The 37 Plays Podcast

In the fourth 37 Plays podcast episode, Mark Ravenhill is joined by James Graham, a playwright and film and television writer. From Mark’s 101 Playwriting Tips, James chose: #4 Try writing a draft zero/dirty draft. Let the characters say all the exposition, themes, everything they think and feel. Don’t show this to anyone – even yourself! – and then write the first draft. Sarah Kane told me she did this for Blasted. James’ own tip is: The theory of bits. “Once you’ve written the first draft, you start to consciously or unconsciously be looking for the central moment in the character’s journey or the story moment or the theme where it will emerge, and an audience will know that that’s the bit.” The music for this podcast was composed by Sarah Llewellyn.

It’s the last episode of season 2 and we’re joined by playwright Gary Owen. He talks about knowing yourself as a writer and the liberating moment where you find a play that breaks all the rules, igniting the possibilities of playwriting. From Mark’s 101 Playwriting Tips, Gary chose: #96: When you have a strong sense of what you want to achieve with a play, feedback can be useful-you’ll use the notes that will help you realise your play. If you don’t have that sense, feedback will blow you off course. Choose carefully when to share your play Gary’s tip: Kill for your darlings For more information about 37 Plays and details about how to submit your play, please visit https://37plays.co.uk

It’s episode 5! Mark Ravenhill has a chat with playwright Nina Segal. Nina is the recipient of the 2022 Playwright's Scheme Award, on attachment with the RSC and her play O, Island!, produced at the RSC in October 2022, was shortlisted for the George Devine Award. From Mark’s 101 Playwriting Tips, Nina chose: #99: My definition: go through script and rewrite lines = polish. Ditto but rewrite scenes = a rewrite. Take script apart, question fundamental things about it, rebuild again from the ground up with substantial new material = a new draft. Allow for 3 – 7 drafts. Nina’s Tip: You’re the only person who can write the play you’re going to write.

In the fourth 37 Plays podcast episode, Mark Ravenhill is joined by playwright and screenwriter Sally Abbott. From Mark’s 101 Playwriting Tips, Sally chose: #4 Try writing a draft zero/dirty draft. Let the characters say all the exposition, themes, everything they think and feel. Don’t show this to anyone – even yourself ! – and then write the first draft. Sarah Kane told me she did this for Blasted. Sally’s Tip: The Blank Page: ”the reason this is totally rubbish is”… allow yourself to write all the things you don’t like with your draft and allow your subconscious to start solving it.

Mark Ravenhill’s guest for episode 3 is award-winning writer for stage, screen and radio, Iman Qureshi From Mark’s 101 Playwriting Tips, Iman chose: #20 To get by we develop a persona that says ‘don’t hurt me – I’m so funny or clever or sensitive or special etc’. It’s limiting to use playwriting as a way of continuing to project this persona. It’s frightening at first but liberating to write plays from a more authentic self. Don’t use writing a play as a way of building your shell. Let the play ‘be’ – you should be I think a bit embarrassed that it’s angrier or funnier or more or less political than you’d like people to think you are. Iman’s tip: "For me, theatre is about the change of the human heart. More than anything else possibly, it's a medium that really lets you walk a mile in someone else's shoes. So when I'm approaching a play, I always have at the back of my mind whose heart do I want to change and how, and is this play currently doing that?"

In the second 37 Plays podcast episode, Mark Ravenhill is joined by playwright Sami Ibrahim. From Mark’s 101 Playwriting Tips, Sami chose #67: Most of us have years writing apprentice plays -each one like trying on a jacket. they’re fine, they fit OK. Then you write a play and the jacket completely moves with you, second skin. You haven’t reached the destination-the journey’s begun. How I felt with Shopping and Fucking. Sami’s tip: Don’t second-guess your instincts or make assumptions about what a theatre wants you to write.

