This blog post concerns my initial thoughts and intentions for WOMENSwear, a show I have been writing and developing for the past five months. The show began as a ten minute script, written for a script-in-hand performance for a playwriting module I studied as a part of my degree. When I first gave ownership of the show over to the company last week, it was terrifying. The script I had been agonising over for months was about to have three voices, instead of one – something I’m sure all writers will agree is an incredible, yet daunting experience. So many questions circled my brain; what if they didn’t like it? What would they think? What if they wanted to change it all? What if our performance styles were completely different to each others?
Undeniably, all of my concerns are negative, but I think in a strange way they will help enhance the process because I am not hiding any of my feelings from the rest of the company. In So You Want To Be A Playwright? (2007) Tim Fountain addresses these concerns by stating “fear of rejection is one of the major reasons why writers don’t buy stamps and send their plays out. They avoid judgement being passed” (Fountain, 2007, p.79). This is certainly my main concern because the show is so important to me, and involves giving over a huge level of trust to the other company members. Despite this, my concerns were quickly diminished after the company expressed their own concerns – mainly that I did not want them to be involved. After laughing off our trivial concerns, we came to realise that instead of worrying about things that could go wrong with the final performance, our worries were personal and instead reflected our worry of judgement.
As writer and director of the company, my role is to oversee the creative side of the process. Alongside performing in the show, I am most likely going to be extremely busy in the run up to the show. However, I could not imagine anything else I would rather be doing. The show mean’s so much to me and as a writer and I am so pleased to be able to direct my own work and have such an essential role within the company. Due to the small scale of our company (we have three members) we each have a huge responsibility on our hands! As well as our core roles, we are all performing in WOMENSwear. Right now we are at the beginning of a very long and exciting journey together. I only hope it will end with a fantastic show, and a great creative process to remember.
Keep checking back for further updates!