Writer’s Notes: Philip Gawthorne

[Philip was one of the writers on Monday's bill]

When I heard about the 100 words project, it immediately caught my attention. I thought that it would be a lot of fun and a massive challenge…and I was right on both counts.

The day began with a workshop in which I and the other writers participated in a variety of different exercises. The task which I found particularly useful was one where we had to perform a scene using only numbers, i.e.

John (angrily): 1,2,3,4.
Mary (sad): 5,6…
John (furious) 7,8, 9, 10!

and so forth, up to 100. Although writing a play using only 100 words initially seemed extremely daunting, when we were performing this exercise for the group, 100 words seemed like an eternity! It made me realise how much could be done within the constraints we had been given.

About half way through the morning, I started to get an idea…one which was triggered by a short 30 word piece written by another writer, which featured a seductive griffin (don’t ask). As the theme for the plays was about teenage life, I thought it would be fun to write about mythical characters/monsters (vampires, werewolves etc) and this led me on to the eventual play I would write, which was about a teenage girl pitching an idea for a new comic book to her disapproving, snobby friends.

The workshop finished around 11 30am or so and we were all under the impression that we had until 2pm to actually write our hundred word plays, but we were sadly mistaken! In the end, I was lucky…because I had been struck by inspiration I was able to knock something out relatively quickly, in about 20 minutes.
So although we ostensibly had 300 minutes to write a 100 word play, we really only got about an hour of actual writing time!

The afternoon was taken up with rehearsals and both the NYT actors and Olly the director, were fantastic. In a short space of time they really brought the piece to life and they were very respectful of it, treating it as they would any other play.

Then in the evening came the performance, which whizzed by in a flurry of hugely imaginative (and often surreal) sketches and situations, performed with gusto by the talented NYT cast.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience and I was (and am) honoured to have been involved in what will no doubt be a massive worldwide success!