PUT YOUR PEN DOWN WHEN YOU HAVE FINISHED WRITING

"Here you are. This is the one you've been waiting for". At the moment the life of Dr Alfred Salter and his wife Ada is an epic piece; far too long and with multiple characters and a chorus----Oh and a wall on stage for the characters to knock down and build up and write on and paint and so forth.

Quirky? Definitely. Realistic? Possibly. Watchable? Maybe. Imaginative beyond its wildest dreams? Not for me to say.

I have sent this oeuvre to a few good friends and a couple of directors in the performance industry for their comments and all of them say "Don't use children!" It is a minefield of red tape and not worth the effort. But my reason for including children's voices is their absolute openness. The truth they tell without having to think. They say what they mean without worrying about votes and public image. They just speak. It is a tune I need in the play but there are other ways..............

Not surprisingly, ACE have turned down my application for funding this piece of work on the grounds that it is a high financial risk. Up to now I have been the source of the finance for three4all theatre. The productions have been financed by the participants in that the artists work for little or no pay. We (that's the artists and myself) can no longer tolerate the no pay rule. Our work deserves a wage; it's just a question of finding it. A thought about the content of the last few productions from three4all theatre. They have all been about real people in real situations. Apart from one which was on stage fright which is real enough for some. The major part of writing these "biopics" is the research and that in itself is a huge project. And leads to so much story, so much guesswork, so much "how was it for them?" But I get a real picture of them all. The great thing about writing for the stage is that you can put any two people together in a room and see what happens. And some more work coming up with Real Arts. Devising with a large company a piece entitled "Love in Four Acts". Delightful to know that Love is something that still really matters.