Download 0904 - New Theatre Publications

Newsletter - April 2009
The main article in this newsletter will focus on pantomimes, both for those who already
write them and for those who fancy having a go. We are grateful to Pat Jones and Martin
Ladbrook for sending their contributions to the discussion.
But first, the previously-announced competition...
The NTP Diana Raffle Playwriting Competition
We announced that we would be running the competition in the last newsletter, hoping for
some feedback from you as to your thoughts. However, we have had no feedback at all, so
have devised the following strategy.
In case you’re wondering at the title, it’s to honour Diana Raffle, who was a member of the
Co-operative from its outset and who sadly passed on last year. Her plays remain popular and,
thanks to her husband Scott, we are about to publish her last work.
To the competition:The aim of this is to expand membership and increase visibility - we should be able to get
editorial coverage, i.e. free advertising.
The theme of the competition is to write plays that entertain.
We have one prize of "WriteItNow" software and will consider other prizes (possibly cash
and/or a trophy). Winning playwrights will be offered a publishing contract for the winning
play.
PC/NTP members will be allowed to submit one entry free of any charges. Additional
submissions can be made at an entry fee of £7.50 per play. Non-NTP members can submit
plays with a fee of £7.50 per play. There is no limit to the number of plays that can be
submitted by any author.
All plays must be previously unpublished (but can have been performed) and the author must
warrant (by agreeing to terms and conditions we will publish) that the work is his/her own
and is not in breach of any copyrights or other agreements.
Playing time must be between 30 minutes and one hour.
Each play must be sent by email or disk, in Word format. The file name must contain the
name of the play.
A first page should contain the name of the play, the author's name and contact details and the
approximate playing time. All other pages of the play must contain the name of the play in the
header and a page number in the footer. The author's name must not be contained on any
pages other than the first.
The decision of the judges will be final and no correspondence will be entered into to explain
decisions made. However, members (or anyone who decides to join as a member) will be
offered a written critique of the work.
Dates for submissions and decisions will be published shortly.
Once again, any ideas or feedback you have will be welcomed.
Playwrights’ Co-operative Convention
We have had yet another request to organise some sort of “convention” where interested
playwrights can gather and network, and including presentations and workshops. We’re quite
keen on the idea, but thus far the take-up has been poor, making the project non-viable. One
of the main problems seems to be the location, for obvious reasons, but there’s no reason why
we should not have a number of such events in regional locations if anyone is interested.
Please come back to us with your views.
Writing pantomimes
Like them or hate them, it’s a foolish theatre company that ignores pantomime. Of course,
pantomime as we think of it in Britain is pretty much unique to Britain. Overseas it tends to
mean “mime”, pure and simple. But in the UK we have a few essentials for a successful
production, and these will be explored in this newsletter. If we agree with the opening
statement of this paragraph, then, by default, it’s a foolish playwright who ignores pantomime
too.
Of course not all writers want to write pantomime, and in all probability not all writers have
the abilities needed. You’re also up against the part time writers within the membership of the
performing companies themselves. Whereas these people don’t even dream of picking up
their metaphorical pens to write a play, they do use their local knowledge - of the people and
places around them - to produce something which the cast and audience feel they can own a
part of. If you’re not in the group you cannot possibly know that last year’s chairman was
wrongly accused of tax evasion and that the whole village was up in arms to stop Tesco
building a new superstore on the youth club football pitch. This means that your script has to
have the opportunities to inject local colour, but you will have to let the people fill in the gaps
with phrases like “name of local celebrity” of “name of local restaurant”.
If you decide to go for it, you need to think about what you’re going to write. The likes of
Samuel French, I have been told, will not even consider another Cinderella or Aladdin - they
have too many on their books already. So for them you need something totally different. How
about Heidi, William Tell or The Railway Children as pantomimes? More on that later.
At NTP we disagree with that point. If your local theatre company puts up a poster
advertising Graham’s Ride, we have no idea whether it’s a pantomime or not. Yet - while you
can’t be 100% certain - chances are that if they put up a poster advertising Cinderella it
means a panto. People will know up front what they’re going to see - which, as with most
things, has pros and cons.
