Playwright's Process Podcast

How does a new Australian play end up on the main stage? One way is by being commissioned by a theatre company. In today's episode, Dom Mercer, Head of New Work at Belvoir, talks us through this process. We discuss how new plays go from an idea to a story outline, and then through three drafts before they are considered for programming in a main stage season.

Dom takes you step by step through the development process within the commissioning model, and shares his provocations for playwrights going through their own drafting process. As a dramaturg of new writing, Dom has so many wonderful insights that are unique to each specific draft and his provocations for playwrights are some of my favourites.

About Dom Mercer: Dom Mercer is a dramaturg, director and producer based in Sydney. He is currently Head of New Work at Belvoir. At Belvoir his role has a focus on new writing and artist development, including leading the commissions and supporting the creative development pipeline for Belvoir's main stage productions in the upstairs theatre. He also founded and runs 25A; a curated season of independent works made in Belvoir’s Downstairs theatre.

We recorded today's conversation at Belvoir on Gadigal land. I acknowledge and pay my respects to the Gadigal people of the Eora nation who are the traditional custodians of the land on which Belvoir St Theatre is built.

Today I answer your writing questions in an ‘ask me anything’ episode. I cover loads of topics related to playwriting, theatre and dramaturgy.

Here’s what you asked:

- How do play development workshops work, and how do you structure each day?

- What do you do when you're struggling with writer's block?

- How do you organise your life as a writer?

- Do you speak to people about your plays in early drafts, or are you selective? I ask because I find it hard to speak to people about my ideas in the early phase.

- How do you contact and collaborate with subject matter experts and sensitivity readers?

- How do you manage doubt and despair in the creative process?

- How do you switch off from writing?

- Can you suggest some music and playlists to write to?

If you enjoyed today’s episode, feel free to send through your own questions for me to answer in a follow up ep. You can reach out via email [email protected] or on Instagram @emilysheehan__.

AMA (Ask Me Anything) episode is next up! Send me any questions you want answered to [email protected], or via DM on Instagram @emilysheehan__.

We all have ideas for plays (and movies and novels) that never make it to a finished draft. So today’s episode is about the steps you can take to develop an idea into an outline for a play.

Turning your ideas into a play is the process of asking yourself dramaturgical questions, making decisions about the story, then executing on those decisions. This episode covers my thoughts on this process. As well as the dramaturgical questions I'm asking myself as I turn my most recent idea into an outline for a new play.

I reference:
Episode 44. Confessional Writing (Emily’s version)

Other episodes about developing ideas:
Episode 22. Writing a Draft Zero
Episode 19. Writing the Next Thing
Episode 18. Tracking Progress in Early Drafts

Thank you for listening. You can learn more about my work on my website www.emilysheehan.info

Today I’m riffing on Taylor Swift and how as playwrights we can find ways to write in a way that feels incredibly truthful, to the point that it feels confessional. In what ways can we better embrace the cringey, diaristic, oversharing in our early drafts, so that we can move through to subtle, nuanced insights in our polished work? Because you can’t get to sophisticated sincerity, if you don’t nurture your cringe. And if we think being emotional in our writing isn’t intellectually rigorous enough, I think we risk suffocating where a piece of writing might take us…

I reference:
‘All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version)’ by Taylor Swift
‘All To Well’ by Taylor Swift
‘folklore’ studio album by Taylor Swift

I'm doing an AMA (Ask Me Anything) episode next up! Send me all your questions to answer by email [email protected] or on Instagram @emilysheehan__

Should we have multiple scripts on the go? Today I delve into the benefits and challenges of writing more than one idea at the same time. As well as some strategies for focus and momentum when bouncing between stories.

I touch on: 
- The temptation to do 'all the things' when it comes to new ideas.
- The complexities of managing more than one writing project at once.
- Identifying a primary project and side project and letting them ebb and flow.
- Planning your writing week when you have more than one thing on the go.
- Allocating the right amount of time to make manageable and meaningful progress.
- Leaving space for setbacks.

Thank you for listening.

To learn more about me and my work visit my website www.emilysheehan.info, say hi on Instagram @emilysheehan__ or reach me in an email at [email protected].

Having our work reviewed publicly is a strange and unavoidable part of writing. It's something we all have to deal with when we put new work out into the world. In today's episode I talk about reviews, theatre criticism and 'perfect opinions'. I touch on: 

- Writers' different appetites for reading reviews of their work. 

- The difference between theatre criticism and reviews.

- Frustrations with an imperfect reviewing culture.

- How reviews are one small piece of the broader cultural and critical response your work. 

- Knowing what's important to you. Whether that's the audience response, the industry response, the response from the community the work represents, box office sales, awards and nominations etc. 

- Asking who or what art criticism meant to serve?

- My thoughts on writers being part of the broader conversation surrounding their work. 

