Interview: Nathan Ellis

So, Nathan, please tell us about the ‘Writers Group Call Out’.
It's a new programme running at the Nottingham Playhouse, for writers in the Midlands who want to write a new play from scratch. It’s a way for the Playhouse to engage with people in the Midlands, who are interested in theatre but have never had a chance to write a play before. It gives them a chance to learn how plays are put together, to engage more with the Playhouse and also come up with a draft of a brilliant play.

The Playhouse knows there are lots of brilliant writers out there in the Midlands, who haven't had the opportunity to find a way to express themselves and get their story out. So, this is a way of generating some of those things and connecting with new likeminded people.

It's twice monthly, running from February until October. This allows me to really get to know them as writers and to form an artistic, collaborative group who are sharing work with each other. We’ll be thinking and learning about playwriting. If people don't want to be professional playwrights, that's absolutely not the expectation. But, we will be talking about all areas of the industry. About writing for TV and film too. And how people get their plays on.

Sometimes newly emerging writers can find writing groups quite daunting. What do you do to make it less so.  
Yeah, I’m totally aware that it's very daunting thing to do. Yet, there's something nice about the fact that all these people are coming with the understanding that we're all there to learn, me included, and we're not going to be sharing our work more widely from day one. There's no expectation that they share their work at any point with anyone outside of the group. It’s a bit like a book group amongst friends, where people with mutual interests in playwriting, can meet regularly. By the end, they will hopefully produce a draft of their play. But there's no pressure, we're just excited to read their work. Then they get to hear a section of it read aloud in November at the Playhouse. So, the whole process is about giving people as much space and opportunity and support to write a new play and then a chance to see their work read by actors. Plus, the Playhouse is really welcoming and really wants to engage with new writers in the area. None of this is scary.

Why did you decide to go into playwriting?
Me personally? After university I was a bit lost. I got a job in advertising and I didn't love that job. I found it soul destroying, to be honest. And I went along to a theatre where they were doing new plays. Some were very bad! I thought well, I could write a very bad short play, so I might as well give that a go! I started submitting short plays. And in the process of writing, I found something I was passionate about. I became completely obsessed. I started reading plays and going to the theatre all the time. None of my family are in theatre, there's nobody connected to me who is in that world. It was a bolt out of the blue, and I got really hooked.

And how much does it cost members?
It's free. The Playhouse put some money behind it, and the Arts Council have supported it with a grant.

So, what makes a good play?
What's genuinely amazing is that plays come in such varied shapes and sizes. And when you start to explore how the written word can work, as a performance, it’s so wide. The kinds of texts that you see and the kinds of ways they're interpreted on stage are endless, and that is really exciting. And, for me, there's nothing more thrilling than watching two people have a complicated argument on stage. That's thrilling to watch. And the great thing about this programme is that you can learn how plays get put together and how other people have done it. And the really difficult bit of learning about creativity is not seeing what other people are doing. That's important. But it's more about figuring out how you express what you have inside of yourself.

What's the last play you saw? 
I went to see Cinderella at the Playhouse and had a very nice time. 

Is there any advice you would give aspiring playwrights?
My advice is to read plays, very few people do this. I think, unfortunately, in schools the only plays read are Shakespeare and that's boring. We end up thinking that plain text is boring. But you can read a play in one sitting, they take less time to read than they do to perform on stage. And you start to see tricks that playwrights are doing, and you start to see ways in which you can use form on the page and shape your play. And scripts are accessible because you just have to pop down the library and read as many as possible.

Anything else we need to add?
Just to mention that while the opportunity is based in Nottingham, we are interested in anyone all over the Midlands. We’ll meet twice a month. We'll be talking about this at the beginning of the group in terms of planning, but it will be a hybrid between in-person and online. But certainly, the majority will be in-person because it feels important that we’re face to face, talking to each other.

The deadline to apply is 8 January and the application is on the Playhouse web site here