One of the initial problems with writing pantomimes is the story – in truth, there is only one.
Boy meets girl, they fall in love. Evil person comes along and tries to wreck everything.
Collection of cross-dressing but well-meaning idiots save the day, making you cringe by
telling awful jokes and singing songs that would make karaoke down the local pub suddenly
not sound so bad after all. Villain is foiled, happy couple wed. Wedding. Finale. Curtain. End.
A lot of “serious” theatre companies decry pantomime, often claiming “it’s not proper
theatre” and so on. The quick answer is that it’s still theatre, it’s just different theatre. And - to
be sure - the actors need their wits about them if they are going to handle situations and
audience feedback that aren’t in the script.
The one (almost) certain thing about pantomime is that it has the potential to make a serious
amount of money for the performing group. The audience will probably be different from
their regular attendees, primarily because it’s family entertainment through and through,
whereas “normal” plays, sadly, attract a narrower audience. More about this under Casting
below.
First, a bit of history, thanks to Wikipedia - “A pantomimos in Greece was originally a solo
dancer who 'imitated all' (panto- - all, mimos - mimic) accompanied by sung narrative and
instrumental music, often played on the flute. The word later came to be applied to the
performance itself. The pantomime was a popular form of entertainment in ancient Greece
and, later, Rome.” Helpful....
Your chosen story
Again thanks to Wikipedia, the most popular pantomime titles are (not in order of
popularity):Aladdin (sometimes combined with Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves and/or other Arabian
Nights tales. It can also be set in China rather than the Middle East)
Babes in the Wood (often combined with Robin Hood)
Beauty and the Beast
Cinderella, the most popular and first shown in 1870 in Covent Garden
Dick Whittington and His Cat, first staged as a panto in 1814, based on a 17th century play.
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
Jack and the Beanstalk (Sometimes including references to nursery rhymes and other
children's stories involving characters called Jack, such as Jack and Jill)
Little Red Riding Hood
Mother Goose
Peter Pan
Puss in Boots
Robinson Crusoe
Sleeping Beauty
Snow White
The Princess and the Pea
The Snow Queen
Goody Two Shoes
So, if you want to stay traditional, take your pick. Be a little wary, though - for example Peter
Pan won’t work unless you can fly. And not many groups can afford the expense of the
equipment and insurance to achieve that. Robin Hood wouldn’t be much fun without bows
and arrows.
Some people have come up with original stories, and some have been successful, but I
wonder if anyone reading this newsletter could name just one.
As with most things, there’s a halfway house. NTP member Jackie Staite, for example, has
taken traditional storylines and updated them. So instead of Goldilocks and the Three Bears,
she has Goldilocks and the Three Martians, giving it a modern twist and using the amusing
device of a nightclub called The Mars Bar. In addition she has a sequel to Cinderella and has
Red Riding Hood going out west and Sleeping Beauty going back to the future!
Our own Paul Beard took Robin Hood as the basis for a panto set in prohibition Chicago,
complete with gangsters, and with the cleverly twisted title Robin Hoodlum.
Faced with a youth drama group all leaving for Universities some years ago, and wanting a
final fling, I set about devising a plot that could use the youngsters usefully, since all were, by
then, quite accomplished. Multiple principal boys and principal girls were my answer,
shoehorned into a storyline that melded several panto together, with characters of Prince
Charming, Dick Whittington and Aladdin having romantic desires for Sleeping Beauty, Snow
White and Princess Lotus Blossom. Villains were provided by Abanazar from the Aladdin
Story and the Evil Queen from Snow White. Problem solved, leaving the title Abanazar’s
Revenge.
Ingredients
I did some analysis of pantomime years back, to assist in writing them. I think I came up with
eleven essential ingredients, but I wonder if I can remember them all:I’ll do this as a checklist - maybe you can tick them off as you use them!
Leggy “principal boy” in short tunic and boots – get the dads along
Sweetness and light principal girl – make the kids want the happy ending
Dame – just because
Fool/hero – someone to cheer and/or be sorry for
Villain – someone for the kids to boo (and to scare them just a little)
Slapstick/mess – essential
Local “tuning” – to give it relevance
Singalong/well-known songs (maybe with altered lyrics)
A monster/ghost – who, of course, is behind you
“Oh yes it is” - honestly
Appalling jokes.
