What came first, the teaching or the writing?
I used to write when I was very young, a student, but I never had anything published. I have been teaching for years but I only really started writing plays seven or eight years ago.
How do you juggle your time?
Writing is a hobby; I do it in my spare time and so it is the first thing to give. If you don’t really have an idea then you just don’t write anything.
How does your work as Director of Computing Services fit in with your English teaching?
My PhD is in English and I have always kept teaching English. I wanted to do that because a lot of the work I do or used to do with the Computing Services was to show how to use computers to teach. I used to write things for the web to help people understand literature.
Is your inspiration for your plays rooted in your research?
I would say it starts with an idea and then I might do some research around it. The first play that I wrote [The Ghosts May Laugh] was set during the First World War and that came out of a lot of work I was doing on the War Poets. With other things you might just read something and find an interesting or curious idea. You never know where it’s going to come from.
Have you ever written anything other than plays?
I’ve never tried poetry. Well, I’ve tried it, but being a critic of poetry is a lot easier than writing it. I’ve written short stories in the past but I never really did anything with them. I like plays because you concentrate on the dialogue and don’t need to worry about the prose surrounding it. There is a level of control with that which is quite fun.
Tell us more about your political play Quiz Night at the Britannia, set in a pub facing closure.
I was in the States for three months in MIT and I was bored, so I wrote the play. At the time I was sick to death of Blair and all that was going on with spin-doctors. I didn’t do anything with it for years until a director called me, suggesting we put it on in a pub at the Fringe where we wouldn’t need to build a set. I thought I’d better look at it again as it was 7 years old and there’s a new government, but actually I hardly had to change anything. That was great fun and it sold out. In fact they’re talking about touring pubs in Oxford with it now.
Are you working on anything at the moment?
I’ve been playing around with a radio dramatization of a story by Tolkien but I’m not sure it will go anywhere due to issues of rights and so on. I’ve got another play for which I’ve written just a few lines of dialogue. I tend to sit down, think of a funny few lines and write them, and then I start to piece them all together.
What came first, the teaching or the writing?
I used to write when I was very young, a student, but I never had anything published. I have been teaching for years but I only really started writing plays seven or eight years ago.
How do you juggle your time?
Writing is a hobby; I do it in my spare time and so it is the first thing to give. If you don’t really have an idea then you just don’t write anything.
How does your work as Director of Computing Services fit in with your English teaching?
My PhD is in English and I have always kept teaching English. I wanted to do that because a lot of the work I do or used to do with the Computing Services was to show how to use computers to teach. I used to write things for the web to help people understand literature.
Is your inspiration for your plays rooted in your research?
I would say it starts with an idea and then I might do some research around it. The first play that I wrote [The Ghosts May Laugh] was set during the First World War and that came out of a lot of work I was doing on the War Poets. With other things you might just read something and find an interesting or curious idea. You never know where it’s going to come from.
Have you ever written anything other than plays?
I’ve never tried poetry. Well, I’ve tried it, but being a critic of poetry is a lot easier than writing it. I’ve written short stories in the past but I never really did anything with them. I like plays because you concentrate on the dialogue and don’t need to worry about the prose surrounding it. There is a level of control with that which is quite fun.
Tell us more about your political play Quiz Night at the Britannia, set in a pub facing closure.
I was in the States for three months in MIT and I was bored, so I wrote the play. At the time I was sick to death of Blair and all that was going on with spin-doctors. I didn’t do anything with it for years until a director called me, suggesting we put it on in a pub at the Fringe where we wouldn’t need to build a set. I thought I’d better look at it again as it was 7 years old and there’s a new government, but actually I hardly had to change anything. That was great fun and it sold out. In fact they’re talking about touring pubs in Oxford with it now.
Are you working on anything at the moment?
I’ve been playing around with a radio dramatization of a story by Tolkien but I’m not sure it will go anywhere due to issues of rights and so on. I’ve got another play for which I’ve written just a few lines of dialogue. I tend to sit down, think of a funny few lines and write them, and then I start to piece them all together.
