm. Viv had been doing this journey every other Monday evening for a couple of years. Easy.

Well maybe not – the ticket man said our end of District Line was still closed for maintenance that had over-run from the day before. He helpfully suggested we go up to Clapham then get the Circle Line to Victoria and change there for the District Line back to Ravenscourt Park. If only it had been that simple.

Various trains had been delayed; some didn’t even arrive; one of our tube trains had the wrong destination on the front (the information system was off-line), which meant we were on our way to Wimbledon before we realised we were on the wrong track and had to go back to Earls Court; there was a security problem on a station further along the line which meant a half hour wait… I could go on.

In fact there was a problem with every train and every connection we made and to cut an incredibly long and totally useless journey (the ticket man had neglected to tell us about the replacement bus service!) short we made it to the 4th floor of the Polish Centre in Hammersmith at 9pm just in time for the second act, and then had to leave again 45 minutes later to be sure of getting home!

Anyway, having said all that, I’m glad I went. In the large room were about 70 professional actors, directors and writers and we all watched a rehearsed reading* of a new play written by one of the members. Brilliant.

After the performance there was a chaired forum where audience members were invited to offer constructive criticism for the playwright.

I didn’t say anything, but I was really pleased that I had picked up on a few things that other people mentioned.

It was a great (though sadly short) evening, and I eagerly joined the group knowing this was the next stage for me and my work. I’ll be going up with Viv every other Monday evening to mix with actors and writers and watch the beginnings of new plays.

*For those that don’t know, a ‘rehearsed reading’ is the next step on from a general reading of a new play after it’s been written. A director will spend a day with the cast and the writer and put together a production of the play. The actors (script in hand) then use minimal props and costume to perform the play to an invited audience. Generally the comments from the director, the actors and the audience are then taken on board by the playwright who (along with their own observations) will then re-write all or parts of the play with the intention of making it better.