When I was starting out as a playwright I never understood why Essex didn’t have the new-writing theatres that other areas had. I’d send my plays to Manchester, Plymouth, Bristol, Edinburgh, London (of course) and all matter of other places. But not anywhere in the county I grew up in. Not anywhere in the county where most of my plays were set and the stories originated from. It’s clear the talent was here (Sarah Kane, David Eldridge, Rebecca Pritchard, et al), so why wasn’t the resources?
That’s why, when Dilek Latif (Senior producer at the Mercury and all round superhuman) came to me with the idea of setting up a writers’ group during the pandemic, I jumped at the chance to design and run it. Don’t get me wrong, by now there were some incredible writers breaking through from Essex. But it still didn’t feel like there was a hub (like there is in so many other regions) that was focused on their development. A place shouting about how much talent we have in this area. Talent that only seemed to get noticed when it had a play on in London. A place where first plays could be staged. Craft can be learnt. A place, no matter where these writers went on to in their careers, they would still feel is home.
Five years later we now have an alumni of East of England Writers that include an Olivier winner, a Susan Smith Blackburn winner, a Bruntwood Prize winner; we’ve staged four full productions of plays developed on the programme – and one of these is transferring to NY and London in the new year; we’ve commissioned writers from it to write schools plays, we’ve nurtured relationships, we’ve helped with funding applications, and… It’s not enough. It never is. But it’s a start.
Now I have the privilege of becoming the first Literary Associate of the Mercury. What is a literary associate you ask? Well, that’s a good question. Obviously it involves reading a lot of scripts. Fortunately, I love plays and I love playwrights. But to my mind it’s more than that. It’s being a voice for writers in a building. It’s championing the plays that are a bit ‘out there’. The ones that don’t immediately scream ‘box-office smash’. It’s about what’s produced at the Mercury next year, but also what goes on in five years. Ten years. It’s about creating a culture where writers know that we want to work with them. We want them to write something brilliant and think of us as their first port of call. It’s about getting that work on the main stage as well as in the studio.
So, real talk, I’m making a few changes to our script submission process. We will now only be receiving scripts in two time slots across the year. These are January and August. We won’t be accepting adaptations or jukebox musicals. And we will be asking for you to only submit the first thirty pages of your script instead of the whole thing. This might sound infuriating, but if I’m being truthful, a script has to land by page thirty. It needs to have hooked the reader on an emotional or cognitive level. They be absolutely desperate to find out what happens next. And if that’s the case I’ll be in touch to request the rest of the play. If not, then I’m afraid we won’t be able to offer feedback. I promise you will hear back from us in less than six months though regardless. I’m a writer myself, I know how rubbish it is waiting to hear from people. And if it is a ‘no’ from us, that doesn’t mean it’s a bad script. It just means it’s not right for us here at the Mercury. If you look at the development of most things you like, someone somewhere has said no to them at some point and now looks like an idiot. Send the play to other places. Make me that idiot.
These changes are a lot to do with how much a theatre, without a full literary department, can realistically do. But also, I think it’s worth being honest about how few plays actually come through an open script submission and make it to full production without a prior relationship existing between the theatre and the writer. And I’m not talking just about the Mercury, I mean across the board. That sounds bleak. But it’s not. We’re looking for original voices. Writers from the East we haven’t met yet. Raw voices that might need some help in terms of their development. Writers from other forms or ‘non-writers’ who have a burning desire to tell a story and share it with us. Not just a script that’s ready to go.
And through that we’re offering a chance to build that relationship with us. Maybe we do love the play and want to produce it. Or maybe it’s talking about offering you a space on our writer development programme. Or maybe a meeting to talk about future projects. What it really means though is starting that journey together.
Be bold, be brilliant, be yourself. I promise that’s where the best work comes from.
Here is a link with more details and the script submission email:
mercurytheatre.co.uk/taking-part/for-artists/mercury-playwrights/script-submissions/
I’m looking forward to reading your work!
K
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