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.

Writing Resource - Screenwipe Writers Special

Hearing from successful writers is a great motivational tool. I hope that one day someone might say something similar about my work (hopefully not that calling me a 'motivational tool') but for now I will share with you a fantastic video which has helped to motivate me in my writing.

Writer, television critic and general all-round grumpy git, Charlie Brooker, produced this special one off edition of his original TV review show Screenwipe back in 2009. It's a 'writer's special' episode in which Charlie talks to some fantastic television writers about how they got started. Sadly he hasn't interviewed any female writers on the show which is a shame but the stuff that's there is all very useful, even if you want to write for other mediums besides television.

For some reason Channel 4 has blocked the PART 2 clip as it contains some footage from one of their shows (Screenwipe is a BBC production) even though other parts contain clips of Father Ted. Anyway, PART 2 is by no means a 'missing cog' as it's all good stuff. Enjoy.

Guests include:
Russell T Davies (Queer as Folk, Doctor Who)
Paul Abbott (Shameless, State of Play)
Jesse Armstrong and Sam Baine (Peep Show)
Graham Linehan (Father Ted, Black Books, The IT Crowd)
Tony Jordon (Life on Mars, Eastenders, Hustle)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBPu8NrKhJI PART 1
PART 2 CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE! SORRY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKF4NyMSPzI PART 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00Vf7_Eheko PART 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwBNP2eYwQ0 PART 5

I would also point you toward Mr Brookers weekly Guardian column as well as his other work. Just type his name in to YouTube and watch the hours fly by.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/charliebrooker

The Chicken Shed Diaries #1: Letting go

Its nine weeks to go before my first play, The Chicken Shed Reunited, will be performed to a paying audience. Last week saw the read-through at the Kelvin Players Studio in Bristol.

It was a very exciting moment for me as it feels like a genuine step toward becoming a professional writer. It was also a very scary moment as all of a sudden I realised that my writing was going to be performed...in front of people. People with money! People with money paying to sit and watch and judge a play that I have written. All of a sudden my work is open for criticism or, potentially even more fearful to the self-deprecating writer....praise!

Adding to my gut-wrenching anxiety, I am not having anything to do with the production apart from being available for consultation from the director (Richard Jones) as and when required, potentially attending the occasional rehearsal. My fear does not discredit the director, far from it, but it is a comment on how a control-freak like me can suddenly feel freakishly out-of-control!

Anyway, the read-through. Sitting at the back, like a boy at school trying to avoid the attention of the class...although it was normally the more attention seeking boys that sat at the back of the class...anyway the point is that I sat at the back and I listened and observed the play coming to life. Fortunately the first scene is quite light and comical and so when I got my first laugh only a few lines in it did settle the nerves, much as it does to an actor performing comedy.

During the read-through the roles were passed around the attendee actors so as to ensure everyone has the chance to read a part. This means there is a wide variety of interpretations of the characters as they are read out; variations included accents, tone of voice, pronunciation etc. As these roles were changed around in relatively quick succession I started to feel more relaxed than the first laugh had made me. In fact generally I was a lot less nervous as I had expected myself to be. Toward the end of the read-through I realised why; I was finally letting go!

All of those interpretations of the characters I had written were different to the voices that I'd given the characters in my head at the time of writing. This is not a criticism of the actors as in fact I felt very positive that the characters could still live on in other voices than the ones I gave them.

When you've written something so close to you, particularly around a subject matter such as childhood bullying, it's often horrifying to even think of someone else reading it. Part of this is because you don't want them to say that the actual writing is crap but also because it's something that belongs to you; something you've decided worthy of creating. But as I sat back hearing the dialogue that I had written I realised that the bulk of my work was in the weeks and months of writing and re-writing that had led up to this read-through. They were my anxious moments and now someone wanted to put on something I'd written so surely that's a positive step forward!

Don't get me wrong, I'm still petrified that one reviewer may reduce me to tears before I lock myself in my flat for a month as I cry over the hundreds of tear soaked copies of the newspaper I ordered containing the review that I bought to give to all of my friends and family, even having bought some gold mounted frames...but for now I can sleep a little easier. I have every faith in the director and cast (of who are in the process of being picked as I write this) and I need to let them get on with the job in hand. As for me, if I really want to be 'a writer', I just need to start getting on with writing my next project.


In my next 'Chicken Shed' post I'll start telling you about how I started writing the play from inception to final draft...without given too much away about the plot.