Playwright's Process Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Today I answer your writing questions in an ‘ask me anything’ episode. I cover loads of topics related to playwriting, theatre and dramaturgy.

Here’s what you asked:

- How do play development workshops work, and how do you structure each day?

- What do you do when you're struggling with writer's block?

- How do you organise your life as a writer?

- Do you speak to people about your plays in early drafts, or are you selective? I ask because I find it hard to speak to people about my ideas in the early phase.

- How do you contact and collaborate with subject matter experts and sensitivity readers?

- How do you manage doubt and despair in the creative process?

- How do you switch off from writing?

- Can you suggest some music and playlists to write to?

If you enjoyed today’s episode, feel free to send through your own questions for me to answer in a follow up ep. You can reach out via email emily@emilysheehan.info or on Instagram @emilysheehan__.

AMA (Ask Me Anything) episode is next up! Send me any questions you want answered to emily@emilysheehan.info, or via DM on Instagram @emilysheehan__.

We all have ideas for plays (and movies and novels) that never make it to a finished draft. So today’s episode is about the steps you can take to develop an idea into an outline for a play.

Turning your ideas into a play is the process of asking yourself dramaturgical questions, making decisions about the story, then executing on those decisions. This episode covers my thoughts on this process. As well as the dramaturgical questions I'm asking myself as I turn my most recent idea into an outline for a new play.

I reference:
Episode 44. Confessional Writing (Emily’s version)

Other episodes about developing ideas:
Episode 22. Writing a Draft Zero
Episode 19. Writing the Next Thing
Episode 18. Tracking Progress in Early Drafts

Thank you for listening. You can learn more about my work on my website www.emilysheehan.info

It’s time to reacquaint ourselves with rest. Rest and recovery are as much a part of the creative process as phases of enormous artistic output. And we can validate our ambition to create our best work and chase our dreams, at the same time we talk about wellbeing and meeting our needs as artists. ‘Pushing through’ when we’ve hit our limit is rampant in the arts industry. This podcast is an invitation. I want to release you from the myth that those who are experiencing the most artistic success and the most artistic fulfilment are the ones who are pushing the hardest.

In this episode I speak about:
- The myth that those who are successful are pushing the hardest.
- Rest’s relationship with capitalism.
- My honest opinion on our obsession with ‘pushing through’ in the arts industry.
- How we can find rest within a broken system.
- The difference between high quality rest activities and unhelpful numbing techniques.
- My strategies for setting up small ways to rest, extended ways to rest, and making space for mindful distraction techniques during the week’s schedule.

References:
'Rest is Resistance' by Tricia Hersey

If you’re enjoying the podcast, please leave me a rating or a review. It’s a really friendly way to show your support.

To learn more about my work, visit my website, connect with me on Instagram @emilysheehan__ or send me an email at emily@emilysheehan.info.

As part of the publicity for Monument at Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre, I’ve done a number of radio interviews. This episode is a compilation of three of my favourite radio conversations.

So much about theatre and live performance is ephemeral, so including these in my podcast feed is a way to archive interesting conversations about the play. And even though art and writing can and should speak for itself and stand alone, I also really believe that artists should be part of the conversation about their work.

Listen to these interviews in full and check out other conversations with interesting artists by following:
Steff Kechaya on Arts Weekly on 3MBS Melbourne
Yvette Kean on She Bop on 3CR Radio
Richard Watts on SmartArts on Triple R

Read the play!
Monument by Emily Sheehan
Buy online at Readings
Buy online at Booktopia
Buy online at Currency Press

Today I'm joined by Artistic Director of Red Stitch Actors' Theatre, Ella Caldwell, to talk about the rehearsal room for my play Monument.

We speak about:
- Finding the right artistic team to build out the world of the play.
- Bringing different perspectives into the development room.
- The rehearsal process and the role of a director and playwright.
- New discoveries in the rehearsal room and going all the way with a choice to reveal the next layer.
- Being brave enough to expose your work early and when to open up the rehearsal room to outside eyes.
- The themes of Monument (politics and beauty culture) and our personal relationship to makeup.
- The challenges of working with a closed time closed place play.
- Engaging subject matter experts at different points of the artistic process.
- Working with a makeup consultant in the rehearsal room.

