Playwright Scheme interview with Brian Foster and Mags.
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00:00Yeah, I'm Brian Foster. I'm a playwright here in the city, and I've been working here for about 30 years.
00:09And the theatre that we're in now, we're coming up to the 25th anniversary,
00:16and I'm very proud and privileged to say that I was the first local writer to have a play on in here
00:24in the very first year of the theatre opening. The first few months, actually.
00:29So it's nice to be here all those years later and trying to do something to help up-and-coming writers.
00:37And I am Mags Anderson, Education Officer here at the Millennium Forum, and I am the Project Coordinator.
00:45And can you tell me what the Millennium Forum has introduced on the first 25th anniversary?
00:50Just give me a quick wee explanation of what it is.
00:5325th?
00:54Yeah, for the playwriters.
00:56Yeah, well, this came about, probably it's developed over the past two years.
01:03When I began a conversation with Davey McLoughlin, he's the CEO of the Forum here,
01:08and we were wondering what we could do to sort of bring on up-and-coming talent,
01:14writing talent in the North West here that might not necessarily know where to go
01:22or how to go about getting their project from page to stage.
01:29So we thought that this would be a good opportunity, coming up for the 25th anniversary,
01:34to run a playwriting scheme where we would try to find a new play.
01:40And obviously with a new play comes a writer. So we're going to develop it that way.
01:45So as it's our 25th anniversary, there's going to be lots of different projects and schemes happening.
01:50So this is our first one that we've launched.
01:52And the winner will get to have their play produced and staged on our stage in 2026.
02:00And we will hire a professional director, actors,
02:04and it will be a full-blown production on the Millennium Forum stage.
02:08Do you find, Mamie, that this is a unique opportunity?
02:12Because there's not a lot of opportunities where writers in Derry or the North and the North West
02:16they actually get their work on stage.
02:19There's a lot of loops to jump through and a lot of hurdles to jump over.
02:23Well, it's one of the problems for any writer, not just in Derry, but all over,
02:31that they commit to paper, they get an idea, they put it on paper as a play,
02:37but then they don't know where to go with it.
02:40So that's where, well, hopefully I can come in
02:43and show them how you take a play all the way through writing it,
02:49through developing it, through rehearsing it, and through marketing it.
02:54And then finally, the big night when the lights go down and your play opens here on the big stage.
03:01So it's a wonderful opportunity.
03:04We're also offering, by the way, a £3,000 prize for the winner of this.
03:10But when I say winner, there are no losers.
03:13Because anybody who gets involved, they're going to take positives out of it.
03:19And it could be that only one person can be the final chosen play, of course.
03:26But the process itself could kick-start a lot of other careers.
03:34So this will be a two-year-long project.
03:37It will start off, we've kicked it off now, it's been launched,
03:40and then the closing date is the 18th of October.
03:43But we are having an open day for anyone to come in and chat to Brian,
03:47chat to yourselves about what the process will be.
03:51And then all the submitted scripts will be shortlisted.
03:57And then there'll be a shortlist group that will work closely with Brian regularly over the next couple of months.
04:03And then by July we will have a winner.
04:06And then September next year, all the work will go into making that play more stage-worthy
04:14and getting the rehearsals and putting it on its feet.
04:17And then it will be working towards the full-on production.
04:21I know you do a lot of work with younger people who are trying to get into the arts and get involved in the arts.
04:27What does it mean to you to put such a grand-scale event,
04:31they encourage people to actually get involved?
04:34Absolutely amazing. The age group is 16 plus.
04:37And it's plus as in there's no end age group.
04:40So it's going to be a wide range of people that apply for this.
04:46So it will give new writers the opportunity.
04:49It will give people who have wrote maybe at home or later on in their years
04:53and thought maybe this is never going to happen for me.
04:55This is the opportunity for them.
04:56This is them to give in there.
04:58We need a four-page synopsis of the play and then the first six pages of the play.
05:03So then that will be their entry.
05:05And then the development of the play then will happen then whenever they're shortlisted.
05:10But as Brian said, there's not just one winner.
05:12Everybody will be able to work on their play and work on what they want to see the end product to be.
05:18And who knows what could happen.
05:20The play that's chose could go and snowball and get massive.
05:23The ones that have gone through the process could also go.
05:26It's us being able to give them the opportunity and back them
05:30and have this new generation of playwrights coming from the city.
05:37Brian, you mentioned that one of the earlier works in the Millennium Forum was one of your own.
05:42Could you tell me what it was?
05:44Yeah, it was Myra, Woman of Derry.
05:46That was one of the first in the Millennium Forum.
