Workshops? Readings? Yes! Force Your Friends.
Just Do It. Blame Me. Just make sure it's done!
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Hello! Welcome to my weekly newsletter!
Enjoy a dose of my playwriting process,
writing confessions, and all the mess in between.
YOUR PLAY DOESN’T LIVE IN YOUR HEAD!
It lives in the mouths of others.
Until you hear it out loud, in real time, with real humans — you don’t really know the power of what you’ve written.
That jokes you write? Might not land.
That monologue? Could go on for a bit too long.
The pacing? Could be reaaaally draggy.
The world of your play? Could be really confusing to others.
That scene you thought was devastating? Might just feel... fine. Just. Fine.
So here’s what you do:
Step 1 - Gather Friends
Writers, actors, or random non-theatre friends (because they’re your audience), or experts in the subject matter of your play. For example, if you’re writing a medical story, get your medical friends.
Step 2 - Print It Out. Read It Out.
If you can get physical time, that’s always better. Screens are great, but sometimes paper is better. Sorry sustainability.
Having your friends gather and read together helps to understand the general consensus, the energy of your play vs the energy of the room, how human’s shift as a group about how they feel.
Step 3 - Watch. Listen. Cringe. Learn
DON’T pay attention to your script. Really watch people, listen to them, listen to what they’re saying. Notice the moments people start checking their phones or looking at their watches, note that down. Note the laughs, the gasps, the yawns.
Step 4 - Shut Up
When it’s time for feedback, take it all in. If it’s clarification they want, provide the clarification. But, and I cannot emphasise this enough:
DO NOT DEFEND YOUR WORK.
If they don’t get it, they just don’t.
It’s a note. Note it down. Ask why, and write it down.
Resist the urge to explain or over-explain because if they’ve missed the point, they’ve missed the point. Like a staged show, they’ll most likely just watch it once and never again. So you have one shot. And if you’ve lost it… now you know what to do.
And it doesn’t take much to have a reading.
It doesn’t need to be a fancy workshop. You don’t need to book a studio. Do it at home. In the great outdoors, anywhere. You don’t need dramaturgs, grants or a hashtag.
You just need friends who have valuable things to say.
Will it be awkward? Fuck Yes.
Will it help you? More than any solo rewrite ever will.
Because something magical happens when your words hit the air.
You feel the rhythm. You spot the dead weight.
You see your characters move.
Even in someone else’s voice, they start to become real.
Because how you read it will be different than how they will.
So force your friends.
Bribe them with snacks.
And if they complain about it, just say “Ian made me.”
But whatever you do: Get it out of your damn head and into a room.