Meeting an Agent

So I met one...


A small one...

After a referral....

The impression I got was that they wanted me to be a bit further on in my career. e.g a play produced somewhere good or some t.v. work before things progress any further. They gave me lots of advice including feedback on Egusi Soup, they think my humour is a strength and see me as a t.v. writer. They think that doing radio, theatre and t.v. might be too much as there are so many different skills to master but they think I'm in a good place at the start (I'm still at the start?) of my career.

My thoughts.....

The irrational side of me: I’m rubbish! Other people have been snapped up with less.

The rational side of me: an excellent playwright you know had about two plays produced in really good places before an agency took them on.

The irrational side of me: What happened to synchronicity?

The rational side of me: the reason this happened was to give you an insight into this part of the industry and it’s not as glamorous as you thought it would be. You can now chill out. Not feel so desperate for an agent. The focus is this feckin' Egusi Soup play. Keep focused.

The irrational side of me: what if I'm not a playwright?

The rational side of me:

The irrational side of me: I’m rubbish! Its so hard! I’m gonna jack it all in and go travelling. Be in the moment.

The rational side of me: you've got no money. Just take a two week holiday. You haven’t been on holiday in two years. You just need a break.

In conclusion: the rational side won...

Drama, Drama, Drama

I’m immersed in it at the moment.

Have been writing my arse off these last few weeks.

I have written the new draft of Egusi Soup, a radio play pitch and am finishing up my Critical Mass play. With the Critical Mass play deadline looming ahead on Thursday, I thought could see the light at the end of the tunnel and was looking forward to a leisurely second half of March until I got some feedback on Egusi Soup from people at Menagerie which was spot on and painful as it looks like there's going to be another big re-write. Gonna put that off until April.

But it’s not just writing…

If you have a chance go and see the superb Deepcut at the Tricycle. Very moving for this kind of documentary type play. Not sure of the proper term for it. Really good acting. Very scary.

And on Radio Four at the moment is Sarah Woods play: Getting to Zero To be honest, I didn’t fancy listening to any of the afternoon plays last week as it was Sci fi season but I thought, what the hell, and chose this one as I know that Sarah Woods is a well known writer. What a surprise! What really makes this for me are the actors who play the scientists. Their nuances and comments are hilarious to listen to. A great find.

Then at the pool on Sunday I had my own little drama. Was merrily doing my back crawl in the slow lane when I saw this guy, doing his breast stroke, gaining on me. Then he suddenly turned his head to the right and continued swimming until I had to defend myself before he mowed me down. Then he swam off. Well, I wasn’t having it! So at the shallow end I said:

Didn’t you see me?

Guy: I was looking the other way.

Me: Shouldn’t you be looking ahead?

Guy: I was doing a drill.

Me: Shouldn’t you be doing that in the fast lane?

Guy: There are two people in there. Sorry for bumping into you.

Finally an apology! I must admit I’m not normally so gutsy but it’s a pool –he’s not likely to have a gun or a knife down his trunks so I felt pretty safe.

Now, for those courting couples who decide to go on a swimming date….

What I presume was a courting couple was in the queue for tickets ahead of me. The guy looked really trendy - imagine Adidas trainers and an afro in bunches - the girl dainty. When the vendor asked, “leisure pool or lane?” Trendy guy dithered but the way the girl shot in with “lane,” made me think that there could be trouble on the horizon. Even the guy at the kiosk commented on her fervour.

And we were right. Meeting the couple in the lane pool, I saw that trendy guy now had a white swimming cap over his trendy hair and he wasn’t looking so trendy. The girl still looked great and proceeded to whiz up and down the lane doing her pretty little breast stroke. Trendy guy could not keep up with her with his breast stroke or with any other hybrid stroke he was doing. He was clearly not having as much fun as she was.

Lesson: I don't think sporting dates are a good idea.

This Isn’t Romance

Saw Soho Theatre’s Verity Bargate winner on Saturday. It was an enjoyable play. Good writing. Hilarious in places. And daring. The writer took us into an interesting word of the Korean sex industry. My only criticism was that the main character started in a high state of emotion so it felt a little melodramatic. It was encouraging that the writer didn’t use much subtext as the Royal Court does bang on about it and it also inspired me to to push the boundaries of my comfort zone more. Sometimes I get scared at writing something because it’s embarrassing but this play reminded me not to censor myself.