It’s amazing how a couple of days can change things.

One day I’m sat there having a laugh and a joke with Paul about being his PA for the evening’s performance of Spaceboy – which for the record I thought was absolutely incredible – and within a couple days I’d taken on the role as part of Paul’s ‘Summer Internships’ programme!

I guess I’d better tell you a bit about who I am for those of you who don’t already know.

My name is Tom Fidler, I go to Riverside Youth Theatre and am a keen actor – though doesn’t necessarily mean I’m any good – and met Paul there nearly three years ago.

We’ve been good friends since.

It was really the idea of getting into play-writing that allowed me to help to help Paul in the position I am now, and I will, in the future, write some plays with added expertise from some playwright called PAFoster…

But that’s for another time, this is Paul’s blog and so from now on I’ll keep it about him and my role as his PA for the summer.

When my exams are finished I will have all the the time in the world and hopefully the added assistance of a Macbook Pro to help me along with assisting Paul and keeping you up-to-date with any progress either on new or existing projects.

With my (and Pete’s) internships underway, there will be some changes to the way things are done, so to keep up-to-date on projects and any important information on the play front then I recommend you become a fan of the facebook page PAFoster – Playwright and also follow @PAFoster on Twitter.

My friend Pete (*PW) and I (*TF) will be tweeting as well as Paul on all things PAFoster-Playwright related.

Paul’s personal twitter is now @FuckingMangoes which incidentally is the name of the latest play Pete and I will get a sneak preview of on 26th June, and not some sort of sexual fruit fetish, lol.

Oh, and you can of course follow me on twitter too if you like: @TomFidler

Anyway, be sure to look out for my posts and tweets in the future, but until then, this is it for my first blog post at PAFoster.com.

I have to say if you’ve read this far, you’ve done well (and so have I, lol) as in all honesty blog posts aren’t my speciality considering I’ve only ever posted two before.

Until next time, sayonara!

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

Hello my fellow Tweeter,

I’m using the awesome power of Twitter to solve a problem of calculating some odds.

I’m a playwright and need twelp with this since one of my characters knows the answer.

If I choose two numbers at random from 1 to 7,000,000,000 and roll a theoretical die twice, what are the odds of me rolling both random numbers in any order?

If you can work out the answer then please reply on Twitter to @PAFoster

If not, then I’d be most grateful if you could ReTweet, and hopefully one of your followers will be able to help me.

Many, many thanks,

Paul

I’m going to do the same. Facebook and Twitter are permanently there in my browser, and I’m always checking them, ‘liking’ something, commenting on something else, and updating my status, replying to a tweet, or adding my own pearls of wisdom for my followers.

I enjoy it, and when I’m in a normal frame of mind, that’s cool, but I have to write.

I’m in the middle of writing a new full length play. There’s loads in my head, and I really need to get it out. And although I can write and multi-task to certain extent, I often find myself checking something online, researching etc. And whilst there, it is too easy to click the facebook bookmark, or indeed twitter and just check in with the world.

And then, well I get distracted, and before I know it I’ve lost my train of thought and find it difficult to get back into the scene I was in the middle of.

My full length play is my ‘graduation piece’ for my Nuffield Theatre Writers Group. It’s due end of January.

Now I know I’m not going to make that one, hardly surprising based on my personal mental hell of getting through the last six months of 2009, but I’m aiming for the 18th February, since that’s when I’m due back at the Nuffield for two important meetings.

Now add to this another deadline; I’m applying for a ‘writing job’. It’s only £350 and tbh, I’ll be lucky if I get it as my CV isn’t exactly bursting at the seams, but the important thing is, there’s a deadline. 14th February. And that means having to write. Even if I don’t get it, I’d like to think that I could have done it, had I got it.

So I really need to start working on my dicipline. And that’s not going to be easy. I’m moving from the ‘wannabe playwright’ to ‘professional playwright’ and if I end up getting a writing job, and people are paying me to write, I need to come up with the goods when they require it.

So, I’ve decided, with all credit to the wonderful Stephen Fry, that I’ll have a hiatus and switch off most of my connections with the outside world while I finish writing the first draft of the current play.

Once written, it’ll hide on my hard disc for a few weeks, and I’ll come back and say hi, knowing it’s safely fermenting, waiting for me to return, edit, redraft, rewrite etc.

I can write quickly. The ideas are all there. I can spend hours and hours typing the words, but I’m going to have to do this without distraction.

This play has come out of my head in a very different way to my other work. It is a much more professional piece. I’m already proud of it, and it deserves my time and undistracted efforts in getting into the world, being the best it can be.

So, adios.

I’ll be off facebook and twitter for a while, and I’m turning off my MSN too. Temporarily of course; I’ll be back.

I’ll update my blog with progress when I can, and intend to keep my One Word posts going too. I’ll check my email, and you can always text or call me!

Laters xx

PS: Guilty as charged. I just checked my facebook again, and there was another couple of tweets on my Twitter too. This is gunna be hard.