Workshop Participant Testimonials
Write Now Berlin 2022 / Climate Acts
Last January we embarked upon a year-long writing journey. Through monthly workshops, with a pit stop at Berlin Kreuzberger HoffestSpiele in September, where we showcased three short plays, we are nearing the end of our 2021 programme. A big congratulations to everyone who participated! It feels so good to get together and write regularly, share our work and inspire each other.
Our workshops don’t follow the classic structure of teaching models of playwriting. We cover the basics of playwriting in a more relaxed and playful environment. We use writing prompts that help you remember the long-forgotten memories, both joyful and not so, and through personal experience write about contemporary social issues. We create plays that show us the possibility of positive change, be it personal or social.
You write what you want and need to write at our workshops: it could be a full-length play or a short. A scene. A line. Or just join in for the fun of the writing exercises. To write together in a group. You don’t have to share anything you write. But experience the joy of being there, listen, write and support and be inspired by each other. It is all about feeling hopeful about a better future and showing each other how theatre can energise such change.
In 2022 we will continue the same workshop structure, this time with a focus on climate change. There is no doubt that climate change is the greatest threat our planet is facing today.
Climate change is not ’just’ an environmental problem that is happening to someone else, somewhere else and sometime in the future. It is already happening, to all, everywhere. We are equipped different to adapt to it but we all have limits to how much we can adapt.
Climate change is a justice issue. Not everyone has contributed to the climate crisis in the same capacity, and not everyone has been or will be impacted the same way.
Climate change is a human rights issue. It impacts people disproportionately and in different ways. It affects individuals’ living and dignity, and their basic human rights.
Climate change is an economic prosperity issue. Poorer people all over the world suffer the most due to climate change because they are more reliant on nature for their living and less able to deal with droughts, floods and pollution. Climate change breeds poverty.
Just as climate change affects all, solutions also lie in all working together. All across the world delivering their responsibilities, all across sectors and sciences. Theatre has to play its part!
We invite everyone to talk about and write plays on climate change. Our aim is to tell the stories of the communities and people who are affected by them. We will also ask simple questions to understand certain scientific concepts that may appear abstract.
Climate Acts playwriting workshops will be a year-long programme.
The monthly workshops will be open to everyone from anywhere in the world – no prior theatre or writing experience is necessary. These workshops are packed with exercises to strengthen your writing skills, go through the elements of playwriting, network with other writers in the group, share ideas, inspire and be inspired.
The first online workshop will be on the 23rd of January 2022. They will follow on every 3rd Sunday of the month between 11 am and 1 pm Central European Time. The working language of the workshops is English but you can write in any language.
You can sign up for the January workshop from here.
These workshops are on Pay As You Can basis. Your donations help with IT and workshop costs.
Interview With The Writers 3
We presented three of the plays developed in our workshops at the Kreuzberger HoffestSpiele last September in Theatre Expedition Metropolis. We read these plays months before the festival and talked with the writers for feedback. The playwright needs to hear the text they’ve written and see how people react to it so they can make the necessary changes.
Semi-stage these plays at the HoffFestSpiele was a completely different experience than doing it between us on a Zoom screen. We wanted to know how the playwrights felt and learn more about their creative process.
Storm Jackson-Payne
How was it for you to hear your words spoken in front of an audience?
I found it surreal but in a really good way. It was the first time I had seen something that I had written be performed without also being involved in the production, so I didn’t know what to expect. The actors were great and I’m so grateful to them for bringing my script to life. I really enjoyed the feeling of only being one part of something, and the actors and director completing it in the way they felt was right.
How did you start writing?
I started writing plays when I was a kid, mostly so me and my friends could act in them and have a laugh. I later ended up studying script writing at university.
How about Shout Fire? Why Shout Fire?
With Shout Fire, I wanted to show how normalised it is for women to fear men. The characters talk about their experiences of feeling threatened and the tactics that they employ to feel more safe, whilst at the same time laughing at the ridiculousness of what they are saying. Faking phone calls and holding your keys between your fingers to use as a defence weapon are not things that anybody should feel they have to do on a daily basis, but somehow it’s necessary, and these characters find the humour in it to cope. I know that not all women will identify with the character’s experiences, but it was important for me to write this perspective.
What is your writing process like?
I can’t really say I have a writing process, but for Shout Fire I started without much of a plan and wrote it very quickly in two sittings. Because it was all one scene and quite a fast-paced script, I felt I had to just keep going so as not to lose the momentum of the dialogue. Since finishing Shout Fire, I have been trying to write a little every day, just to stay in the habit of writing and to put any ideas that have been forming down on the page before I forget them or grow bored of them.
How did being part of WriteNow Berlin affected your writing?
WriteNow Berlin has honestly changed everything for me in terms of writing. After I graduated from university, I didn’t write a thing for almost six years. Within months of attending these workshops, I have written a play and am keen to keep going. The workshops are so practical and just get you writing instantly. Also, hearing other people’s work is so inspiring and hearing other people’s feedback is invaluable.
Are you working on a new play at the moment?
Yes, I am working on another short play at the moment. It also focuses on themes of violence against women.
Any tips for people starting to write?
Don’t wait around for the perfect idea. I have to tell myself this all the time. If you have just a glimmer of an idea or a character or just one line that’s in your head, just start writing and see what happens.