Hardly surprising, then, that writers generally do not spend all their time inventing new
pantomimes. Authors are storytellers and the pantomime stories are not theirs to own. I’ve
done three, and I have no doubt will do more when there’s a need. I have to admit that doing
“Abanazar’s Revenge”, which is a combination of several panto stories, was more stimulating
than Cinderella or Robin Hood. Actually, I do have another one planned, probably an
Aladdin, but I may do one where the “evil queen” part is a leather clad dominatrix with a
whip, suitably tailored so the kids will find her fun/scary and the dads will have totally
different ideas!
As for the story itself, you can’t really change it that much – the audience isn’t coming along
to find out anew if Cinderella triumphs over the stepmother and ugly sisters, and whether the
slipper will fit – they already know all that and would be devastated if it didn’t happen. So the
author has to take the basic story, add a few elements and subplots that don’t clash with that
story, then localise it (mention local people/places), topicalise it (current news references,
people in the news and so on) and add the music, songs and jokes.
One thing you will need to do is to break it down into distinct scenes. Many theatre
companies are geared into staging single-set plays, and that doesn’t work too well in
pantomimes. So you need to find ways whereby they can achieve multiple sets without too
great an expense, too much time or too much technical/practical know-how. Do put
yourselves in the position of these companies - chances are they are used to staging plays, and
all that involves will be a simple set, developing characters, learning lines and mapping out
stage directions and moves. Not so for a pantomime - they need to do all that but also find
music, perhaps write songs, have people rehearse singing and dancing, develop a totally
unfamiliar way of acting, make dozens of costumes, OTT makeup and so on. And they have
to make and paint gaudy scenery, too. So help them out where you can, OK?
It is vaguely acceptable to have curtains closed between scenes in a regular play. We need to
keep those gaps as short as possible, because the audience will start to chat and get restless
and will need to be settled down again before the next scene, but these gaps are very often
there. I’d suggest that, in a pantomime, you do anything you can to avoid these breaks. There
will be children in the audience, and they get restless very quickly. Nevertheless props, and
more importantly scenery, will need changing, meaning closed tabs. So how do we keep
continuity? We have “front of curtain” (FOC) action, ranging from parts of the plot to songs
and “community” songs.
When you’re mapping out your scenes (yes, you, the writer), consider alternating FOC scenes
and onstage scenes.
Scene 1 - Village scene
Scene 2 - On the road to the palace (FOC)
Scene 3 - the palace courtyard
Scene 4 - a corridor in the palace dungeons (FOC) etc.
will work. It allows the crew to change the scenery and props from the village scene to the
palace courtyard while the road to the palace scene is being played out in front of curtains.
There are no gaps. But if we omit the road to the palace scene, the crew need to do the
scenery-shifting to closed curtains, and that means a restless audience.
I remember when directing a panto recently, the first this group had ever done, that the
prompt helpfully offered to assist with scene changes, something I had to nip in the bud
immediately - she hadn’t realised that she had only one “gap” in the whole production, and
that was the interval.
Casting
People who don’t normally take to the stage at all, through shyness, advancing age (telling
them they can’t learn lines like they used to), plus non-members of the society, new members,
the secretary’s nephew, the local playschool kids and so on, would quite like a small part in
the annual pantomime. That’s all good stuff - who knows, in these days of dwindling
memberships, potential new actors could be the saviour of the group. This means you need a
good number of background or chorus parts, but that they need to be sufficiently flexible to
cater for variable numbers of these bit actors. Good examples are villagers, market traders,
guests at the palace grand ball and so on. A few lines can be allocated to Villager 1, Villager
2, etc., with a hint that these lines can be spread out by the performing company between
those available.
These new actors probably won’t want to do much solo singing or dancing either, but don’t
dismiss them altogether - in non-choral companies, chorus songs can come over much better
than solos from untrained voices, no matter how good those actors are. More of that later.
Which moves us, again, to the principals. In all probability these will be:Character
examples
Principal Boy
Robin Hood, Aladdin, Prince Charming, Dick Whittington, Peter Pan, etc.
