Creative explosion/losing my mind

I'm supposed to be writing today - I took two precious days of leave so I can lock myself in my room and write a masterpiece, or two. Forcing creativity is never a good idea though - as I'm starting to realise. An artist needs time to breathe, develop, nurture their work into something beautiful. I don't really have that - all of the Fringe deadlines are creeping up, I'm back to work tomorrow (with a stupidly busy weekend planned), and on Sunday night we have a read-through of all my new plays, trying to work out if any of them can make it to Edinburgh. To make matters worse, I keep getting interrupted when I work at home; my parents, bless them, are lovely, but I don't think they fully understand my needs - it's not much to ask, just stop talking to me for a couple hours. Saying that - yesterday wasn't a bad day on the creative front; I've finished a new short play, Drop Me With Dignity, which I really like. It's full of tension, and even a slight sense of political awareness. Saying that I had planned it to be a full-length piece that could have made it the key show for me this year - but it just didn't work out like that. Having three characters, trapped in a room, is all very good for drama, but after half an hour I would be bored. Maybe this is because a) the concept is more suited to a shorter play or b) I'm just not a good enough writer yet to sustain tense drama for an hour. Either way, it's written now, and works well as it does. But that does leave me with an awkward situation regarding Edinburgh - what the hell am I going to take up there just yet. Then, whilst playing Pro Evolution Soccer with my dad on the Playstation (distractions you see...), I had a brainwave. I worked on a play last year called 'The Man Who Loves His Car Far Too Much' - it was supposed to be a musical, co-written with my chum Martin (White). However, since he's got a busy job in Geneva now, the song aspect of it never got done, just the one track - the amazing 'When The Whole World (That's Everything) Goes Wrong'. But I'm still really pleased with the script, which was completed a while back, and the lyrics. I really want this show to go to Edinburgh - but a musical with one song isn't really a musical, even if it re-occurs three times, and lyrics for dialogue may become annoying for the audience. Or perhaps we could do it as chants? A comedy/musical/chant show? Or perhaps the actors could say the words as poetry, but Kate from Our Painted Nature can twinkle a couple notes on the piano vaguely in time with the words, so it would be a kind of lyrical/music crossover thing, without strictly being a song? If I can get over this sense of uncertainty, I think this could be a winning show as the plot is lovely. Suddenly my mind is getting excited - The Man Who Loves His Car Far Too Much - a lively, fast-paced comedy, with just 4 actors (playing 12 characters), small set, a song, some poetry, some bad engine jokes...and all in the tiniest venue possible. I think that's where the Christmas show really worked, because we were right in the audiences faces - I want to recapture this buzz for Edinburgh. Yes! I love it when a vague idea makes more sense - but there's still a lot of ifs and buts - I need to check with Martin that he's okay for us to use the song we co-wrote (he's a nice guy, shouldn't be a problem), I need to check with Kate that she's okay to twinkle on the piano, I need the cast to actually like the script. And then - as my other show for the fringe, I was thinking...every year I take a show up there and it's kind of always accidently marketed as a "gentle lunchtime comedy". Well - this year, how about an actual show called "gentle lunchtime comedy" - or even better - "lovely lunchtime theatre" - it'll be an hour of undemanding, but equally enjoyable theatrics that will ease you from your hangover and into the rest of your more demanding day. How about this: Lovely Lunchtime Theatre - two new plays from emerging playwright Paul Richards. Yep - I think that could work, two short plays (Drop Me With Dignity, and Breakers), both of which are tight and written, can have the same cast, hardly any props needed, perfect for midday theatre. But then a slight sense of realism kicks in; taking one show up to the festival every year is a lot of hard work sometimes, taking two - is that going to far? Fuck off, of course it's not! Tis the year to not have fear, etc. The only stumbling block is budgets; it can be done, if I have one cast for both shows. Ouch, I sense awkward silence when suggesting this. That's a lot of words - and a lot of acting. But you know, they're actors, they're at the Edinburgh Fringe, surely this is the perfect way for them to get noticed..."sorry, big producer/talent scout who could make me famous, you missed my show - but ah nevermind, come and see the other one instead". It all makes sense - up at 9am, flyering in the morning, perform at midday, quick break, a little more flyering, another show at 6pm, start getting drunk by 7pm - it's a challenge, and to do this 7-8-9 days in a row may be a bit much, but I want to do it. I'm going to put on a nice shirt on Sunday night and try to impress my team enough to do both plays, I'm asking a lot of people, I know, but that's the kind of guy I am. And then of course, there's the Brighton Fringe deadline, which is creeping up. Neither 'The Man Who Loves His Car...' or 'Lovely Lunchtime Theatre' would work up there, so I'm going to have to write a whole new show. I have a director interested - the brilliant Sarah Ingrim, and Victoria Welsh - incredibly good actress - likes Brighton, so I think she'd be up for doing a show there in May. The thing is, the show I want to write for Victoria is a one-woman show (with Sarah directing), I've been dabbling with a few ideas for a long time now. But it's a hell of a lot of words, especially just for one little Fringe festival which frankly is terribly attended. And Victoria is a huge part of my Edinburgh multi-show plans...hhhmmm, I'll work on the script today, and probably call her to discuss tomorrow. Right, I'm going to eat another Wispa, and get back to taking on the world.