Jonathan Kaufman 30 May 2019
Picking plays for our next scratch night [POSTCARDS – on Fri 21 June (Barking Broadway Theatre) and Sat 22 June (Sydenham Centre)] with my sister Lucy has proven more difficult than we anticipated. Writers attending both our playwriting classes (Lucy’s over in Barking, mine in Sydenham) have really stepped up to the plate and we have a slew to choose from.
The variety of entries is startling. Admittedly we had provided them with some fairly bizarre source material – actual holiday postcards from the 60s and 70s, with enigmatic text extracts that often bear little or no relationship to the postcard image – but we’re very impressed with the results. Out-and-out comedies vie with surreal dramas and not a few period pieces, that casting our final selection will not be easy. Somehow we have to find half a dozen actors who can play such a diverse bunch of exotic characters – and we’ll have just two and a half days to rehearse them!
Such is the joy of the short play scratch night though, and judging the plays anonymously has been a real pleasure. Let’s just hope we can do these emerging playwrights’ work justice. The judging now over, time to be judged ourselves!
