From Idea to Stage in 10 Weeks | Issue 7 | The Big Night
Documenting the process of planning, writing, editing, staging, and now directing a short play in just 10 weeks
💡 A full breakdown of my directorial debut, from pre-show preparations to watching my first play amongst family and friends, and more.
Yesterday marked exactly five weeks since the 2024 Writers’ Studio Showcase event at the OSO Theatre, which was my debut as both a writer and director of a (short) play.
I apologise for taking so long to write this latest issue of this series. Directing the play took an enormous investment of time and energy, as I was learning how to direct whilst actually directing.
If you were paying attention to this series up until six weeks ago, you might’ve noticed these articles started to drop off when I took on the directorial responsibility.
But I’m pleased to say the event was a sell-out, and the show went very well, with over 100 people watching in the audience.
And while each of the 10 plays were only 10 minutes long, it still feels like a great achievement to have written and directed something that was performed by talented actors in front of a sold-out theatre. It was definitely one of the best experiences of my life as a writer so far.
Personally, I was also really touched to have around 15 of my closest friends and family there, despite technically not inviting any of them directly… But it’s good to know my ramblings on social media generated a few ticket sales!
Thanks so much to everyone for the support throughout the 10-week programme.
A Quick Recap
It’s been a while since you read one of these articles, and I’ve welcomed a few new subscribers recently, so I thought I’d provide a quick recap before going into detail about the show itself:
The Writers’ Studio was a 10-week programme. Starting in September, each writer had just seven weeks to plan, write, and edit a short play. At week seven, we had to hand our plays over to a director and two actors.
At the end of the 10 weeks, the plays were performed by the actors at the OSO Theatre in Barnes.
By week three, I’d drafted my play
By week five, I’d finalised it
By week seven, I decided it made sense for me to direct it too.
Of course, I’d never directed a play before. So, I then had only three weeks to learn how to direct while simultaneously doing the actual directing.
And since I had to skip a few issues in this “weekly” series because of that extra workload, I’ll aim to publish some articles retroactively over the new few weeks about how I approached that challenge and how it all went.
But, for now, here’s a full breakdown of the actual show itself.
The Week Before…
Writing the Synopsis
In the week before the show, we had to write the synopsis of our plays for the event’s programme.
Condensing a complex story into a concise, impactful synopsis is often a lot harder than it seems for writers.
I usually approach this in a similar way to how I plan the story itself, using structure to make it easier.
I started by ensuring the critical story elements were all included first, to ensure the premise was clear.
You’ll see below my synopsis:
Introduces the protagonist
Gives some important context
States the protagonist’s goal in the story
Explains what’s driving that goal emotionally
Highlights her key conflicts and challenges
And also adds some extra stakes with the time pressure.
I then wanted to leave the reader intrigued about where that would take the protagonist. So, at the end of the synopsis, I alluded to the dilemma and decision the protagonist faces in the play’s climax.
Incidentally, the event programmes came out really well.
Last-Minute Rehearsals
The directors only had three weeks to rehearse the plays with the actors.
Three weeks is not a lot of time at all.
That’s one of the main reasons I struggled to keep up with these articles after assuming directing duties. On top of the actual rehearsals, a tonne of work went into scheduling, preparing, figuring out the technical elements, discussing the plays outside the rehearsals, etc., etc.
Although the plays were only 10 minutes long, each actor had to perform two plays for the event. As a result, they were often rehearsing both their plays back-to-back on the same day, giving them a huge amount to process, and making it difficult to focus 100% on one or the other.
The plays were all very different as well, which made it an even bigger challenge for the actors. In the end, they all did an excellent job.
Thankfully, I was able to fit in an extra rehearsal with my actors the week of the show, which proved to be a really valuable session. I do wish we’d had an extra week or two to really perfect the performance though.
For anyone taking on a similar task in future, I’d strongly recommend scheduling at least two more rehearsals than you think will be enough. You won’t regret it after the show.
Sourcing Props
Of course, we had to source our own props. I deliberately wrote my play to require minimal props, as I knew we were writing for a fringe theatre production with no budget, but I did have to go out and buy a new diary for my lead actor to “read” during the play.
Audio Timings
As you read in the synopsis, my play was about a woman called Joy who is grieving her late daughter, River.
The play included a recorded voice-over from River, which had to play over the audio system.
In the story, this happens when Joy reads River’s old diary, but I had a young actress play River in the recording, which is Joy imagining the diary being read in River’s voice.
But there were some lines and blocking for Joy in-between each of the different diary entries, so it was important to get the timings perfect for the tech script, to ensure the right audio recordings played at the right times.
The Morning of…
Cue-to-Cue
In true fringe theatre style, we left the run-through of audio and lighting timings with the theatre’s technician until the morning of the show. Fortunately, the technician was excellent and it all went fine.
I was first in the running order for this cue-to-cue, which meant my actors and I were at the theatre all day. We arrived at 11am, despite the show not starting until 3:30pm.
