Emily White is one of the six writers participating in the inaugural year of our Nationwide Voices programme. This is a blog post with her thoughts and reflections on the third Nationwide Voices session, around the topic of adaptation, that she experienced back in September… Enjoy!

So first a bit about me and how I came to be a part of the program. 

I originally trained as an actress at RADA many moons ago, and after many years treading the boards, I packed it in and discovered my love of writing as a mature student doing an MA in Theatre Writing, Directing and Performance at York Uni.  After my graduation ceremony I skived off my call centre job for four days and wrote the first half hour of Pavilion.  The play is set in my hometown in Wales and takes place over one night in a local pavilion where the Friday night disco takes place. It’s a play about austerity but it’s also a big Welsh night out full of larger than life characters: a play about a specific place but with broader national themes at its heart.   

After several drafts and some good feedback, I staged a rehearsed reading at RADA for an invited audience.  Tamara Harvey the Artistic Director of Theatr Clwyd came to the reading, and over a year later I received a phone call out of the blue to say that she would like to produce the play.  I was over the moon to say the least.  We went into rehearsals in 2019 with Tamara directing and the show was a big success for the theatre, but it didn’t get the opportunity to be seen by audiences outside of Wales.  So, when ETT got in touch with Tamara about nominating a writer to be part of the Nationwide Voices program she gave me another exciting, out of the blue phone call and I got to be over the moon all over again!   

The sessions all take place over Zoom which takes a little getting used to. Full disclosure: I don’t anger easily except in two scenarios; watching the news and working out how to use new technology.  I am a person that routinely shouts at technological inanimate objects. My partner often finds me incandescent with rage at my poor laptop. Usually it’s the internet I should really be angry at and my laptop is entirely innocent of all charges. However, I am happy to report that Zoom is far superior to Skype (which sends me into a state of apoplexy whenever I try and use it) and the sessions have all run smoothly... so far.   

Each session starts with a masterclass by the incredibly insightful and talented Chris Bush, and then moves on to incorporate a guest speaker to focus on a particular aspect of playwriting.  This week Chris was talking to us about adaptation and the guest speaker was the lovely Chinonyerem Odimba, who now has several successful adaptations under her belt. 

When you’re a new writer just starting out in the world of theatre, the thought of writing an adaptation of another writer’s work can appear daunting.  Especially a famous, admired writer that the audience is going to be very familiar with already.  And yet this is often what emerging playwrights are asked to do by theatres that view staging their original writing as being too risky.  For this reason, Chris advised us, it is always a good idea to go into theatre meetings with an adaptation pitch up your sleeve along with your original ideas.   

These adaptations can take the form of new translations/modernisations of existing plays that are originally written in another language (Chekhov, Ionesco, Ibsen, Euripides etc.), or adaptations of books or films for the stage.  In the previous session we had all been set the homework of thinking of a play we would like to adapt and then pitched them to the group.  Everyone approaches pitching differently but my take–away from this exercise was that you should know your material well and be able to answer these three questions: 

1. Why is this a good version to be doing now?  
2. Why am I the person to do it? 
3. Why my version instead of one of the other versions already out there? 

Chino then logged in and spoke about her experiences with adaptations and the different approaches she took.  For example, when adapting Oliver Twist, she updated the story to the modern day and wrote a completely new story and dialogue, and only kept the shape of the original and the main characters.  For The Prince and the Pauper, she kept the story and the language in its original time period and made it into a musical, heightening/fore fronting certain elements to say what she wanted to say.  For both she had a definite idea of who her audience was – The Prince and the Pauper was a Christmas show and Twist was a school tour. 

She was nervous the first time she was approached to write an adaptation so gave some helpful tips on the practical considerations once you’ve got the gig and your first thought is ‘HELP!  Where do I begin?’ 

Chino starts off by reading the book three times and figuring out what the writer is trying to say to the reader and the world, and then plans what she wants to keep and what she’s going to let go.  She makes the big decisions about where she’s taking the story, what characters are staying etc. and makes notes on each chapter, breaking the story down into manageable units.  She does her homework on that period of history even if she’s going to update the story.  Basically: plan, plan, plan.  Also knowing what audience your adaptation is aimed at is important, as that places certain restrictions on the writing.   

Another useful exercise she suggested was to think about what would happen if you told the story through another character’s eyes?  If each key character became the protagonist, how would that change the story?   

Her final word of warning: be careful what stories you choose to adapt.  The source material should resonate with you as a writer so that you can bring your politics to the adaptation.  Writers bring themselves to whatever they write; if you can’t bring yourself and your voice to the adaptation, then maybe it’s not a good fit. 