Principal Girl
Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Red Riding Hood, Goldilocks,
various princesses
Dame
Nurses, Guardians, Widow Twankey, Jack’s Mother, Mother Goose, etc.
Hero
Buttons, Dandini, Dick’s Cat, Little John, the Three Bears, etc.
Fools
Wishee Washee, henchmen, etc.
Villains
Abanazar, Evil Queen, Wicked Stepmother, Sheriff of Nottingham, Wolf,
Giant, etc.
Children parts
Seven Dwarfs, etc.
The above list will vary and even cross - for example, is the Beast in Beauty and the Beast a
villain or a principal boy? Or possibly both, since all pantomime villains see the path to
goodness before the final curtain?
Right at the end there I’ve added “children parts”, and a word of caution here. Some groups
will have very capable children available to them, so reasonable speaking parts for the seven
dwarfs (I’m assured that’s the correct word in this story, not “dwarves”) are achievable. But
your ubiquitous ADS will probably rely on whatever children are related to the cast or are
willing members of the church playgroup. They won’t be acting trained, voice trained or
dance trained, so be careful how much you give them to do. For this reason alone, Snow
White is probably not the best panto to cut your teeth on! Then again, playgroups do meet
regularly, and if you can persuade the playgroup organiser to develop a dance routine during
their sessions it can take a load off the pantomime director.
One other word of caution when incorporating children in your panto. In these days of child
protection legislation, many groups do not want the responsibility of looking after children.
The group would have to include people who have undergone CRB (Criminal Records
Bureau) checks, and that’s both time consuming and expensive, even if you can find willing
adults. More probably, groups will be happy to include kids whose parents/guardians are
happy to attend every rehearsal and every performance. Even then you will need separate
changing facilities (no child is ready to see the likes of me donning a dame’s costume!) And
something to amuse them when they’re not on stage. Indeed some groups have a lower age
limit that specifically excludes minors.
But there are very positive aspects to including children in a production. Firstly, you are
encouraging children to take up the theatre, giving it life into the future. Secondly, many
people like to see kids on stage. Thirdly, and here’s where the pound Sterling rears its ugly
head, if you have kids in your cast you probably have mums, dads, grandparents, uncles and
aunties, Godparents, school friends, bothers and sisters, teachers, etc. in your audience. That
means increased ticket sales. It could mean expanding the group’s membership. It could mean
expanding the audiences for the group’s mainstream plays.
Plot Continuity
This is as important in a pantomime as with the most complex of thrillers. We already know
the storyline, as do the audience, but it needs to flow, smoothly and seamlessly. We’ve
discussed FOC scenes to cover set changes, but these small parts of the action have another
important role, namely linking one scene to the next.
Although I usually try to avoid negativity, I have to illustrate this by a very bad example. The
panto was “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” done by a society I used to be a member of.
This was the first attempt by a new writer and a new director, so I’ll be as gentle as possible.
Between two scenes, one at the Evil Queen’s Palace and the next at the cottage in the woods,
the director had put a musical piece to cover the scene change. It was “Greased Lightning”
from the Grease musical. When I first saw it I couldn’t believe it was there, and couldn’t
avoid asking the director why she had put it there. Her response was that it was a lively
number that people like. But it has no relevance whatever to the storyline. When people hear
“Greased Lightning”they expect a car to be wheeled out on stage, and there was no place for a
car in Snow White. It demonstrated lack of thought. The inclusion of this number didn’t move
the storyline ahead at all; if anything, it distracted from it. I was accused by the director (I
think maybe I offended her) of including a popular Status Quo number in my previous year’s
production of Abanazar’s Revenge. Yes, I have to admit I did. The scene was Widow
Twankey’s laundry and the song was “Rocking All Over the World”, but with lyrics altered to
be “Washing All Over the World”. The word “relevance” has a place here!
Music and Songs
Moving right along from the previous paragraph we come to the thorny problem of songs and
music. Unless the music is old enough to have run out of copyright, you can’t use it. (Yes, I
know Status Quo isn’t - quite - that old, but I was ignorant of the rules then.)
I meant can’t/don’t use it. At all.
