New Theatre Projects!

I have always enjoyed having a novel on the go, but have never minded other requests overlapping,
such as for a short story here,
a contribution to an anthology there,
a collection of myths and legends,
or a stage play. 

After writing ​​​'The Grape of Destiny', a play commissioned and performed by Wycliffe College in Stonehouse, Gloucestershire last summer, I wrote a play to reflect the work done by Kent County Council and Coram, the adoption agency, with young unaccompanied asylum seekers. It was called 'Wherever I Lay Down My Head'. I took the title from one of my short stories about homelessness. It was an answer to the question, “Where is your home?”  The title suited the predicament which these young people, and indeed thousand upon thousands of refugees, had been facing in recent years as they fled war, terror, and destitution. It was a powerful way to communicate the experiences of both asylum seekers, and local authorities and social workers, as they struggled to find humane and practical solutions.
 
The National Youth Theatre kindly provided a group of young actors, a wonderful director, Andrew Whyment, and some technical facilities. After an intense week of rehearsals, the play was performed this year in an C18 drawing room in the Foundling Museum, where many of the same issues will have been discussed by Coram over 250 years ago. We are hoping for further performances in the near future.
 
Some books take years to write but even in the writing, they can spawn other creations.  Jenny Wicks, the founder of Jenny Wren Productions*, who directed 'The Grape of Destiny' for Wycliffe College asked me to write a play about espionage for her company to take on tour round schools next year. I realised that the novel I have been working on for about two years, had themes which I could develop to suit Jenny's request. Themes are about friendship, loyalty, betrayal and sacrifice, and that they would complement each other very well in a dynamic way.
 
Another overlapping activity in my life to get on with!

https://www.facebook.com/JennyWrenProductions​*

What a wonderful thing a book is!

This simple object can be taken anywhere, read anywhere: in a park, on a bus, in your home, under the bedclothes with a torch. Reading allows you to experience hundreds of sensations, emotions, ideas and descriptions, all within that small confined space: brain to brain, creating a unique dialogue between just you, the reader, the author and, paradoxically, silence...  

 When I was a child I never said 
"When I grow up I want to be a writer."

  Little did I know!