05:49What do you think it would mean to someone to have their first work,
05:52beyond Stay Hate, in the Millennium Forum?
05:55Let me just follow on from there.
05:58So, 25 years ago, or 24 years ago, I did Myra, Woman of Derry here on the big stage.
06:06Now, we had originally done it up in the Playhouse
06:09and then brought it down here a month or two later.
06:12But that play now has developed.
06:16So, believe it or not, I'm still running with that play now 25 years later.
06:21And that play made it to the West End in London.
06:24It's won an award in New York and Canada.
06:29And it's just snowballed.
06:32It's played four Edinburgh Fringes, sold out.
06:38So, the longevity of the process is just amazing.
06:44So, something that you right now, as Max just said there,
06:47you don't know, you know, it's not just a one-off production where it can end there.
06:52You don't know where that play is going to go
06:55and what legs it's going to grow and how far it can take you.
06:59And that play has basically taken me all over the world,
07:03as I say, including London, West End,
07:06where we're going back to, by the way, for a longer run.
07:10And it most likely will go to Broadway also.
07:14So, the sky's the limit.
07:17Could I just reinforce, hammer home there, what Max said?
07:22Initially, we just want the first six pages of your script,
07:26so you don't have to have a finished product.
07:29You can have an idea for the play.
07:31You can give us that idea as the synopsis,
07:35which is basically the bones of the play,
07:39of the actors, of what happens in that.
07:43And all we need from you to begin the whole process is your first six pages,
07:48and then we can develop the play with you.
07:50So I'll work with whoever comes through, whoever's shortlisted,
07:54and then from the shortlist, whoever is chosen to take the play forward,
07:58I'll be with them all the way, and I can show them all the pitfalls,
08:02all the highs and lows of theatre, the do's and don'ts,
08:05and there's as many don'ts as there are do's,
08:08and, you know, the mistakes that you'll make,
08:10and everybody makes them, every mistake that could be made,
08:13I've made them, but I've learned from them,
08:16and it's great that I can pass that on to somebody else.
08:21It's Brian passing on his legacy to someone else
08:23and giving them the opportunity and giving them the insight
08:26to things that you said that people don't know,
08:28and people think, oh, I've wrote this play.
08:30People might have a load of plays wrote in the house.
08:32They might have had ideas of things,
08:34but they just don't have the courage to do it.
08:36This is their opportunity.
08:38And no previous experience needed.
08:40And as Grant, you may have a full play already written.
08:44Give us the first six pages of it.
08:47You may have just an idea.
08:49Put it on paper.
08:51Even if you've got no track record of writing,
08:54it doesn't matter a damn.
08:56We're glad to look at anybody, any age over 16.
09:01So it's a great opportunity,
09:03and it's one that I wish I'd had all those years ago,
09:06whereas I had to sort of work it all out myself, you know.
09:10Have you taught before?
09:12Have you ever done anything like this before?
09:14Yeah, well, I have run adult writing classes
09:17for years and years now.
09:19I could give you loads of anecdotes,
09:21but it would be too long.
09:23It's another story for some of the things we've come up against.
09:27But yeah, I like working with people who, like myself,
09:32I mean, I didn't come into writing
09:34until I was in my late 30s,
09:36which is quite late, you know.
09:39But some people imagine that you've got to be 18, 19 and 20
09:44to begin writing.
09:46It couldn't be further from the truth,
09:48because sometimes the older you are,
09:50the more life experience you can bring into your stories
09:54and things like this.
09:56So no age barriers here.
09:58Anybody's very welcome to have a go.
10:03What kind of qualities do you think a playwright needs?
10:08Well, when I'm doing any classes,
10:11the first thing that I say is
10:14the only prerequisite that any playwright needs is imagination.
10:19You've just got to have imagination,
10:22and you've got to be willing to let others see inside your head.
10:27Some people are scared of that, you know.
10:30Again, I could give you anecdotes of people who've said to me
10:33that they've written things but they held back
10:35because my mammy might read it
10:38or my granny might read it or something like that.
10:41And I said, well, you can't do that.
10:43You've got to really expose the inner workings of your head
10:48to what you put on paper, and don't you censor it.
10:51Let other people censor it,
10:53but don't you just put your thoughts down there.
10:57But it's imagination.
10:59That's really all.
11:01That's the great attraction for any form of writing.
11:04You don't need any hugely expensive equipment,
11:08just the basic computer there to type out your stuff on.
11:13That's about it.
11:15And it's just you then, alone in a room,
11:18sitting there with your imagination
11:20and putting your thoughts on paper
11:23and bringing them together in the form of a play.
