Kristen Doherty
Hometown:
I was born near the beach in Glenelg, South Australia. I still live in South Australia, but now in the Adelaide Hills with my husband, three daughters, two oodle dogs and two cats. We have been renovating a rambling old Tudor home for the past eight years, and I imagine we will never finish, but that's ok, because I love it, it makes me think of Shakespeare, so it's a very inspirational place to write.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I am currently on long service leave after 21 years of Drama teaching. I am trying to use my time well to do lots of writing. I recently finished my newest play, ‘The Playhouse’, a time traveling romp around Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. It will have its premier at a school in New York in November. I am also working on a play that I actually started researching and co-writing as a screenplay about ten years ago, ‘Push’, a historical drama about the gangs of Sydney in the late 1800s. I am also attempting to finish some of my plays for young people including Ten Minute Hamlet and Thirty Minute Midsummer Night's Dream. I also have a vaudevillian murder mystery in the early stages of development.
Q: Tell me if you will a story from your childhood that explains who you are as a writer or as a person.
A: I was a die-hard theatre kid growing up. Like many of us I had dreams of one day becoming a well-respected actor. But I was also the slightly awkward, chubby, kid that talked too much and always got the crap roles; whereas the pretty, popular, academic girls always got the main. They didn’t want to make it their life like I did, and that stung. In my graduation play for my Drama degree I had three lines.
Hence, when I first became a drama teacher, (almost 25 years ago now. Eek!!) I wanted to give all of my students an opportunity to shine. But I too suffered, (and still do) the eternal quest to find a suitable play for my classes. I wanted good, meaty roles for all actors, with no stars, but I struggled to find plays that were true ensemble pieces. It seemed that every school still did the same plays that I did when I was in high school. So, I started writing my own....
I would love to tell that awkward kid that she would end up spend her life working in theatre. I think she'd like that.
Q: If you could change one thing about Theatre, what would it be?
A: I would like to see more value placed upon children's theatre and would like to see Drama taught in every primary (and high) school. I believe that theatre is magic for children. The benefits to their cognitive learning, their sense of importance, their self-esteem and their connection to community is immeasurable. Being a part of a company, whether that’s in a classroom or a theatre group, can be incredibly empowering; it gives young people a home, a sense of belonging, a purpose. I believe finding a love of theatre and the arts enriches lives.
Q: Who are your theatrical heroes,
A: My number one theatrical hero is William Shakespeare. I think I’m actually bordering on obsession with this one. I take a lot of inspiration from Shakespeare and his stories and currently have eight plays that are either inspired by Shakespeare and his works, or adaptations and parodies of it.
As an Australian writer I grew up with David Williamson, Michael Gow, Stephen Sewell, Ray Lawler and Louis Nowra. At uni I really got into absurd writers such as Samuel Beckett, Antonin Artaud and Harold Pinter. Right now, I am enjoying the work of contemporary Australian Playwrights, Finegan Krukemeyer, Melanie Tait and Andrew Bovell as well as the brilliant British comedy writer, Patrick Barlow. I also admire writers who specialise in Theatre for Young People such as Tracy Wells, Don Zolidis and Jason Pizzarello.
Q: What kind of Theatre excites you?
A: I really enjoy great storytelling - something that takes the audience on a journey. I like clever stories with strong emotional content; witty, engaging dialogue and well-rounded character arcs. I enjoy visually exciting theatrical design and an interesting or alternate space for theatre to be performed in.
As a writer, I get excited by the actual mechanics of storytelling, the process of writing. Coming up with ideas, researching, developing characters, storyline, dialogue, solving problems, working out puzzles, back-stories, twists, finding humour, drama, tragedy, and finally seeing the whole thing eventually unfold into a beautiful piece of theatre. I love seeing the audience's reactions as well as that of the actors who have just experienced the magic.
Q: What advice do you have for playwrights just starting out?
A: For this question I can only speak to my own experiences, that of someone who came into writing through teaching Drama. So, I think this answer will be slightly skewed towards the drama teacher or directors who work within the realm of Theatre for Young People.
As a playwright who specialises in Theatre for Young People, I find myself in a privileged position to also work as a drama teacher. I spend my days in a theatre, workshopping plays with my students. (If I’m not there, I’m home, in my office writing them). Sometimes these are my own plays, quite often they are works of other writers - Still, a rich exposure to work that inspires my writing.
