Doors close age twenty five.  At this juncture, apparently, we have taken definitive steps along our path, formed and certain of our direction.  We have used all our designated opportunities as that lucky, lucky target group “youth” and now……..There are those of us still meandering through our less linear lives un-turning milestones and finding passions yet unspent.

Theatreworks kicked the doors down, grabbed us and threw us sprawling into an exhilarating space – a bungee jump experience, terrifying and deeply liberating.

I had joined Angela Street’s Scriptwriters’ Doo-Dah (we have decided not to decide on a name) hoping it would be sunnier than that twilight option “evening classes”.  But fearing…just fearing.  From the first I was alight, stimulated, elated with the relief of the sheer fun of it.  Writing was not a painful yet persistent aspiration; Angela offered it to us as a marvellous craft to hone and embellish.  Then came Theatreworks whose funding offered an invaluable dimension to our confidence and development as new (but not necessarily young!) writers. 

Theatreworks gave us our first funded day in March when our scripts for stage were produced by professional directors and actors.  Real ones!  We expanded the experience in July, when once more had a professional director and three professional actors to work with us on rehearsed readings for our short radio plays.  These events were extraordinary.  Just being referred to as “the writers” was exciting.  Theatreworks was taking us seriously so that we could also regard our plays as creatures worthy of life.

It was a fascinating part of the process to feel what happened when we handed our scripts over.  The agony and the ecstasy of relinquishing control!  As in March, we were impressed by the professionals’ perspicacity:  they get it!  Equally astonishing was their interpretation.  Whether this was closely aligned to our intentions or differed to the point of changing genre, the director and actors identified our plays’ personalities.

Some of the actors seemed to have been transported as the ready-made characters from the writers’ heads.  Others, by dint of a different accent or physicality, offered alternative nuances that rippled through the scripts.  We, the writers, were illuminated.

Without Theatreworks’ funding and support, it is hard to know how most of us would find ourselves exploring, engaging and discovering so intensely.  If happiness is a confection of joy, challenge, achievement, thrill and sense of worth and purpose, then this is what Theatreworks bought for us. Now we have continuing advice from Theatreworks for further development.  We approach the doors ahead with surer steps.