The first episode in the second season of 37 Plays has Mark Ravenhill joined by Olivier award winning playwright and performer Isobel McArthur. From Mark’s 101 Playwriting Tips, Isobel chose: #16: Have characters say at the top of a scene who they are, where they are and what they’re up to. It will push you to make these decisions. Vagueness may feel satisfyingly ambiguous but will soon lose momentum. You can make exposition more subtle in a later draft. "This one sounds like it might lead to obvious writing but rather than obvious most people start a scene vague, hedging their bets and then the scene runs out of steam." Isobel’s Tip: If your scenes are feeling stilted... try disrespecting the papery document

In episode six of the Plays Podcast, Mark Ravenhill is joined by playwright, screenwriter, and director Chinonyerem Odimba. Chino is also the Artistic Director and Chief Executive of tiata fahodzi. From Mark’s 101 Playwriting Tips, Chino chose: #12: There’s something cruel about constructing a play, putting characters in situations that are everything from awkward to very painful. Don’t shy from this cruelty but use it responsibly, explore all its ramifications and don’t use it cynically or for effect. Chino’s own tip is: “One of the things I tend to do when I’m writing a character is that I have a conversation with them…Each and every one of my characters if I can. And that conversation consists of me telling them a secret and them telling me a secret…” The music for this podcast was composed by Sarah Llewellyn.

In this episode of the 37 Plays Podcast, Mark Ravenhill is joined by Winsome Pinnock, a writer for stage, radio, film and television. From Mark’s 101 Playwriting Tips, Winsome chose: #31: ‘Show don’t tell’ – a red herring? From the Greek plays messenger speech on, plenty of great plays have had a lot of ‘tell’. As long as the ‘tell’ changes the characters on stage and realigns the action of the play. Alternating show and tell works well. Winsome’s own tip is: “In order to get to know your characters, get them to write you letters. I often have my characters write to me, and they might write about me actually…they write about my process, the discoveries I am making during the process. They’ll question me and throw me challenges.” The music for this podcast was composed by Sarah Llewellyn.

In the third 37 Plays podcast episode, Mark Ravenhill is joined by actress, writer and jazz singer, Danusia Samal. From Mark’s 101 Playwriting Tips, Danusia chose: #55: The stage is a place of questioning, realignment, transformation. Choose as your starting point nagging doubt, the question that won’t leave you alone. Let the play embody, amplify your question. An acceptance of living with the irresolvable is still an ending Danusia’s own tip is: “Give yourself distance from what you’ve written. If you get in a muddle with it, or you’re constantly editing or changing or going back, you have to give yourself space from it. A few days or a week ideally. Suddenly, you’ll come back with clear eyes and be able to see the play.” The music for this podcast was composed by Sarah Llewellyn.

Mark Ravenhill is joined by playwright and screenwriter Hannah Khalil. From Mark’s 101 Playwriting Tips, Hannah chose: #5 For a theatre play, an hour of playing time is 9,000 to 10,000 words. Basic but no one tells you this! Think in minutes – after a thousand words, the audience are six minutes into the play. And so on. Writing a play is ‘sculpting in time’. Hannah’s own tip is: “Before you start writing your play, convince yourself it will never be produced…. To tell myself that this is just for me, I can write whatever I want, and no one is going to judge me for it, allows me to be a bit freer and not worry too much about how it will be received.” The music for this podcast was composed by Sarah Llewellyn.

In the first 37 Plays podcast episode, Mark Ravenhill is joined by actress and writer Lolita Chakrabarti, OBE. From Mark’s 101 Playwriting Tips, Lolita choses: #71: A very good playwright told me she always has the last line/image of the play first. Jealous! a play does often drive toward that last moment. Everything else is a set up for that pay off. But it takes me many drafts to get there. Lolita’s own tip is: “Keep your own counsel with the first draft. Don’t listen to anybody before you have processed and felt the story, imagined it, and written that first painful, painful draft. Nobody can be a voice in your head, other than your own voice.” The music for this podcast was composed by Sarah Llewellyn.