I was at the Soho Theatre last night to listen to the second of two talks by Jack Bradley. Who's Jack Bradley? He's a writer who used to be head of the literary department at the National Theatre and now works with West End producer Sonia Friedman, and he was the man largely responsible for picking up Katori Hall's The Mountaintop, the surprise winner of the Olivier Best New Play on Sunday. (Do keep up at the back of the class.) After programming Lenny Henry's Othello on the main stage at the Trafalgar Studios last year, Jack was on the lookout for a play that might also draw in black theatregoers to the smaller studio space. He noticed there was a play about Martin Luther King coming up at the tiny Theatre 503 in Battersea, and persuaded Sonia Friedman to go with him. They liked it and went for it. That's the kind of serendipity that happens in theatre. If Barry Rutter hadn't given Lenny Henry the chance to do Othello, then The Mountaintop might not have gone further than Battersea.
What else did Jack Bradley have to say? He began his evening of useful advice to writers by reading a very funny spoof rejection letter to Samuel Beckett complaining about a lack of real action in Waiting For Godot. Most aspiring playwrights have a fair idea how the subsidised theatre works, though they don't realise quite how many thousands of scripts pour in every year to the National, the Royal Court, the Bush and other theatres that specialise in new writing. The commercial West End jungle is less familiar, and Jack made it a lot less mysterious. No, he doesn't read unsolicited scripts. But there are lots of other ways in which a new play can find an audience. Don't send your work out until it's been thoroughly road-tested. If it's been rejected once, don't rewrite it and send again to the same person. If you want to put on your own play and have no money, send out begging letters to rich theatre folk who do. Don't worry about not having an agent. Seek out fledgling independent producers. Among a lot of other good advice on offer, I was struck by a quote he gave from Harry H. Corbett, (the classical actor who became famous on TV as Harold Steptoe). Corbett was talking about an actor learning his lines, but what he said applies to stage writing: 'It's easy. In a good play there is only one line you can say next.' What else? Learn to hustle on your own behalf, but don't try to bully people or make yourself too much of a nuisance. Send in a very brief covering letter and a quick synopsis, and remember that most theatre companies are short of time and people. Most don't have the resources to organise readings with actors. One young woman in the audience asked Jack if the current emphasis on discovering young writers meant that anyone who was still undiscovered at 30 should give up. Jack replied that he had once programmed a play by a writer aged 87. Personally, I found that the most cheering line of the whole evening.
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