Supernova 4: A Festival of New One-Act Plays

The Authors

Roger Goldsmith

Some years ago Roger gave up his career as a construction engineer to become a full time writer. He began writing many years ago, always for the stage. But since devoting himself to writing full time, he has written mainly with cinema and TV in mind. Now most of his writing is film scripts.

His first short film entitled 'Helping' was made at the Metropolitan film school in 2006. He plans to make one short film later this near entitled ' Soft Furnishing'. Two other short film scripts of his, 'Window Dressing' and 'The Other Side of the Road' are being produced by other filmmakers later this year. Roger continues to develop full length feature film scripts whilst dabbling with the occasional play. He is in the final throes of a full length play entitled 'Love and Bullshit' which he is hoping to find a venue for later this year. He is also planning to make a feature film entitled 'Farther than the Falcon Spies' in the next two years. It is a story about an 18 year old supermarket girl who, abused by her father as a 12 year old, uses John Keats' poetry as a catharsis. She meets an older man going through a marital break-up and, from being embittered and angry about life, learns to love.

Asked about his philosophy on writing, Roger said: "Writing is re-writing. Like wine a script takes time to develop. It's an organic process that moves and changes and develops over the course of time. The important thing is to discipline oneself to write. Get into the habit. Don't regard rejection as anything other than part of the development process. The key is to learn, to use views and comments as part of the development process that writing is. And never give up. Never, never, never give up".

Mark Wakeman

Mark was born in 1972 and lives in Leigh Park. He joined the Bench in 1990 and then rejoined after University. He is an extremely active member of the Bench Theatre and has acted in numerous plays including 'The Odd Couple' and 'Dead Funny'. He has directed shows with Bench Theatre including 'The Importance of Being Earnest' and 'A Christmas Carol'. He has also produced, been stage manager, operated lighting and sound and been a member of the Bench Committee and the Artistic Panel for a number of years.

He wrote his first play when he was about 12... an Abbott and Costello homage for his Drama Class. He co-wrote a couple of one act plays for University and was commissioned to write a full length play which his Uni Theatre Society took to the Edinburgh Festival and he has had two full length plays performed: "Undue Aggravation" at the Edinburgh Festival and "Terror at Blagg Castle" at Portsmouth Arts Centre with the Goggles Theatre Company. He has written numerous one-act pieces which have been performed at University in London, at the Bench and at the Totton Festival of Drama. Plays such as: 'The Quiet Life' and 'Helpline' (both with Neil Kendall) 'Broken Morning', 'Ice Station Zeroes', 'The Unusual Suspects', 'The Big Freeze', 'Father for Justice', 'Unworkable' and 'Lonesome Pine' (with Mike Hickman).

Asked about his writing style, Mark replied: "When I'm writing plays I tend to write comedies as I love comedy and am always searching for the next big laugh. I liken plays to having a baby. When the play wants to come, it comes and you can't stop it. Each story is different and needs a different amount of time to develop. I hate re-writing. I loath it. I understand that it's very, very necessary but I get so annoyed with my stuff that I tend to just scrap it and write it again from scratch rather than just change little bits.

John Scadding

John was born in Bristol in 1932. He wrote his first play at eight about the Battle of Britain but he settled down seriously to the art of playwriting by the age of 14 and has never stopped since. He worked as a teacher of Drama and English both here and overseas until 1980 when he switched to industry and worked as a Technical Clerk.

John moved to Havant in 1970, joined the Bench a year later and is now a life member. He has been an actor and director with the company. His favourite production was "The Plough and the Stars". But it is his writing that he enjoys most. Over the years he has written short and full-length plays, dramas and comedies and books and lyrics for Musicals and Pantomimes. A few have been staged by schools and drama groups, including the Bench. Asked to describe his plays he tends to say they are "tuppence coloured - farce with a heart - though as the years have passed the colours have muted and the farce has lessened but I hope the heart is as big as ever."

Asked about the inspirations for his plays, John replied: "I collect 'tatty kingdoms'. I collect them and think about them for years and years until, if I'm lucky, a light comes on and a setting comes to me... a tatty room, a tatty garden, a tatty clearing in a forest. Then a figure comes on that I hadn't expected, then another and another and they start to find out what they are doing in these places... and so do I too... I do not like writing. I like re-writing. It's the polishing I like and the rearranging... to make the people clearer, the scenes more dramatic and the writing and the actions sharper and sharper. Some plays I have written are in their twentieth version and I'm still working on them. I write in verse, a queer kind of doggerel because it helps me get edge to it. I love the cut and thrust. And why do we do it? To create New Worlds".

Doreen Fay

Doreen lives in Portsmouth and does voluntary work for the Citizens Advice Bureau. Her hobbies are theatre, travelling, reading and gardening. She started writing plays in 1997 and to date has completed five one-act plays. Work is continuing on two longer plays.

Doreen joined the Bench in 2003 and her play 'Come and Get Him' was selected for Supernova². Two years later she had 'Time To Go' included in Supernova³... now she has achieved a hat-trick with 'Openings'. Not really into serious drama, Doreen prefers to get an audience to at least smile if not laugh. Her favourite time for writing is during the peace and quiet of early morning. Inspiration comes from things heard or sometimes from newspaper items. The writing process is a slow one... unless a deadline looms.

Doreen's interest in writing plays was aroused when she saw an advertisement for a competition for one-act plays... entered... and won it. Another success was when Roy Hudd accepted a sketch for his radio programme 'The News Huddlines'. Doreen received the princely sum of £18. She finds the medium suits her because it depends more on speech than description of surroundings. She also writes poetry and has had entries in various anthologies. Doreen is a keen member and supporter of the Bench. Other than writing, she has no previous experience in the theatre, either on or off stage, but she is very interested in learning to direct.

Neil McBride

Neil got involved with the Bench through his brother, Martin, for the production of 'His Dark Materials'. Neil had read the books by Philip Pullman and loved them and after being dazzled by other Bench productions couldn't let the chance to be involved in something that special pass him by. It was the first acting he had done and he loved it, saying "now the Bench has given me the opportunity to perform my own play... and I can't wait!" 'Noir' is the first play Neil has written and submitted for anything and he hopes it is the first of many performances of pieces he writes in the future.

Asked about his writing experience, Neil replied: "I've been writing since I was sixteen but often find my enthusiasm wanes after about thirty pages and ideas I've had are never fulfilled. Supernova gave me a chance not only to write something of a length I knew I could manage without my mind wandering to other projects, but also the possibility to see the piece performed, or in this case perform it, for an audience and receive some feedback.

Liam Fleming

Born in 1988, Liam is the youngest playwright in this year's Supernova festival. He lives in Portsmouth and works at the Co-op and as a play-worker for the YMCA. He joined the Bench early in 2006 after he auditioned for 'His Dark Materials' and his hobbies include acting, directing, reading and artwork. Liam started writing plays in school in 2003 for his house drama competition. He has written three plays; 'The Final Call' - performed in 2003 by Alan House drama group, 'Control' - performed in 2005 by Upstage! theatre group and 'Death' - performed in 2006 by the Southsea Shakespeare Actors. He has two further pieces he is working on at the moment.

The inspiration for his plays usually comes on a spur of the moment and he tends to do his writing in the evening and late at night. Liam prefers to write alone rather than with people but has, on a few occasions, written plays with others.

When asked about what his other writings, his successes and hopes for the future, Liam replied: "I have written two short stories, some adolescent poetry, and am working on a movie script, but it is nowhere near finished. I would love to have a play performed by a professional cast to a paying audience."