Want To Start Writing for Theatre?
Where do you start? Who better to offer insights and advice than award-winning playwright Gary Henderson?
Gary's work is produced and published in NZ and internationally. In 2013 he received the Playmarket Award acknowledging his significant artistic contribution to New Zealand theatre.
His most recent premiere was his acclaimed sci-fi thriller Shepherd at The Court Theatre and an adaptation of David Galler’s book "Things That Matter" is opening for the Auckland Theatre Company in August 2021.
Beginner’s Guide, Kathyrn Burnett recently sat down with Gary to talk on ‘Writing for theatre’.
Q1: How did you know you wanted to be a playwright? When did you decide to do it?
I don't think I made a decision then acted on it. I wrote a play - the 'major production' - for Parkway Intermediate where I was teaching in the early 80s, because I thought the script they'd hired the year before was atrocious, and reckoned I could do better. I wrote six big school plays and became so interested in it I started making and putting on youth theatre in Wellington, then left teaching and went back to Vic Uni to study theatre and film, met lots of keen theatre students, continued to make work and at some point sort of realised I'd become a playwright.
Q2: How was your first play received?
The school plays were smash hits. Of course they were. All those excited kids and proud parents. Couldn't miss. The public youth theatre slowly gathered momentum, and I had a bit of a breakout moment with the more adultSunset Cafē in 1993 followed by the absolutely adult Skin Tight, in 1994. The latter is still being done sporadically around the world and reliably gets pretty good reviews - except in Washington DC where both reviewers absolutely lacerated it.
Q3: Writing always comes with challenges - how have you stayed motivated and productive over your career?
Tricky question. I haven't always been motivated, and I don't think of myself as prolific. I've been very lucky in that most theatre I've written has been commissioned. So there's a whole team supporting me through the process - which doesn't make the act of writing any less solitary, but you know it's going to happen. In between times I do a lot of teaching, mentoring, and dramaturgy - that sort of thing.
Q4: When you start writing a new play - what is the first thing you usually do?
A lot of daydreaming. Imagining what it might look like. Then I write the title page, so it looks like the script already exists. It's already a real thing. Often I don't start writing the text until I've thought up a really good opening sequence that I can write up quickly, which then becomes a kind of runway for carrying on. You run along it and leap off into the nothing. And each time it's a bit longer.
Q5: What advice do you have for newer playwrights when it comes to coming up with a great idea for the stage?
See lots of different theatre. Learn the language and be inspired by the wild possibilities. Write the thing you'd love to see on stage, especially if its never been done before.
