The Chicken Shed Diaries #2: Coming Out of My Shell

In the build up to The Chicken Shed Re-united (or Chicken Shed as it will now be referred to herein) I wanted to talk about where the idea came from. It does mean that in this post I'll be sharing a bit more about myself than maybe people would expect me too, but I feel the stuff in this post is vitally important to explain how you can use your own experiences to create a piece of drama. So, I suppose I better start with a synopsis:

Miles, Simon and Danny are childhood friends brought together by their mutual hatred and fear of school thug 'Deano'. Some years later, having lost touch during their time at school, Simon calls the three friends together for a reunion to catch up with events in each other’s lives and reminisce on old times. However, Simon's motives for getting the friends back together are not altogether sentimental...duhm, duhm, duhmmmm!

The age old tip of ‘write what you know’ is such a useful one to follow and in this case a very therapeutic one. I can’t pin point exactly when the Chicken Shed idea was first conceived but it was during my early twenties after returning from University. After my three fantastic years in Stoke-on-Trent (which some may consider a contradiction in terms) I found myself returning home and not feeling altogether happy with myself. I can't explain it but I just felt very awkward socially despite the best three years of my life and constantly hearing how Uni was a time to completely come out of your shell. But I was holding something back. After some counselling and subsequent self-analysis I finally, unashamedly admitted to myself that I had been bullied at school and it had affected my confidence in social interactions.

After a short period of bitterness this is something that I've come to be very comfortable in talking about and have become very self-aware and indeed aware of others and how every personality develops based on past experiences, most significantly childhood experiences. I began thinking about how, if I hadn't analysed my past, I might have continued to grow up with an increasing frustration and anxiety in interacting socially with others. From this the three members of the Chicken Shed were born.

We start the play by seeing the three friends forge their friendship in the Chicken Shed; a garden shed at the back of Mile's house. The adult actors play schoolboy versions of their eventual adult selves as we hear how each boy experiences differing levels of bullying at school. In the following scene, the bulk of the play, we witness their reunion (approx 15 years later) and see how each of the men have developed different feelings about what happened to them with Miles' girlfriend, Karen, in attendance as one of us; an outsider looking in to this friendship group. I very much see each character as three very different representations of how my attitude toward life might have been affected had I not started to deal with my past.

I always knew I wanted to write something on the subject of bullying but wanted to make sure that 1) I wasn't just using it as a excuse to rant about everything that happened to me hence why most of the events described in the play are not those which I experienced and 2) I didn't want it to feel like a Channel 4 Schools educational piece on the affects of bullying or an episode of Grange Hill. I wanted to show how self-awareness and acceptance can dramatically help a person to move on with life despite their negative experiences.

Dramatising something that is deep and meaningful to you is a very therapeutic process, even if you're just doing it for yourself and not for public consumption. I'd strongly recommend it as a great way to flex the writing muscles as it helps not to need to research anything because you're making your point from a very personal perspective. Considering myself a comedy writer I found it a great exercise into using comedy to introduce a dramatic subtext...that's also me reassuring those that may now be having doubts about coming along to see the performance that there are comic moments too. I promise!

Thank you for reading. Next post, hopefully in the next few days, will be announcing the cast and reflecting on Chicken Shed's first performance as a script-in-hand rehearsed reading some 18 months ago.