Playwrights can be solitary figures who can spend years working on a piece without the opportunity to workshop regularly with actors to develop their plays. As Drama teachers, we can refine our craft every day. We work in classrooms and theatres where we can workshop and rehearse and be able to hear our words back, with actual humans to fill the acting roles. No matter how rudimentary our spaces and resources are; and how challenging our students can be, this is still exposure that independent playwrights rarely and sometimes never have. As writers we can be inspired by our students, their stories, their language and their views on the world which makes our writing more relevant and authentic for young people. And as Drama teachers we have the ability to give our students a voice to help them to tell their own stories; to experiment, to play, to create. We have such an insight into young people’s worlds; we see how they think, talk, move, relate to others, their struggles, their joys, their language, their humour, their heartbreak. We (try to) keep current with their ever-changing lingo, we understand what kids are going through, we speak to them, we understand them… Sometimes, anyway….All of which gives us authenticity in our writing.
I will also add that as a playwright you need to invest in yourself, timewise and financially. I have attempted to do this by working part time, setting myself up an office in my house, (away from noise and household business), purchasing a laptop with a bigger screen, I have invested in screenwriting software and joined playwriting unions. I spend time learning and finding inspiration by reading plays, watching theatre, travelling for research and conferences, watching webcasts about playwriting, doing short courses, connecting with other playwrights, examining other playwrights and their practices, as well as mastering formatting, and writing and writing and writing.
Some tips:
When writing theatre for young people listen to them, hear their words, their language, their terminology.
Make it relevant. Current. Or for different genres/settings/eras, make it interesting/juicy.
Write what you know, or what fascinates you.
Formatting is important - Research into how to properly structure a script.
Make your characters engaging, make the audience love or hate them.
Pour ideas into something - A notebook.
Create a beat sheet of moments. Character synopsises. Scene by scene breakdowns.
Make your dialogue real/witty/engaging.
Keep stage directions to a minimum. Don’t direct from the page, that’s not the writer’s job, that’s the director’s.
Just write. Don’t delete anything. Come back to it later. Free flow write and refine later. The best writing is in the editing.
Read out loud – it changes everything.
Be progressive, inclusive and innovative.
PLAY.
Look into the Hero’s Journey. REVISE, REVISE, REVISE – Writing is rewriting.
Read out loud. Edit. Cut. Cut. ‘Kill your darlings’. (Getting rid of an unnecessary storyline, character, or sentences - elements you may have worked hard to create but that must be removed for the sake of your overall story)
Workshop with actors. Revise again and again.
Be adaptable/flexible with character numbers and gender.
Attend playwriting conferences.
Send off for publication and look out for submission opportunities and competitions. (It does help to have had plays with a track record of them being performed by other schools/theatre companies when submitting them to publishers, however, competition submissions generally call for unproduced plays)
Get used to being rejected.
Build communities. Collaborate – Find someone to write with, read each other’s work, be a sounding board. Be each other’s cheerleaders!
Send your work out to the world :)
Q: Plugs please.
A: I endeavour to write fun, inclusive, engaging, but also challenging plays which span multiple genres; Comedy, Drama, Shakespearean Adaptation and Parody, Magical Realism, Naturalism, Melodrama, Historical, and Educational Theatre (with a good amount of angst that teenagers love so much)
There have been around 400 productions of my plays performed globally, mostly in Australia, America (I only have a few states that I haven’t ticked off yet) the UK, and Europe, but also in China and South Africa and places as remote as Costa Rica, Egypt, Uzbekistan, Albania and Uganda. The best part about writing for young people is that I have made wonderful friendships and connections with teachers and their students all over the world. I get sent beautiful pictures and videos of productions and get to see behind the scenes and do midnight Zooms with schools in far off places. I get to see beautiful emotional reaction videos when a troupe win their One Act Play competition or do a costume unveiling. I receive so many heartfelt messages from teachers, directors, students, and sometimes even parents, and I get to see hundreds of different interpretations of something that I created in my brain… It’s quite a thrill really…
www.kristendoherty.com.auhttps://www.facebook.com/PlaysbyKristenDoherty/
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Support The Blog
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
