DTCB - Read Through Development

The script’s perfect! Of course it is. Why would it not be? It’s the best version of it there’s been. Until you reach the Read Through session, that is. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a wonderful opportunity to have professional actors read your work, bring life and nuance to your words. And that’s when it hits you: the script is not perfect. It’s far from perfect. Pass the binoculars…we’ve some distance yet to go.

Olivia Ross together with Acting Coach Scotland (ACS) set up a reading session last week and did a wonderful job. The environment was friendly, professional…convivial even. That’s important since everyone is relaxed, even the playwright…up to a point. For me, it is always slightly embarrassing to have my work read out for the first time. I’m pleased to say there is lots in there that works but equally there are the bits that don’t work: the jokes that don’t land as you thought, the hitherto unnoticed polemic, the character misalignment. And those moments are revealed to you for the first time in a public environment. However, it is always important to listen to actor feedback. For this is as close as I’ll ever get to an audience reaction before the play is performed. I’m a bit seasoned to this now but it still doesn’t make it easy because rarely is it the case you can simply substitute one joke for another. The build up to that moment involves character interaction, plot development and often dramaturgical threads. The mistake is to think I can just tweak these things to achieve the desired outcome. I’ll be blunt: that never happens. Which means…a full on re-write! But as soon as that dawns on you, your brain switches into gear turning the cogs that will slowly but assuredly lead to the next draft. And that is where the actor feedback is so important, because they have given you the coordinates to where the current problems lie. I didn’t know these coordinates prior to entering the room (remember: my script was perfect!).

Major thanks to Habiba Saleh, Laura Lovemore, Billy Mack, Muireann Ní Raghallaigh, Sean Connor and Adam Greene. Thanks also to Olivia and Nick Field for organising the evening.

You’ll find me in a corner scribbling furiously :)