But I think I would’ve arrived at this time even if I was last in the running order. As soon as I decided to direct the play, I made an effort to spend as much time as I could observing the other directors, and learning as much as possible from each of their (very different) approaches.
It was also nice to be at the theatre all day and watch everything come together, see how each of the actors prepared, and enjoy the gradual build-up of excitement.
Running Lines
Being at the theatre early gave us an advantage, as it left us with plenty of time to run through our lines again in the afternoon. This turned out to be really valuable for the performance.
Highlight of the Day
Perhaps the highlight of the day for me was getting some really positive feedback from my lead actress, Ali.
She’d mentioned several times in our rehearsals that she thought the play was lovely writing and very moving. And as we were running through the lines on the day of the show, she also mentioned it was written extremely well in terms of its structure, flow, style, dialogue, etc., which made it a really strong, effective script for a play.
A Moment to Pause
This might just be me, and will probably sound a bit cringe, but…
When you’re experiencing something significant as a result of hard work — whether that’s your first day at a new job, directing your first play, or whatever — it’s so important to make a bit of time for yourself.
Days like these go by so quickly if you’re not careful.
You need to find a chance to pause and make yourself present for a few moments, to take it all in and ensure you remember it once it’s over. You need to remind yourself of all the hard work it took to get there, and allow yourself to be proud of what you’ve achieved.
Another advantage of being at the theatre all day was that while my actors were running lines for their other plays, I got to take a short walk down to the river by myself and just pause for a few minutes. The same river that inspired my story, funnily enough, albeit in a different part of town.
Without this time, the whole day would’ve been much more of a blur. But because I took this time for myself, I have much clearer memories, and I was able to appreciate the experience a lot more while it was happening.
Next time you’re experiencing something important like this, try to remember to do the same.
The Big Night
The doors opened at around 3pm. By 3:30pm, the theatre was packed and the atmosphere was awesome.
Watching the Play as Writer and Director
Watching a play you’ve written and directed is very strange.
You’re so acutely aware of everything that should happen, so even the slightest deviation from what you’ve envisioned is extremely jarring.
Of course, on the other hand, the audience believes what they’re watching is exactly what was intended.
For a writer, this can be uncomfortable, because the audience’s perception of your work is somewhat out of your control. It’s based on the actors’ performance on the night.
On reflection, this may be subconsciously why I wanted to direct the play myself. Handing the script over to a director would’ve taken the performance the audience sees even further away from the story I’d written.
Even as the director, you can only do so much. You still have to let go on the night and just hope you’ve prepared the actors well enough.
Unfortunately, from my perspective, it wasn’t perfect, but it certainly wasn’t far off, and the actors gave great performances. There were a couple of missed lines and steps, but it didn’t disrupt the flow of the story at all, and the only people aware of those were me and the two actors.
Of course, the reasons for those lines being were entirely my responsibility as the director, and they provided important lessons for me to take into any future projects as well.
Most importantly, all the feedback from everyone in the audience afterwards was overwhelmingly positive. I guess that’s all that really matters.
This was such a valuable exercise in becoming more comfortable with the fact that no story will ever be perfect, so perfectionism shouldn’t hold you back as a writer.
The outcome of your work can still be pretty amazing even if one or two small mistakes do creep in.
Highlight of the Night
As touched on in the intro, I was so grateful to have friends and loved ones come to watch the show.
Giving your friends and family short stories or novel chapters to read is one thing, but letting them watch a play you’ve written and directed brought a whole new dimension to the experience of writing for me.
The highlight of the night was having my mum there, as she’s always been my biggest supporter, and I wouldn’t have been able to achieve anything without her.
An Incredible Event
Huge congrats to all the writers, actors, and directors for putting on a fantastic show to conclude a really successful 2024 Writers’ Studio programme.
This was an enormous effort by a very talented group of people, and it really was an incredible event put on by the OSO team.
The only downside really is that it was one-night-only. It would’ve been great to have the chance to run a few more performances over several nights.
If you’re based in London and have ever wanted to write a play, the annual Writers’ Studio programme at the OSO Theatre is an ideal way to start.
What Next?
As mentioned earlier, there were a couple of articles in this series that I’d intended to publish before the show. I’ll do my best to share these with you over the next few weeks.
Beyond that, I hope to have an exciting announcement coming up soon that will make this publication a lot more useful and enjoyable for writers moving forward.
And, of course, writing and directing a play that’s longer than 10 minutes is currently quite high on my to-do-list for 2025.
This Week’s Sunset of the Week
Sunsets have been hard to come by recently, but this one from the end of November was pretty special.
This Week’s Song on Repeat
What’s your favourite Christmas song?
I don’t think this is actually a Christmas song, but for some reason I’ve always associated it with Christmas. Either way, it’s an absolute classic.
Well done! It sounds like it was a bit of a journey and challenged you to be comfortable in discomfort. I think as a writer it’s very good to work and learn in different genres and mediums. Excited to see what 2025 will bring for you !