I’m happy – I would have liked to have seen a little more about the original sifting by the ‘professional readers’ who appeared to have passed some dubious stuff through (The Marilyn Monroe Play that was to save the west end!) and just what their remit was. I can’t help but wonder what gems might have been discarded. (Denim?).
'All we see and seem is but a dream within a dream' Poe
Bless you Playfull - If I wasn't married, I'd be after you!
But you're right, I would have loved to have seen the sift.
And some of the proposals were sooooo predictable or twee. Loved the concept of the deserted child (yes I nearly wept) hated the planitarium with the son of the creator visiting... as for the AdMan (Sorry TheAdMan) but could some one tell him that 9-11 is over... we're trying to get on with our lives!
Hey - don't post very often (if at all, in fact!) but felt like giving my tuppence.
I felt that the writers were treated well (i.e. their humiliation wasn't turned into entertainment), but I think the selection process is ultimately flawed. They have picked based on a couple of scenes and good idea and how enthusiastic and likeable the writer is. It seems all too much about the idea and not at all down to whether these people can actually weave a full length play together - which is a damn sight more difficult than a few scenes. It's almost like they're looking for an ideas person who they can shape into a writer, rather than taking an already solid play that just needs development. Which doesn't give me a huge amount of hope for what I'm going to see tomorrow - that said, I hope it is good, and thoroughly intend to enjoy it if it is.
It's almost like they're looking for an ideas person who they can shape into a writer, rather than taking an already solid play that just needs development.
Hi Mrs R
Devil's advocate;
I agree that it's far more televisually interesting to take someone with a good idea and show them being turned into a writer, than to take a writer with a good idea and show the play being produced BUT is that, ultimately, a bad thing?
One big issue I can see is this; we know there's going to be a hell of a lot of help, guidance and crafting given to the winner - will non-writers in the tv audience think that this is normal? Will Sonia and her peers be flooded with half-developed MS in the coming months?
And is that, ultimately, maybe what she wanted? We know Sonia has publicly bemoaned the fact that she has little new material coming forward for her theatre, the New Ambassadors (which is, let's face it, not the most huge WE stage).
If it was her plan, then to choose finalist writers who have halfway decent ideas but no track record and no finished plays is a brilliant strategy; because if they'd chosen someone and anything already more polished, it could be counterproductive to generating 'new writers'.
All we saw last night were ideas. But that’s not what I entered, or what the rules stipulated you could enter.
The show itself was pretty good – but there was the traditional reality TV moment, so that someone could be thrown off early (Miss MM).
But like TheAdMan, I have a fear that people will think that this is normal – especially when the ‘losers’ were all sat in the stalls being told that this is what you have to take to grow.
In truth, if that is what they sent to producers, theatres, agents – that’s all they will achieve – rejection.
I’m yet to see an agent, producer or agent that will let you send in an idea. They want the ‘finished’ product to asses what kind of writer you are and what kinds of characters you can develop.
They accused the writers of being too TV minded – but hang on, this submission process is totally TV (and I don’t mean telivisisual – although it is) as its only in the TV world where I’ve heard of people being able to send in treatments.
It’s a good programme and I will learn something from it, but it is now clear to me that I never stood a chance against their ‘rules’ and that a chance to find ‘playwrights’ has been missed.
I also notice a lack of writing partnerships that made it through.
If they had no intention of choosing an experience writer, ie those of us with amateur drama performances of our plays under our belts, then why say that they WERE interested in this?
The only reason I can see is that they wanted a pool of ideas to use at their leisure.
Darling LML, at last, the voice of commmon sense, no I do not think was you that is nuts, from your comments the production was exactly what I thought it would be. I did not see the programme, I intended to do so but I was plastered, two bottles of cheap red from Sainsburys and I passed out long before trasmition. I think I got the better deal.