I reference: 

'Beejay Silcox on literary criticism and the art of judging' on The Garret podcast

Thank you for listening. If you're enjoying the podcast, leaving a rating or a review is a really friendly way to show your support. 

To learn more about my work, visit my website, connect with me on Instagram @emilysheehan__ or send me an email at [email protected].

Today I'm joined by Artistic Director of the Old Fitz Theatre, Lucy Clements, to talk about the rehearsal room for my play Frame Narrative.

We speak about:
- Finding the right artistic team to build out the world of the play.
- The rehearsal process and the role of a director and playwright at different stages.
- The many design elements and working with composition in the rehearsal room.
- Working with an intimacy coordinator to choreograph the work.
- Making changes to the text on the floor.

Come see the show!
Frame Narrative
By Emily Sheehan and directed by Lucy Clements
8-30 March 2024
At Old Fitz Theatre
Book now: https://www.oldfitztheatre.com.au/frame-narrative

Follow Lucy on instagram @lucypodstolski and @newghoststheatrecompany

Follow me on instagram @emilysheehan__

I've been writing an adaptation! (Frame Narrative and it’s on March 8-30, 2024 at The Old Fitz in Sydney.) Working with source material has changed some parts of my writing process. So I thought it could be useful to share what's been helpful along the way.

I speak about:
- The many kinds of adaptations: retellings, reimaginings, cover songs, fan fiction, prequels, sequels etc.
- Bridging the gap between the source material and the liveness of theatre (or whatever form you write in.)
- The relationship between form and content.
- Using research to broaden your access points to the material and find new ideas and inspiration.
- Imagine filtering a story through your voice and aesthetic like it’s a cover song. How does this particular story sound in your voice?
- Marginalia and the long history of readers writing in the margins of books.
- Working with the expectations audiences bring to a work when they know it’s an adaptation. Can you deliver on the expectations that open up possibilities, and subvert the ones that don’t.

I reference:
- G Flip’s cover of Cruel Summer by Taylor Swift on triple j Like A Version
- 'Like A Version and the art of making a cover song' by Madi Chwasta on ABC

See Monument at Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre!
By Emily Sheehan and directed by Ella Caldwell
February 20 - March 10, 2024
Book now: https://www.redstitch.net/monument-2024

See Frame Narrative at The Old Fitz Theatre!
By Emily Sheehan and directed by Lucy Clements
March 8-30, 2024
Book now: https://www.oldfitztheatre.com.au/frame-narrative

Sometimes in order to make a piece of writing stronger you have to remove something. Whether that's a conversation between two characters, a whole scene, a whole narrative thread or maybe even a whole character. In today’s episode I unpack the common piece of writing advice to ‘kill your darlings’ and share some of the provocations and writing tasks that have helped me cut material from my latest draft.

I speak about:
- Stepping back and looking at your play as a whole rather than its individual parts.
- We often default to adding something to our draft to improve it, but subtraction is just as important.
- How to know when to add something and when to take something away.
- When not to kill your darlings.
- Why going for clarity in each moment of the script isn’t the same as being vanilla.
- Some prompts for cutting dialogue, cutting drama beats, cutting key events, cutting scenes, cutting narrative threads, cutting whole characters and cutting stage time.

I reference:
- Episode 28 ‘Character Development’
- Episode 38 ‘Stay With the Story’
- Mark Ravenhill’s series of tweets ‘101 Notes on Playwriting’

See Monument at Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre!
By Emily Sheehan and directed by Ella Caldwell
February 20 - March 10, 2024
Book now: https://www.redstitch.net/monument-2024

See Frame Narrative at The Old Fitz Theatre!
By Emily Sheehan and directed by Lucy Clements
March 8 - 30, 2024
Book now: https://www.oldfitztheatre.com.au/frame-narrative

Get one-on-one support for your writing by visiting www.emilysheehan.info/dramaturgy and say hi, ask a writing question or request a podcast topic on instagram @emilysheehan__.

What’s your play about? What questions is it trying to answer? What provocations does it make? After a period of intense focus on the big ideas of the play, it can be helpful to switch focus and 'stay with the story'.

In today's episode I speak about:
- Writing from your authentic voice. The place where you are the most honest, most lyrical, most creative.

- The difference between what your play is about, and what it’s really about.

- Developing the story versus developing the ideas.

- The dance between complex ideas in a simple story, and simple ideas within a complex story.

- Looking at feedback through a story lens.

- Looking at your outline through a story lens.

- Using note cards to physicalise your story spine.

- Why I always print out the material I’m working on.

I reference:
Episode 22 'Writing a Draft Zero’
‘36 Assumptions About Writing Plays’ by José Rivera

Get one-on-one support for your writing by visiting www.emilysheehan.info/dramaturgy  

Say hi, ask a writing question or request a podcast topic on instagram @emilysheehan__