Andrew Kay: The play’s the thing

Final school report, summer 1974, headmaster’s comments: “Andrew will either end up designing books or writing them.” Back then, none of us knew that Mr Weeks had the power of foresight. I mean, it was not normally understood to be a prerequisite for good stewardship of adolescent boys through puberty and into manhood. But there you have it, Mr Weeks did, and I have spent most of my adult life designing and writing – and very happy I have been doing it. He did miss one thing though: theatre.

From my early teens I was a theatre fan, relishing school trips into Liverpool to the Playhouse and the Everyman; an early exposure to Willy (Russell, that is) and to Shakespeare and of course to my great love, pantomime. I soaked it up as a teenager and have continued to do so ever since.

“I swapped my milk for a glass of champagne, well two if you must know… it was a half bottle”

For a short period in my late 30s I even worked with local theatres here in Brighton. At first I designed publicity material and then later sets and costumes. It was great fun but financially disasterous. Hey ho, life went on, and I ended up here at Latest Corp. It’s been about twenty years now, and I have to say that it has been twenty years of fun.

And on that note I realise that this is beginning to sound like a letter of resignation – which it is not. Far from it, I am busier than ever; food festival, Latest TV, the magazines… well it keeps me on my toes. My gout ridden toes.

In 2012, for some unexplainable reason, I took out my laptop and started to write. This time a play. I rattled it out in my usual frenzied manner and then left it in the compost heap of my hard drive. In 2013 I took a look and saw that it needed turning over, so this I did, scratching away and digging about. A satisfying process but at that time with no real sense of purpose. I popped the lid back on the composter and retired.

It was in 2014 that a press release popped into my inbox announcing WOW. WOW, or Worthing World of Words is a new literary festival coming from their much revitalised theatres. I read through the release a couple of times – a wide range of fascinating events and some competitions, one of which was Scripted 4, a competition looking for new short plays of around 30 minutes.

It dawned on me that it might be time to take the lid off the composter and give the words a final rake over, which I did. I then set about formatting the words in a more conventional script format, or at least my version of a script format. I then created a PDF file and filled in the form online, attaching the script at the end as directed.
This was a few months ago and apart from a letter acknowledging receipt, I gave it little thought.

Then one Saturday night, sat at home with a glass of milk and an episode of Dexter (we all have our vices), the email inbox went ping.

There it was, a letter saying well done, you have been selected with three other writers and your play will be cast, directed and given a semi-staged reading. I swapped my milk for a glass of champagne, well two if you must know… it was a half bottle.

Two weeks later I’m sat in a bar above the Connaught Theatre listening to my play being read by the cast; Anne Atkins who plays my lead lady, Dick Douglass who plays Geoffrey, and the third part was read by director Martin Harris. I cried. Anne so gets what the story is about – I cried, and hid the fact that I did. A huge thank you to director Glenda Harkess of Theatre Akimbo, too, the lady behind Scripted 4 and a hugely encouraging voice in my life now.

I’m in excellent company too; Judey Bignell, Emily Hennings and James Withey have all written great scripts that will be given the same treatment. I cannot wait to see the results. What excitement, and what fun! Now does anyone know where I can learn how to be a lion tamer?

Andrew Kay’s play, I Will Survive, will be presented with the other three winners at the Connaught Studio in Worthing on Sunday 15 June www.worthingtheatres.co.uk