Contact the Performing Rights Society (www.mcps-prs-alliance.co.uk) if you don’t believe
me.
As far as I am aware, and I am no expert here, the only way to get full permission to use a
piece of music in your panto is to ask the owners of the copyright. And, with all due respect, I
doubt Sir Andrew Lloyd-Webber will reply.
And it gets worse. You cannot include the lyrics in your script either, because they are subject
to copyright too.
Still worse - you cannot include even altered lyrics that would encourage the performing
group to use the copyrighted music.
We know - we all know - that theatre companies the length and breadth of the country do not
always heed these rules. We know that a panto would be flat if it just used original music that
nobody has heard of or could sing along to. But rules are rules. The local Church ADS isn’t
that visible. They know the music police would have a hard time finding them (though
Disney, the most vigorous chasers of offenders, have taken legal action against some very
small fish). They take the risk. But you are talking about putting something down in black and
white, where anyone could read it. If you flaunt copyright you are, at the same time, making a
written confession of the fact, and you’re roping NTP in as accomplices.
The best advice we can offer about this is to include broad hints. “A well known British
cinema spy theme” doesn’t say James Bond but is getting there. You are innocent and it’s
then up to the performing group to find a theme that isn’t subject to copyright or, importantly,
is already covered by the performing rights licence they already have. Yes, that’s right - many
groups who perform in public buildings have PRS licences, so they won’t be breaking any
laws. But you, the writer, won’t have a PRS licence (it’s of no use to you because you,
yourself, are not doing public performances) and hence will be breaking the law.
If any of you has any other knowledge or advice on this, or thinks I am in error here, please
let us know.
Acting Styles
Though this is really the responsibility of the director, you can encourage people to adopt
certain acting styles by your dialogue and stage direction within the script. Acting in
pantomime is much “bigger” than in plays. People don’t vaguely point at things, they use an
entire arm and elaborate gesture. They don’t “move left”, they stride boldly from one side of
the stage to the other.
Look at the difference between:GEOFF: Will you marry me, Lucy?
And
PRINCE: Princess, you have the chance to make me the happiest man in the whole of
pantoland. Please do me the honour of agreeing to be my bride.
Making the evening got with a bang
No, not pyrotechnics - most groups don’t have a licence to do those either, and they’re
expensive! I mean, well, you know what I mean.
Your audience arrives with its expectations and it’s up to you and the performing group to
make sure they don’t leave disappointed. Be faithful to the story, but include sufficient
additions to make it “not just another Cinderella”. Sprinkle music and (more importantly)
songs fairly thin. So many amateur groups are let down by lack of musically trained actors why they don’t enlist people from the local Operatic Society defeats me - that can all but ruin
a show from mutual audience/cast embarrassment. Avoid solos if possible. But do include a
community song or two - they’re a great way of engaging with the audience and for the cast
to endear themselves to the audience by handing out sweets or other rewards.
Nearly all pantos finish with a romantic scene between the PB and PG. Milk it, ladies and
gentlemen - here is your opportunity for colour, lights and glitz. OK, so everyone will need a
wedding outfit, but it’s a chance to get the entire cast on stage and let the sound and lights
people do a real production number with flashing lights and catchy music for a finale dance.
The Walk-Down
Most plays end with a curtain call from the cast, where they take their bows. Pantomimes can
go really OTT with that. The entire cast, sensibly organised into common-interest groups,
walk down to the centre of the stage, to the accompaniment of audience cheers, boos, hisses
and laughter, ending with the happy couple. The audience is reminded that they enjoyed the
show and everyone goes away happy. Which is what we set out to do when we first put pen to
paper.
The Fantasy of Pantomime….But Don’t Lose the Plot
An article by Pat Jones
I was introduced to pantomime at a very early age. It was traditional in the 50’s to be taken to
a local production on Boxing Day. The whole family used to go and I am sure this must have
been where my love of theatre started.
I decided to start writing pantomimes after I had taken my children to see a couple of
professional pantomimes which were very short on story and seemed only to be a vehicle for
the soap star of the moment.