All in all, I came out of the session feeling more confident that I could take on an adaptation and knowing how I would set about it.  Hopefully I’ll get another one of those out of the blue phone calls sometime soon!  In the meantime, I look forward to our next session and seeing everyone’s big smiley faces looking back at me from my laptop.  It’s not the same as sitting in a room together, having a good old chin wag before the session and a ‘getting to know you’ pint afterwards, but it will have to do for now.  Good old Zoom…god I barely recognise myself…   

John Rwothomack is one of the six writers participating in the inaugural year of our Nationwide Voices programme. This is a blog post with his thoughts and reflections on the first two Nationwide Voices sessions that he experienced back in August and September… Enjoy!

Hello,

So it might be useful for me to start by introducing myself. I am John Rwothomack from Uganda, now based in Sheffield and proud to belong to both. My journey to being part of this incredible initiative that ETT has put together, I guess began when I went to drama school. After graduating as an actor from Rose Bruford in 2015, I moved back to Sheffield. Where, although I trained as an actor, thanks to Theatre Deli I found myself directing Bad Blood Blues by Paul Sirett. Having somehow successfully managed this, the next challenge was to write a play. A challenge that was overcome by the completion of Far Gone, a one-man show that follows the life of a child soldier which I both wrote and performed. I very much enjoyed writing the play and it made me want to write more. Not being a classically trained writer – if there’s such a thing – the opportunity for Nationwide Voices could not have come at a better time. I applied with a hope of course to be chosen, but being actually chosen is very humbling. Thank you Sheffield Theatres for trusting and putting me forward.  

The first session, which now seems like a century ago, was such bliss. It flew by so quickly. Of course, as with any first day in the theatre scene, we cracked the day open with meet and greets, coffees, teas, nervous laughters and zoom etiquettes. Then came one of the moments I was looking forward to most: getting to know everyone. From Sheffield, to London, to Leeds, to Wales, to Watford we introduced ourselves. The first ever playwrights of ETTs’ Nationwide Voices. It did feel honourable to be part of such a great team of talented and diverse people. I will not say much, but from the people I’ve had the privilege to meet in this cohort, I am very excited to see what plays will be manufactured by June. Theatre, you are in for a treat.  

I didn’t really know what to expect in terms of the first session. Prior to it I was thinking – this is going to be an introductory session, get to know everyone, and the plan for the scheme. We did do all that, but what was quite a pleasant surprise was that after that, course leader Chris Bush jumped straight into it with an exceptional session on structure. I am predominately coming from an acting background, and as such I am used to following through the journey of my character from the beginning of the play to the end, working out what their purpose is in that particular play. I have written a play, which was done out of necessity as it was felt and advised by a playwright I approached that I was the best person to write it. The writing process was rather straightforward in terms of structure. A beginning, middle and end. Like any other story right?

No, said Chris Bush, there’s more to it than just that. For example, there is a five points system/five stages that form the frame of a well structured arc of a three-act play. These are like: 

1. Everything is Normal – this is where we establish the daily normality of the world and the introduction of main character.  

2. The World Changes – an event/s occurs that changes the norm; challenges and forces the main character to go on a journey. 

3. The Plot Thickens – more challenges arise on this journey. 

4. The Cards Are Shown – the height of the challenges, the point of highest drama, solutions have to be found, the moment of change, discovery. 

5. The Dust Settles – the new normal; how different is it now having ventured on this journey?

As somebody who is not traditionally a writer, it was great to be walked through this structural method that someone with Chris’ experience has. I was introduced to a system of structure that not only made my understanding of the arc of a story much clearer, it was also lovely to know that I had applied some of those techniques in my writing. However, it was done unknowingly.  Here lies the difference between skillfully applying the necessary ingredients to a story’s structure and arriving to it accidentally. I left the session feeling much better equipped with the understanding of structure, which I’ll definitely be applying to my next writing project. Well, let’s wait and see how it turns out.  

The second session was quite exciting. We had none other than guest speaker Rebecca Lenkiewicz rock up and grace us with her knowledge, experience and some incredible advice. Filled with laughter and absolute honesty, this was a session that gave a wider understanding of playwrights’ professional life beyond the creative aspects. From navigating your way around companies as big as The National Theatre, to TV, to smaller theatres, I personally took so much from Rebecca. One thing that stood out particularly was an exercise on character she offered. The exercise:

Without spoken lines, describe a character getting dressed in the morning, and undressed at night. And then without words again, put someone else in the same space watching them dress and undress. The idea here is that people are both body and mind, the two work in conjunction, but we often describe what actions we do differently with someone else watching us.

If the character is not a child, put them in a scenario in their childhood and describe what they do as a child.

This proved to be a very useful exercise for a particular character I’m working on at the moment.  Having such a vibrant, transparent and giving writer with such vast experience as Rebecca was beyond perfect for this.  

Writing in any capacity is challenging, but to make a career out of it, that calls for a certain type of person crazy enough to venture into it. Having Chris lead us through these sessions, and hearing from writers like Rebecca, makes it seem possible; hard, but not impossible. It has been a great few sessions so far. I’m very much looking forward what the next ones bring. Whatever they bring, I am certain that six new exciting plays will emerge out of Nationwide Voices.