Writing for stage: a Beckettian template

Abstract

It is a daunting experience giving over your play to a collaborative team to stage. Suddenly something you have worked on in isolation for a long time becomes the working property of a number of other creatives. Though this collaborative situation is expected when writing for the stage, it is important for the playwright to feel the basic integrity of what s/he wrote is essentially preserved, despite the input from directors, actors and designers. Particularly at stake here are the rhythm and sounds of the dramatic writing - in effect the underlying shape or musical score. For me the utilisation of a theatre model that draws on the composition and playing of the later plays of Samuel Beckett provides a way forward to achieving this outcome.