I began by writing down any joke that I found funny, whether new, old, re-cycled or sprouting
whiskers. I scribbled down any situation I found amusing or even the odd word which made
me laugh. My book is filled with innuendo with lashings of puns and double entendre. After
ten years and eight published pantomimes I now have a collection of jokes for every occasion,
and all suitable for family audiences.
Essentially a pantomime has got to be funny, if possible on two levels and have plenty of
visual stuff for the children. It’s always good to bring in local or topical gags or play with
local place names if you are setting the panto in some foreign land. Yes, there are the old
chestnuts of true love, good and evil, outrageous but lovable man in a frock, a fairy if
appropriate (speaking in rhyme of course), a panto animal, a chase around the theatre, a
spooky sequence, a couple of fools, plenty of singing and dancing and of course audience
participation with the “behind you” routine and “tell me if anyone touches my sweeties”
routine.. I always like to include a short soliloquy for the hard-done-by dame where I can use
my lovelorn, fat, ugly and poor jokes (yes, I suppose they are rather poor!!) The format I
always stick to is either a rousing opening to set the pace of the show or I bring my villain in
first in front of the curtains so the audience can begin to react early on with boos and hisses.
Even then, I like my first chorus opening to start with gusto. It is very important to create
interest and atmosphere straight away and to sustain a good pace throughout. There are very
few story lines for pantomimes but unlimited variations. It’s a challenge to bring a new twist
to an age-old story just so long as the actual story line is there somewhere. Children expect
their heroes and heroines to do exactly what they are supposed to do. The art is how you
achieve this. A transformation scene must be magical using good lighting effects and music.
The beauty of writing panto is that you can go anywhere and do anything, however
anachronous. In “Dick Whittington” I took them to the Arctic where the inhabitants were
called “Polaroids”and in “Robinson Crusoe” we went to “Yum Yum Island” inhabited by
cannibals with the shipwrecked Robinson experiencing the frustration of recorded messages
on a mobile phone. If at all possible it’s great to include slapstick even if it’s just the silly
billies throwing custard pies at each other but it must be said that even the simplest of
slapstick needs plenty of choreography and practise. I also find “designer jokes” good fun
where the audience think something has gone wrong on the night when you have actually
written these incidents in the script. Having silly characters or characters who are not too
bright is a great chance to invent daft names. I have used Plankton and Guppy and Dipstick
and Doodle in the past. After writing a pantomime I always leave it for about six weeks then
invite a few friends round for a read through. If they don’t laugh then I know I have a
problem but the daft thing is that I laugh at some of the jokes myself – maybe it’s the way
they tell them!
The bottom line is that pantomime is magical entertainment. It’s a fairy tale with music. It is
likely the first experience a child will have in a theatre, an experience
which will involve excitement and emotional participation. I think it is very important to keep
up the tradition of genuine pantomime in theatre and I think it’s a great pity that this art form,
this great entertainment, is rarely seen outside of Great Britain.
Pat Jones
[email protected]
From Martin Ladbrook
First thing I'd say about writing pantos is: if you're not already in a drama group that performs
them, go and join one. You get to see how they come together at first hand, and the amateur
director that doesn't want to talk about how they put a show together hasn't been born yet.
Plus you can offer to custom write a panto for them - you find out if your ideas work on stage,
and they get a show that doesn't cost them royalties.
Secondly, when choosing a panto to write (unless you're making up a story from scratch),
bear in mind the competition that exists. A group looking to put on Cinderella will have
hundreds if not thousands of scripts to choose from, so the chances of them finding yours are
remote. If they're thinking of Bluebeard or Goody Two Shoes (he says in a shameless act of
self-promotion) are more likely to find your script through a search engine.
