The Person Without by Jenny Yates
September 2008
Director: Stephen Tomlinson
I was thrilled when I received the email from Stefan Escreet at Theatre by the Lake telling me that North West Playwrights were offering me a day's workshop on my play The Person Without. The play is a psychological thriller, a dark piece in which we realise that not all is as it seems. The three characters, Adam, Walt and Maggie, learn more about each other and the absent fourth character - the person without. I have been working on it for a while, starting it while a member of Oldham Coliseum's scriptwriters' group and developing it with the help of North Cumbria Scriptwriters.
As the time approached, the nerves set in, but I was eager to see how my play would appear when worked on by a professional director and actors. The director, Stephen Tomlin, contacted me beforehand with his thoughts on how the day would progress. He was very encouraging, and it was reassuring to speak to him, as it gave me some idea what to expect and helped dispel my nerves.
On the day, I met with Stefan, Stephen and Sheila McAnulty from NWP, as well as the three actors, David Ericsson, Dinah Handley and Andrew Pollard. There were also two observers, a postgraduate creative writing student and a trainee director. I was glad to have them there as they gave me some useful feedback, with a different perspective to that of the actors and the director.
We started with the read through, before getting the actors' views. Then I explained how I came to write the play and tried to give clarity where they felt it was needed. Sheila and the two observers also gave me their thoughts on the piece. It can be overwhelming to have several very different people giving their perspective on a piece, but I've come to realise that there are two ways of recognising just criticism: if everyone is saying the same thing (even if you don't agree), or if you realise that, subconsciously, you agree with what is being said.
After lunch Stephen took two scenes and worked on them with the actors, getting them to move around and trying the scenes in different ways. In one of these, Adam chats to Maggie about how she came to work for the fourth character. He learns about her troubled past and her view that the three of them are ‘damaged goods'. In the other scene Walt and Maggie talk about Adam while he is asleep and hint at his difficult time to come. Stephen persuaded our two observers to participate as ‘voices off-stage' in the scene between Maggie and Adam. It was interesting to see how different a scene can be even with very small changes in direction. For example, in the scene where Adam is asleep, Stephen asked the actor playing Adam to stir at a point in the scene he thought appropriate. The other two actors didn't know where this would be and had to respond as they thought fit. This added to the scene's tension.
We finished with a final discussion of how I might progress with the piece, a dissection of the ending and suggestions as to how I might change it. For example I need to concentrate more on Adam's journey throughout the play. It was also suggested that I write monologues for Maggie and Adam, revealing more of their back-stories, even though the monologues may not make it into the final draft. Stephen also suggested that I look at my stage directions and cut the redundant ones. I was already aware that the ending is not satisfactory and welcomed everyone's ideas as to how I might improve it.
The day was memorable, a valuable learning experience and I'd recommend the experience to any would-be-writer lucky enough to have such an opportunity. You can read your play through as many times as you like, but there is no substitute for seeing it come to life when performed. However, what made the biggest impression on me is that writer, directors and actors all have their own perspective on a piece and it is important for any writer for performance to have this in mind when writing, without losing sight of their own aims.