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Blogs by Frances Lynn
A Reading 4/24/2009 10:38:13 PM
Stephen Lavers and I both used to be gossip columnists on David Bailey's defunct "Ritz Newspaper" in the late Seventies. Stephen is a writer/Music Business veteran - he was once the head of A & M Films (he has made over 1,500 pop promos), worked with Malcolm McLaren, the so-called Inventor of Punk, and was close friends with the Sex Pistols. So, when he asked me to collaborate with him on his TV series about a black comedy about the Seventies, I willingly agreed to work on the dialogue.
We are both relatively new members of PlayerPlaywrights, the established writing group, which has over 150 members, consisting of both writers and actors. When star actor Daniel Dresner, who is on the board, suggested we have a reading of the series and become our 'mentor', I was a little nervous. I have seen some writers cry at the group's (justified) vitriolic comments after their readings, so was paranoid we would be crucified.
I needn't have worried. We were fortunate that some really talented, professional actors were cast. During the read-through, the thespians agreed all the characters in the series were well-rounded. Actors generally love to change dialogue, which writers have slaved to create and one of the actors, a member for twenty five years immediately wanted to change a line. Stephen Lavers immediately told him no.
We chose to have a reading of "Treason", the second episode in the series, because it has a lot of farce-type action and also focuses on the mid Seventies punk music scene. The punk musician characters swear consistently and take hard drugs, which provoked an elderly writer to say he would normally 'run a mile' from (provocative) material like ours, but thought "Treason" had charm, and the characters were 'quaint'!
I found it a bit nerve-wracking having to sit on a chair facing the audience afterwards. But, their valid criticism (especially from Clive Ashenden, the film director) was non-vitriolic and constructive (it's worth being a member of a writing group, especially if you have the opportunity of having professional actors read out your work). Even Peter Thompson, the group's club secretary and a stern critic enjoyed it!
The audience gave us a high score, but the biggest compliment I thought, was when one of the actresses gave me her phone number, pleading that if our TV series ever got made, she'd 'kill' to play her part.
