Tag Archives: John Binnie

Neglectful Blogger

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Regular visitors will be forgiven for thinking Write, Watch and Critique has abandoned the delightful job of Writing, Watching and Critiquing plays. Forgiven, but I hope, cheered to learn this is not the case.

A lot of attention has had to be lavished on my partner blog, Novels Now, http://goo.gl/ep3ZIx where news of Mariah’s Marriage and Bella’s Betrothal can be found.

Plays. Last Saturday I visited the Georgian House in Edinburgh’s Charlotte Square for an unusual dramatic offering. The Georgian House Players together with dancers under their Dance Master, Alex Howard, presented scenes from Georgian life.

Dressed in contemporary costume, they took on the concerns of the various members of the household on Christmas Eve 1811. The house at that time was owned and occupied by Mr. Lamont. We were invited to be a party of guests and one of our number was issued with an embroidered waistcoat marking him out as the principle visitor.

I was delighted to be taught a few measures from the Pollonaise and to learn that Mr. Lamont had to have cheese, Ayrshire cheese. A man after my own culinary heart.

New Work

More new drama was on offer at the adjudication of the Edinburgh Writers’ Club’s Drama competition last night. John Binnie conducted a workshop for the club in October and last night he commented on the members’ offerings written thereafter.

John mentioned how several of the plays had a character with Alzeimher’s Disease and that this was evidence of a trend in people’s thoughts and concerns. He also pointed out as he moved through the entries how some were the more dramatic because of their scene setting. One play, called Stuck, had a character stuck to a table by super glue while the metaphorical meaning was in the head of another. The winning play offered good opportunities for the actress to move around the stage and show character in action.

Winner, San Casimally, went for a one woman play called Mother’s Day. John expressed surprise to discover San was a male as he thought the piece captured the female experience so well.

Up next should be my trip to the Royal Lyceum’s Christmas Carol. Looking forward to it already.

Scottish Association of Writers

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I’m heading for the Scottish Association of Writers’ conference (SAW) at Erskine Bridge Hotel, weekend of 22nd-24th March. It’s a really buzzy weekend meeting up with friends in the writing world from all over Scotland and meeting new people.

In past years the SAW has awarded me The Hebridean Award for drama. The Hebridean Award was a sponsored competition for several years and it was for a two-hander for two women. My play CLINICAL KNOW-HOW was the first winner in a year when Chris Ballance was the judge. Clinical Know-How is available to licence from the author and is a good festival play, but would also be an awareness raising piece for women’s groups. Black comedy full of sharp one-liners and social observations.

I’ve also been privileged to win the Helensburgh Trophy for the regular drama competition with my play LOVE TO DEATH. It’s set in a rehab and is now published by Plays4theatre. The link to their catalogue, my page in their catalogue, is here:

http://www.plays4theatre.com/bookdetails.php?pr=712

This year at SAW, I’ve entered the sketch competition with one I wrote earlier. Whether it catches John Binnie’s eye: wins or sinks, it’s likely to be performed. The programme now includes performance of the entered sketches by the entrant’s clubmates on Friday night. It was good fun last year, so I thought I’d give it a go.

As with all things that were ‘not until…’ the conference is now next weekend and I need to remember to print off copies of the sketch. There’s nothing more excrutiating than watching four or five try to read their ‘bit’ from one copy.

Scottish Association of Writers is an umbrella organisation of writers clubs/workshops etc in Scotland. It started when Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Greenock clubs came together over forty years ago and is still going strong.