So you want to be a playwright?

Slightly delayed, but I've put a report on last month's Guild event, So you want to be a playwright?, on the website.

The next questioner wondered, “Writing aside, what do you value in a playwright in order to build a working relationship?”

“Initially it is the work,” said Sudha Bhuchar. “Then it’s being open to changes in the rehearsal process.” Purni Morell [Head of Studio at the National Theatre] said that she had a similar outlook. She wanted writers who accept “the idea that we’re embarking on a joint endeavour [with the directors, actors, designer etc] for the benefit of the audience.”

David Edgar argued that this approach represented a huge change from the post-war tradition of British playwriting. The near-contempt for audiences expressed by certain writers in the past might have been excessive, he said, “but there is a danger that the pendulum has swung too far the other way and people are now scared of audiences.”