beginnings

Yesterday, we had our first meeting of Drama postgraduate students at Goldsmiths. It was an exhilarating and somewhat overwhelming introduction to what I'll be doing over the course of the next year. It's going to be a whirlwind, but an exciting -- and hopefully growthful -- one!

Between now and December 10, we will be writing four short performance pieces:

• a site-specific event, intended for performance outside of a traditional theater
• a text created from research and interviews on some topic of interest
• a play created for a "special audience" (in our case, teenagers -- a group I know well!)
• a collaborative text created along with students studying directing and musical composition (which we must perform in, as well as write)

We'll be working on the first two simultaneously and the second two simultaneously. Each of the projects are an interesting challenge. I'm so pleased that we're beginning our studies with this diverse, all-over-the-map approach rather than just sitting down and discussing plot and character.

While writing those four pieces, we'll also be doing an intensive look at the new work that's going on right at the moment in the UK (the first text is Caryl Churchill's play about Gaza, Seven Jewish Children), which will feature sessions led by the artistic and literary directors of some of the leading theatres that produce new writing. We'll be assigned to go see a lot of productions, as well, such as David Hare's new play about the credit meltdown that's going on at the National Theatre.

We'll also be reading some exemplary and canonical works in order to understand different approaches to dramaturgy. I am pleased to say, though, that the selected texts are very much in line with my own set of aesthetic and political interests: in addition to Churchill, we'll be reading two by Brecht, as well as Chekhov, Garcia Lorca, Suzan-Lori Parks, Bernard-Marie Koltes, and Pinter.

During all this initital stimulation period, ideas should be percolating for my own full-length piece, which I am supposed to have a first draft of by February.

It seems like a lot, but it's also set up in a way that will make it exciting to do. There's very little that I love more than reading about and writing plays, so the big workload should be pleasurable. My colleagues (there are about 10 of us doing the writing track) come mostly from the UK, but one from Australia. I am not, as I thought I might be, the oldest one. We've got a few who've recently completed their undergrad years but also a few in their 30's or older who've been out working in the world.

The only downside is how difficult it may now be to find the time to blog! But I will try; want to keep everyone posted on how this whole thing is developing...