11:27Ireland and Northern Ireland
11:30is known for great writers, poets and musicians,
11:34but do you think there's a lot of hidden talent nowadays
11:36and do you think this is a good opportunity
11:38for people to expose those talents
11:40that they might be keeping away because it could be embarrassing,
11:42as you said, with someone small like it?
11:44Definitely.
11:46How you can enter is there's a tab on the website
11:50or you can email myself
11:53and you would just read the criteria and then submit it.
11:57So people hiding behind the screens could go,
12:00right, let's do this.
12:01That's a step out of their comfort zone.
12:02Let's do it.
12:03And then that's it done.
12:04That's them starting.
12:05And they're starting to take that first step
12:07on to becoming a playwright and start their journey.
12:10So there's multiple people, I'd say,
12:13sitting at home maybe watching this,
12:15reading the papers, knowing they could do it
12:17and there is just the wee fear.
12:19Well, I know for a fact,
12:21like I've had lots of people have said to me,
12:24I would love to write a play.
12:27And I say, well, write one.
12:29Don't talk about it.
12:31Don't sit in writing classes,
12:33which a lot of people do for months, sometimes years,
12:37discussing what you might do or what you could do.
12:40Just sit down and do it.
12:42And I also find that a lot of people,
12:44especially with the likes of poetry or something like this,
12:48in times of stress, maybe a family bereavement
12:52or something like this, they'll suddenly become creative
12:57and they'll put things on paper that they never imagined.
13:01But it's this trauma releasing this talent that they had.
13:08So it works all the way through into playwriting also,
13:12that whenever you start, you'll be amazed
13:17at how you can develop.
13:19And when I look back at some of the early stuff,
13:23I keep everything, I'm a hoarder,
13:25so I keep everything from way, way back.
13:29And sometimes when you look at it, you know,
13:32you can see the journey that you yourself have made
13:35in terms of, you know, where you are now
13:38as to where you were then.
13:40But the only reason that you've got to here now
13:43is because you persevered
13:45and you kept at it.
13:47And I came up against all types of hurdles, obstacles,
13:51people telling me that I couldn't do this, couldn't do that.
13:54But I'm such an obstinate character
13:56that it's actually a benefit to you as a writer
13:59because it means that you don't fall at the first hurdle
14:02or you don't lose confidence in yourself.
14:05And I always had confidence in myself.
14:07And thank God it's come through all the way.
14:10And if anybody's worried about what way you write a play,
14:13like Brian was saying, people might never have done it before,
14:15Brian has given us two samples of his plays,
14:18a one-man, no, a one-woman show
14:21and a play with multiple characters.
14:24So there are samples on the website as well
14:26that you can have a look and see how you would structure to write it.
14:30And then it would just give you a wee idea
14:32and maybe a wee boost of how to get started.
14:35And also, can I get a plug-in here?
14:39Because that one-woman play that Mags spoke of,
14:45that's the current Myra story,
14:48the one that I've taken all over the place.
14:50It so happens that we're in the Millennium Forum
14:53and, Derry, the 28th and the 29th of March of next year...
14:56Imagine! It just happens to me.
14:59So if you want to see how to write a monologue...
15:03That's me blatantly advertising, by the way.
15:08And do please put that in the Derry Journal,
15:11because we've got to put bums in seats.
15:14Again, it's something that I've had to do all my life myself,
15:17is doing all my own marketing.
15:19And every chance you get, such as now,
15:21you give your projects a mention.
15:24But the people who will be shortlisted
15:26will be able to come and see what can happen
15:29from Brian writing a play to putting it on the stage
15:32and coming back to its hometown where it all began.
15:35So whoever is the winner of this,
15:38it could be the next Brian Foster.
15:41What do you think?
15:43Hopefully.
15:45There's plenty, I dare say, with a lot more talent than I ever had
15:48who are out there undiscovered.
15:50It's one of these bugbears that I've always had
15:54about writing competitions and things like this.
15:58And they always specify,
16:00we're looking for 18 to 21-year-olds and things like this.
16:04And I think that's awful.
16:06I totally disagree with that,
16:08because there are people there
16:10who didn't go through formal education.
16:13I left school at 16 with no qualifications whatsoever,
16:17and I struggled then in building sites and factories and things like this
16:22until I discovered that I had a bit of a talent for writing.
16:26And that changed my life.
16:29And I would imagine that there's a lot of people out there
16:33who would have a huge potential
16:35if only they had the confidence and the opportunity
16:39to expose that potential.
16:41And that's what we're giving them here.
16:43We're giving them the opportunity.