Some recent productions
One Across (Ian Hornby) - Bere Island, Eire
Cliff's Edge (Paul Beard) - Newfoundland
Where There's A Will (Ian Hornby) - Daventry
Ali Baba and The Forty Thieves (Terry Harper) - Castle Bromwich
The Worst Day of My Life (Alan Richardson) - Edinburgh
The Magic Clogs (Parker/Young) - Chester
The Worst Day of My Life (Alan Richardson) - Caldicot
Abanazar's Revenge (Ian Hornby) - Germany
Where There's A Will (Ian Hornby) - Aukland, NZ
A Dish Served Cold (Ian Hornby) - Duston, Northants
Abanazar's Revenge (Ian Hornby) - Saxmundham, Suffolk
Some Enchanted Evening (Derek Parkes) - Newtown-le-Willows, Merseyside
Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime (Chris Pitt) - Newtown-le-Willows, Merseyside
Fairway to Heaven (Diana Raffle) - Abbots Langley, Watford
A Pain In The Neck (Paul Beard) - Campbeltown
A Night At The Moulin Rouge (Barry Hillman) - Northampton
Come the Resolution (Paul Beard) - Blackwood, Lanark
The Worst Day of My Life (Alan Richardson) - Stranraer
Cold Blood (Ian Hornby) - Erdington, Birmingham
Fairway to Heaven (Diana Raffle) - Marple, Cheshire
Take My Husbands Please! (Terry Harper) - Lee-on-the-Solent
Benchmarks (Bob Hartwell) - Chideock, Dorset
Manny's Party (Geoff Saunders) - Manchester
That’s My Girl (Bathurst) - Totley, Sheffield
The Mayhem Players Present Love In A Transylvanian Mist (David Welsh) - Isle of Arran
Hell Hath No Fury… (Tom Casling) - Durham
The Cat's Away (Ian Hornby) - Glantawe, Powys
Hello, Is There Any Body There? (Ian Hornby) - Milton Keynes
The Worst Day of My Life (Alan Richardson) - Fuengirola
French Toast (Diana Raffle) - Ashbourne, Derbyshire
The Worst Day of My Life (Alan Richardson) - Port Elizabeth, South Africa
Two Purple Gloves (Michael Park) - Kircaldy
Wait Until The Ghost Is Clear (Ian Hornby) - Bishop Aukland
The Retiring Highwayman (Michael Legat) - Harbury, Warwickshire
An Eye For An Eye, Darling (Ian Hornby) - Stockport, Cheshire
Hello, Is There Any Body There? (Ian Hornby) - Harrow
The Worst Day of My Life (Alan Richardson) - Caldicot
The Spy Who Came in for the Phone (Alan Richardson) - Caldicot
The Worst Day of My Life (Alan Richardson) - Blandford
The Spy Who Came in for the Phone (Alan Richardson) - Blandford
The Worst Day of My Life (Alan Richardson) - Malaga, Spain
Lust In The Dust (Alan Bates) - Bingley, W Yorkshire
Come the Resolution (Paul Beard) - Blackwood
Inaccurate Conception (Geoff Saunders) - Lincoln
Man's View (Derek Webb) - Walthamstow
Three Short Plays by Geoff Saunders - Northwich, Cheshire
Amazing Grace (Rena Pope) - Bristol
A Pain In The Neck (Paul Beard) - Campbeltown
Hello, Is There Any Body There? (Ian Hornby) - Darenth, Kent
Popular Plays and Marketing
Aside from the above, some of liked to see which plays were being read. All we can ask is for
a little patience; getting that information from the system took a long time, so we’re working
on a system that will automatically summarise the most popular plays and we’ll be able to
report back to you a lot more easily.
If any of you have ordered reader copies from the website recently, you may have notice a
subtle change. It used to be that any downloadable evaluation copy requests would arrive with
us by email, and we’d attach the play files manually to send out to the requesters. Now,
however, it’s gone automatic, so anyone ordering is sent a link by email whereby they are
able to download the plays they want. We still get notification of what’s ordered and by
whom, and we can impose limits of how many they can download if we suspect anything
funny, but it has saved an awful lot of time an energy.
Marketing
We recently had a long overdue meeting with Colin Wilson, one of our members, regarding
marketing NTP plays, with particular emphasis on greater penetration of the enormous USA
marketplace. Colin has indicated he is more than willing to help, and his past knowledge of
the USA market should assist greatly.
AS Magazine, the rebranding of Amateur Stage magazine, has gone through some changes,
most importantly, perhaps, is the retirement of Charles Vance, who ran the publication for so
many years. We were contacted by the new management team and took out some advertising
with them, as well as writing a few editorial articles aimed at increasing visibility of NTP and
the Co-operative. Whilst they appear to have published these articles, they did not send us
copies and we do not seem to have had any increased interest whatsoever resulting from the
advertising.
