Lemonade Anemone

I’ve just sent two weeks thinking, writing, re-thinking and re-writing. A couple of weeks’ ago, our creative team did a week of research and development , working on the script for a new play that I wrote earlier this year.  By the end of the first week of R&D, we’d removed the interactive elements, improved the narrative pacing, moved the interval, added five new scenes, and completely re-imagined the ending!  All in a week's work!  The next stage of the project is a sharing of the show with industry professionals and invited guests on Friday 6th September. So, I had two weeks to do all the re-writes, before rehearsals started up again.  Given how many notes I’d made, and how many changes we'd initiated, it seemed like a Herculean task. So, I did what I always do when faced with a monumental writing commission. I procrastinated.  One clean bathroom, two mowed lawns, and email inbox clear-out, and a fully-hoovered house later, I figured I’d really better get on with it.  T

 As a poet, I mostly write stuff on my own. I draft a poem, maybe I take it to an open mic, or to my crit group for suggestions, then I polish it up. Perhaps it even gets published somewhere – if I’m very lucky! But I'm used to a pretty solitary writing process.  So, I was a bit apprehensive going into the first week of research and development on a new play I’m working on, in collaboration with director Vivi Bayliss .  Theatremaking is often a collective process – the actors, director and other members of creative team get involved with writing or devising the story – and I was a little bit wary about that aspect of the project.  I – like many creative people – really hate being told what to do.  But, I also knew that Vivi is an excellent director and a very safe pair of hands. So, when I showed up on the Monday morning at the rehearsal space, I was ready to experience a new way of making work.  But I’m getting ahead of myself. What is an R&D in the context of theatre?  Any l