16:45And we'll take them through all of the process.
16:48We'll give them a professional director to direct their play.
16:53We'll bring in professional actors to act.
16:56And the whole thing will be just the dream come true for somebody.
17:01Well, you've just said if it is a play for under six characters.
17:05Five.
17:06Five characters.
17:07Yeah.
17:08And the reason for that is quite simple.
17:11In a professional production,
17:13you've got to look at the commercial costs of doing it.
17:16And you'll see amateur productions.
17:19Now, there are some wonderful amateur productions,
17:22make no mistake about it,
17:23but they have as many people on the stage as they have in the audience.
17:27And the reason they can do that
17:29is because they're not getting paid.
17:31But if you're doing a professional production,
17:33if you're sending a play to a theatre anywhere in the world,
17:39then one of the first things they look at is
17:43how many characters have you put in?
17:45If you put 20 characters into that play, it's not doable.
17:49It's not commercially doable.
17:50So this is why, again, from the beginning,
17:53we're going to do it as a commercial, as a professional play.
17:57And that means a small cast of five or less.
18:02You know, if you can even bring it in at two, three, four,
18:05that's even better.
18:07What can the writers expect when they're in the room with you
18:12and you're mentoring them?
18:15What?
18:17Do you really want me to tell you?
18:20Fun.
18:22No, it's...
18:23No, it's just...
18:26First of all, admiration.
18:28I give anybody admiration that has sort of the guts
18:34to open their head, to put their thoughts on paper
18:37and to bring it into a rehearsal room.
18:39And, you know, I'll work with them.
18:44Basically, I'll offload everything that I've got in my head,
18:48all the learnings that I've picked up over 30 years,
18:51I'll give it to them.
18:53And I'll do the utmost that I can to make their play the best that...
19:01When the lights go down in here and go up on the stage,
19:05that they'll see the very best production of the...
19:08Basically, I think I said this before to Mags,
19:11writing a play, the opening night is like a dream coming true
19:16because, you know, you dream up all this story in your head,
19:21you develop all this in your head.
19:23It's the nearest thing that you'll get to having a dream come true
19:27is having a first night opening of a play on a stage.
19:31And, like, when I sat in the West End in London
19:34and the lights went down in the Trafalgar Theatre
19:38right next to Trafalgar Square,
19:40and you think, you know, somebody pinched me.
19:44You know, this is crazy.
19:46This is my dream coming true
19:48in the biggest stage in the world, which is the London West End.
19:53But it happens, and if you don't dream, then you never achieve.
19:57You thought that as well 25 years ago when you were sitting in here?
20:00Never, never ever.
20:02Well, believe it or not, I say never ever, and that's totally wrong
20:06because I said to anybody who would listen back even then,
20:09I said, this play could make it to the West End in London
20:13if I get the breaks.
20:15But the problem is that the breaks don't come to you.
20:19You've got to go and make things happen yourself.
20:22So, again, I've always had to do all that.
20:26I've never been somebody who had the connections,
20:30who knew people and things like this who could make things happen for me.
20:34I've always had to go out and do it myself.
20:37So I can bring all that to whoever.
20:39This is a perfect opportunity to launch something like that.
20:42Definitely.
20:43Last question from me.
20:45If you do talk directly to someone now
20:48who's maybe in and out of the house going, I don't know,
20:51what would you say to them directly?
20:53I'll let Max go in first on that.
20:55Go for it.
20:57I'm at the end of the phone if you have any questions.
21:00We can go ask anything at all.
21:03If you're a little bit weary, just give us a call, give us an email,
21:06and we'll help with any queries.
21:11Just go for it.
21:12That's the one big thing.
21:13Just go for it.
21:14When else will you ever get a chance like this?
21:17I would say to them to come to the Open Day,
21:19which is next Thursday, the 12th of September.
21:23If you've got any reservations now, come to the Open Day and talk.
21:29You'll find out that we really are going to encourage you
21:35to just lose your inhibitions
21:39and try to make your dream come true.
21:41This is the way to do it, and you'll never get a better opportunity
21:45than we're giving somebody in Derry now
21:47for the 25th anniversary of this wonderful theatre,
21:51and their play will be on.
21:54So that's 2026.
21:56So first six pages now,
21:58and then we have a full year then to develop that play.
22:02So there's no big push on.
22:04They don't have to have a fully developed project.
22:08They can just get the idea, get the first six pages in to us.
22:13We'll read it.
22:14If we can see the potential there, then they'll be shortlisted,
22:17and from that shortlist, somebody will win it,
22:20and we'll take it all the way.