We have, however, taken out a block advert with amdram.co.uk and have high hopes for
increased sales from there. We have also come to a discount arrangement with members of
the Scottish Community Drama Association whereby they will order plays on behalf of their
members. We have offered similar schemes to the Drama Association of Wales and NODA,
but so far have had no responses. These large discounts once again mean we don’t make
anything on these scripts, but it’s performances we’re all seeking, right? This increased
exposure can only help.
After I approached them, we have now “gone active” (whatever that means) in the
Findaplay.com database, a source of play information in the USA, the first Non-US publisher
to be listed there.
Sponsor
We are still actively seeking a patron or sponsor for the Co-operative, following Sir Alan
Ayckbourn’s declination. We approached John Godber but have had no reply, so if you have
any other ideas, please let me know - I’m not asking you to do the work, just make
suggestions, especially if you have any lines of contact.
A “big name” allied to the PC and NTP would serve to increase our credibility in the
marketplace - we are not asking much from this person, just his acknowledgement of our
existence and the plight of an organised band of hopeful writers. Then again, if Mssrs Sugar
and Branson want to wade in with a couple of million, I’m quite prepared to undertake a
marketing tour of the world on your behalf!
Writing Opportunities
It is hoped Colin will expand this section when he gets into the swing of things, and we’ll
continue to email out anything that comes our way as and when we get them, rather than
making you wait for the newsletters and perhaps missing a boat.
Price List and Subscriptions
We are seriously looking at all prices and will have to increase them before too long.
Script prices are currently £3 for a one act script and £6 for a full length script. These will
undergo a rise to £3.25 and £6.50 in the next few months, based on the increased costs of
printing and finishing.
Reader fees and subscriptions will be changed into a two-tier system. For some time those
members who do not have email or word processing capabilities have cost more than those
who do. Far be it from us to insist people have computers, but the arithmetic cannot be
avoided. It costs more to print and send out paper newsletters, and it costs a more to send
paper submissions round the reader panels.
One this last point, if you think it through, a script arrives electronically (via email or disk)
and we email it to the lead reviewer appointed for that play. He or she emails it to the other
two reviewers. Once the assessments of all three are done, they “get together” (increasingly
using “chat” technology on the internet) and arrive at a consensus which the lead assessor
types into an overall review that is then emailed to us. It costs almost nothing in terms of
effort and transport costs, and no paper is used, so there is less environmental impact too. The
script goes to all the reviewers at once, so they can all assess at the same time, making the
overall timescale shorter.
On the other hand, a paper submission has to be posted everywhere in an envelope, with
associated packing and postal costs. Because we have no intention of making multiple copies
of the manuscript, it has to be sent round each reader in turn, so takes a lot longer overall.
It also takes a lot more effort to convert a paper script into one we can use for printing generally we use a computer to scan the paper copy and software called OCR (optical
character recognition) to convert it into English type, but it’s time consuming and very prone
to errors, making our job and proofreading much more onerous.
We therefore propose that reader fees for “electronic members” stays the same, but for
anyone submitting paper scripts they will rise from £10 to £12 for a one act submission and
from £20 to £24 for a full length submission.
Annual subscriptions will rise to £16 for “electronic members” and to £18 for “paper
members”. In deference to our existing members, however, the extra price rise will be
deferred for 12 months, so all existing member will pay £16 when their subscription comes up
for renewal. We hope and believe that this still gives good value for money but would be
interested to hear your feedback.
Websites
In the last newsletters we offered a great deal for any members wanting to have their own
websites, namely £125 for a site with up to 4 pages, including domain registration and
hosting. Three members have thus far taken up the offer - Helen Landau, Colin Wilson, Paul
Beard and Tom Casling. We’ll be putting links to their sites on out own links pages very
shortly.
The offer still stands, representing superb value for money with the potential to increase your
visibility and sell more of your plays. We are also extending this offer to theatre companies,
so if your local dramatic society doesn’t have a website and wants one, get them to get in
touch.