Come see the show!
Monument by Emily Sheehan
Directed by Ella Caldwell
At Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre
9 August - 3 September, 2023
Book now

Read the script!
Monument by Emily Sheehan
Published by Currency Press
Buy here

Monument by Emily Sheehan
Directed by Ella Caldwell
Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre
9 August - 3 September, 2023
Book now: www.redstitch.net/monument-2023

Next Episode
If you have questions about the rehearsal room or working with a director that you want Ella or myself to speak about, DM me on Instagram @emilysheehan__ and that will give Ella and I some ideas for our podcast chat later this month.

Playwriting Workshop 
September 5 - November 7
Details here: bit.ly/banyule-playwriting

I’ve been intrigued by the concept of ‘slow looking’ from my visits to galleries in my travels. Slow looking is an approach to visiting a gallery that encourages spending more time with a few selected artworks, rather than rushing through to try and see everything.

In today’s episode I’m sharing some thoughts on slow looking, how it’s extended to my experience watching theatre, and how I’ve been using it as an entry point for writing scenes.

References
'A guide to slow looking' on the Tate website

To learn more about my work, visit my website or connect with me on Instagram @emilysheehan__. If you’re interested in working with me as your dramaturg then send me an email at emily@emilysheehan.info.

In today’s episode I share one of my favourite pieces of writing about playwriting. José Rivera’s ‘36 Assumptions About Writing Plays’, originally published in the American Theatre Magazine. It’s a beautiful list of provocations about playwriting craft which I have found enormously helpful and returned to again and again.

References

‘36 Assumptions About Writing Plays’ by José Rivera

To learn more about my work, visit my website or connect with me on Instagram @emilysheehan__. If you’re interested in working with me as your dramaturg then send me an email at emily@emilysheehan.info.

Today I talk about staying consistent in our writing practice even when life gets busy. I've been feeling motivated and inspired, but despite my best intentions, life has been intruding on my writing time. This has made for some rushed and unsatisfying writing sessions this month.

So today I'm sharing what has been helpful creative process wise when it comes to writing when life gets in the way. Because I hope that my artistic self can still feel welcome in all seasons of life, even if the conditions are less than ideal. 

I cover:
- Physical, mental and emotional exhaustion. 
- When to rest and when to persevere.
- Asking 'Do I know what the next step is?' Followed by, 'Do I have everything I need to take the next step.'
- Writing in less than favourable conditions. 
- Why taking smaller steps more often is more supportive than finding days for enormous progress.
- Finding smaller pockets of time to create in.
- Journaling on life's big themes when they're present in our life. 
- The inhale and exhale of a writing life.
- Sarah Ruhl’s wonderful words on why writing is more about life than it is about writing, and so life by definition is not an intrusion.
- And finding what you can drop and where you can lower your standards, because there is magic in C-grade work.

References 
'100 Essays I Don't Have Time to Write' by Sarah Ruhl 
Episode 10: Creative Pace, Timing and Patience

To learn more about my work, visit my website or connect with me on Instagram @emilysheehan__. 

If you’re interested in working with me as your dramaturg then send me an email at emily@emilysheehan.info.

As playwrights, it’s useful to understand the audience-facing aspects of the genre we’re working in, so we can make interesting decisions as we write. In this episode I share how I'm letting genre inform many of the dramaturgical choices I’m making in this draft.

I speak about:

- Leaning into the natural momentum of a genre you’re writing in and letting it draw things out of you.

- Managing and playing with audience expectations and the kind of story they might expect to see.

- How genre can influence: the world of the play, the emotional and stylistic palette, the controlling ideas, the themes and the wants and needs of our characters.

- Knowing which genre conventions you’re aligning with and which you’re choosing to twist and subvert.

- How different genres have slightly different ways they work to evoke emotions, frame central questions, and show specific changes across the arc of a story.

- The fear of predictability when working with well-known story conventions.

References:
Prima Facie by Suzie Miller

To learn more about my work, visit my website or connect with me on Instagram @emilysheehan__. If you’re interested in working with me as your dramaturg then send me an email at emily@emilysheehan.info.