Officially contracted

A phone call from Lesley Etherington, Administrator at the Octagon, about the contract. I manage to negotiate an extra week for the re-write. As the play will go on in April next year they want the next draft by early May. (I can do this?!) She tells me the play is to go on for a month, a week more than the normal run, as they think it will be very popular. (Oh yes!) I am to be paid in instalments – the first payment up front when I sign the contract and the next on production of the first draft. The second two payments will be a box-office advances. I’m to get 8% of the box office take overall. (Sounds good to me!)

The publicity machine kicks in

News of the commission is only just sinking in and I get a phone call from the marketing department at the Octagon. They want me to produce copy for the brochure for next week! This is because the programme for the new season is being prepared - and as the Octagon plan a whole year ahead the whole thing is quite urgent. They also want my suggestions re a suitable image for the play’s publicity. The photo by Paul Wolfgang Webster that I’ve recently seen in an exhibition at the Royal Exchange springs to mind. It’s Fred in a stovepipe hat posing as Isambard K Brunel and it strikes me as a near perfect image for the show.

They also ask me to put them in touch with Sheila Dibnah re other possible photos. I contact Sheila who also agrees to write some copy for the main body of the brochure and says she up for any interviews etc. nearer the time of the production. I suggest to her that she tries to get her autobiography published to coincide with the play – dual publicity and all that. (I can picture her sitting in the foyer during the run of the play signing books.)

This sets me thinking about other possible ‘add on’ events that could be held around the production – talks, exhibitions, film-shows and I contact the Octagon with a list of suggestions. My mind is buzzing with ideas of a total Fred Fest and I can see the café offering Lancashire Hotpot, black puddings and Spotted Dick.

Commissioned!

Three days after a workshop on my play about Fred Dibnah, called The Demolition Man, I get a phone call from David Thacker, Artistic Director at Bolton Octagon, offering me a commission. The play will be programmed in the main house for spring 2011, so we have a whole year to develop the existing script. This is my first full-blown commission and is the culmination of seven years of playwriting. An absolute dream come true! I am leaping about, whooping, laughing with excitement – inside. On the phone to David I am as cool as a cucumber. He says he would like to direct the play himself, if that’s alright by me. (Was Shakespeare a playwright??)