Why do you think the 24-hour plays concept is unique?

I think writing to an ensemble is a different skill to writing to a lead character. Sometimes when you start a play, you have a character in mind or a situation and so it’s much easier to write to one or two characters than to write to five, especially in the short amount of time you have. It’s difficult because you are engineering lots of exits and entrances. Yet, it does make you think more about the direction you’re going with a piece.

What is the process of collaboration between the whole team during the 24 hours?

I’ve done two years of 24-hour plays and on both instances the whole team is together for roughly five hours of time. There is an hour of meeting when we get given the word to discuss. My words have been ‘public’ and ‘biography’. Then I go home and write up my bit and we meet again when I present one or two scripts. Then the director does their part and I come back at 5-6oclock to oversee the process. My part is done by 7pm.

 

How did you go about writing your piece?

I’ve been very lucky with my words the past two years as they have both been very broad. How I approached it was by brainstorming different meanings of the words and different situations in which the word would arise. From that you get ideas and concepts springing out at you. With ‘biography’, I was thinking about telling stories as well as being against the clock. It’s about using the tools at hand.

What do you feel you learnt from participating in the 24-hour plays?

Pacing and trust; ten minutes is a very specific amount of time to write a script for. You can’t allow yourself to balloon or to have a slow start. You need to hit the ground running and try to get as much in as you can, as it doesn’t exactly allow for Beckett-style pauses. It was one of the first times I wrote a script and handed it over to a director who I had to trust. This does encourage you to accept the division of roles.

Where do you feel you get inspiration from in your writing?

I wouldn’t say one particular place. I wrote one play on the back of a supervision essay on Roman sexuality and about the different male and female transgressiveness. I wrote two pieces on literature I read. I also really like paintings and images in particular.

How has Cambridge influenced your art?

The environment is incredibly stressful so you have to be really self-disciplined. That is very invigorating. Here, if you’re really passionate about something, you need to make time for it and that does refine your ideas. You do have to be more constructive in a short amount of time.

Would you consider writing for television or film?

I wrote a two-part screen play which was very different to writing a stage play. A script for a stage is about dialogue; you cannot be a successful playwright unless you have control over dialogue, whether that is Stoppard-esque heightened realism or something surreal. With a screen play, it is much more about writing to an image and the scripting than to a dialogue.

Which writer inspires you most?

I get a lot out of the works of a graphic writer called Grant Morrison. Morrison’s works explore ideas of futurism and using the material of comic books. Seeing something so experimental is very thought provoking.

What are your aspirations for writing in the future?

I feel, to be a writer, you need to be talented but just being talented is not quite enough, especially with cuts to the art funding. You need to be lucky. If you get the right opportunities, you might be able to make a career out of it. I am very passionate but whatever happens, as long as I’m writing, I’m happy.

Any upcoming projects?

I’m directing a play I’ve written in week three, called Res Gestae Divae Juliae at the Corpus Playroom. It’s a piece of historical work about Julia who was a first-century celebrity. There is very little written about her, which is exciting as you can do whatever you want with that!