Emma Zadow
Emma is an alumni of Mrs C’s Collective’s 12-month writers programme, The Writers’ Collective, and has an impressive career behind her. Emma has worked with companies including the BBC, Theatr Clwyd, Les Enfants Terribles, Mountview Academy and Actors of Dionysus. Her publications include Fridge (Renard Press) and In The Moss (Renard Press). She’s also been shortlisted for the Tony Craze Award (Soho Theatre) and the ETPEP Award (Finborough Theatre).
It goes without saying, we’re chuffed to be getting some of her pro tips!
TIP #1: Give your play to people you trust.
If you feel comfortable with what you have written after a few drafts, or even the first draft, I really recommend sharing it with maybe, three people you trust. They can be writers, or directors, or someone completely out of the theatre world (which I find useful for the audience opinion). Just as long as you feel that you can trust them. Differing feedback is good too, because it shows your play is creating a conversation and debate. On the other hand, don’t necessarily change the entire play from scratch on the basis of someone not liking something. I like giving it to actors because I can find out quickly if all the characters are interesting enough for every actor involved on stage.
TIP #2: Join a Writers Group.
This kind of goes in hand with the above, and I've joined about four over the years. There's drop in ones like South London Writers Group in Brixton, which is a come with work when you can deal, and then there’s the ones you need to apply for like the Royal Court Writers Groups. I joined the Soho Writer’s Lab and then their alumni group. Leeds Playhouse, Mercury Theatre, Royal Exchange, Paines Plough, are among the writers' groups outside of London to take a look at. You learn a lot from others people’s work and new opportunities arise to work and collaborate with others on their own projects.
TIP #3: Workshop. Workshop. Workshop.
I workshopped Fridge, roughly, five times with varying casts over about five years before publication. Each time, I learnt new things from the different actors and directors attached per workshop/R&D. Firstly, it was presented in a festival at my drama school, we then worked towards a full rehearsed reading at the Etcetera Theatre in Camden. A year later, we moved onto working towards a production at a pub fringe theatre in London. We invited new actors to come on board for a 2-day R&D at Theatre N16, which was then based in Balham. After re-writes from this, we applied to the New Writing Festival at the King’s Head Theatre, then called Festival 47. We were successful. We spent a lot of time working on marketing in the Islington area thanks to our producer and audiences were good and we had good reviews. It wasn’t until lockdown, when we secured a production at the Norwich Fringe Festival, when Renard Press approached me with a three-book publication deal of my plays. Turns out they saw the King’s Head Theatre version a few years ago, and were planning their first playwright series. They wanted me to be the first. So, I guess it shows like the old Edinburgh Fringe Festival story, anyone can be in the audience.
TIP #4: Re-writes.
This is similar to editing I suppose, but I won’t re-write something for the sake of doing another re-write if I know I've put my everything into it. Like ‘Fridge’, I could keep rewriting all the time, but it would never get published and there’s a deadline for the press copies! Sometimes you just need to make peace with the draft you’ve got in order to submit to publishing companies. There are things in my plays I'm cringey about even now and they’re in print. It can be for readers to talk about and have a debate over, but not me really. Every re-write could be a concentration on structure only, a particular character being re-written, or the ending, it’s useful to concentrate on one thing per re-write. About a solid 60% don’t accept unsolicited submissions (yuck). Which is the reality, but it doesn’t mean it’s the end of this story!
TIP #5: Research publication companies beyond the big ones.
Okay, so this is the tricky part. How? Like above, many don’t accept unsolicited submissions (they won’t look at material sent from people they don’t know, or who are unrepresented). It stinks. But the other 40% (roughly) really do want to find the new talent, the undiscovered and the fresh. I’d pay particular attention to those that only accept prose, or non-fiction. Some say what they’re looking for right now and what they definitely don’t want. Do read these. Because nobody wants an email from someone that couldn’t be bothered to read their bio. The other thing I would say, would be don’t always go for the big ones, the ‘Big Five’. There's plenty of indie presses and companies out there that are looking for play scripts who are working for and with the writers they select. It's a good idea to share the deal you’ve been offered with someone familiar in finance or agency details to get a second opinion to make the decision if you’re right for each other. I have an excel spreadsheet of all publishers and agencies that changes and gets edited every month according to what they say on their website. I.e. if their books are open, what they’re looking for, a change in staff, new book releases that may be similar to mine and any other contact details I've managed to find.
TIP #6: Send to competitions.
Again, not just the ‘Big Five’ with this one. Short play nights and festivals are a great way to get your work out there and to make contacts. Also, the buzz word - ‘networking’ which we all really need to do as creatives. Whether you love it, or hate it, it’s a thing! The more short plays you can get out on stage for audiences, the more your name gets out there as a writer. Plus, you meet other writers and creatives that you may work with in the future. Yes, submit to the big ones like Tony Craze, Papatango, Paines Plough and George Devine, but think about others. Perhaps there’s one on the BBC Writers room Opportunities page you’ve not heard of? Even if you get long-listed, that’s still something you can put on your CV for reaching out to publishers. If you can get even a rehearsed reading at a theatre venue, that looks better than there being no production ever of the play. Publishers like to see the possibility of a future production ahead for them to sell copies of the play at.
I hope I’ve been able to help some of you.
Mrs C’s Collective offer a wonderful long term writer’s programme and directory of creatives to gain experience, opportunities and new skills. The play that I developed on the programme is getting an R&D at the Hope Mill Theatre in June with a director I met at Mrs C’s Creative Speed Dating event, Georgi McKie. After that, it will be published with Renard Press in July in time for the 40th anniversary of the Moss Side Riots in Manchester.
To find out more about fridge you can visit https://renardpress.com/books/fridge/
Blog post by Emma Zadow
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