C=O presents "Little Red Riding Hood"

Yes, I know it's only February 20th, but Mrs C=O and I went out for a coffee this afternoon, and as can be the case some ideas firmed up in my head. So I thought I may as well start a thread now, and perhaps *share* some of the actual writing process this year.

My plan is to write the first draft by 30th June. What's perfectly clear to me is that, given the constraints of needing the show to be 1 hour and 50 minutes maximum, it will have to be a tight script. However the plus side is that, unlike some pantos, this has a paper thin plot; ie, Red Riding Hood goes off to visit Granny, the Wolf awaits her in the cottage, and he's beaten. And that's about it.

Unlike the impending movie, there will be no sexual subtext, and no werewolves. However what I hope there will be are 3 or 4 big set pieces. Over the next few weeks I need to ensure that our existing MD is on board for January 2012 as at least 2 of this are Song and Dance numbers. Asssuming that is the case, then we'll be off to the races. The way the synopsis looks right now, the show will be cameo heavy. Which is handy, because as I'm planning to direct as well, I know exactly what I want to do!

Excellent. It's going to be a fascinating insight into the art of writing for the stage I'm sure. Johnstone, take note: I know I will be.

Here's a teeny bit of the thought process I've recently had. In our January 2009 production, just before the finale we had "The Dance of the Seven Frails", which was a huge success. To try and match that, in terms of a totally *unexpected* set-piece number to send people home happy, has been an aim of mine ever since.

So, bearing in mind what the production is, an idea came to me. A very well known song, from a very well known musical contains the following line. "We feel hungry as the wolf felt when he met Red Riding Hood". Given the title and content of the song it almost falls into the lap, in terms of the potential that I can see in it. Just have to get the MD and choreography team onboard and that'll be 3 minutes out of 110 sorted - well at least planning wise!

There Is Nothing Like A Dame, indeed. It's always wonderful when you make the connection that links two, seemingly disparate, ideas and suddenly opens up possibilities that tie-in exactly with what you were looking for.
Great stuff.

Had my first meeting with our MD tonight. So far, so good.........

After a bit of a fallow period activity has increased. We had a full production meeting on Monday night - review of Snow White and looking forward to Riding Hood: lots of things need to be done.

Then last night I had a little meeting with the girl who is going to play Little Red Riding Hood herself. We don't very often pre-cast, but this whole panto has been based upon her playing the lead and utilising her talents to the full.

Two scenes now written. Act One Scene One, and Act Two Scene Three! As is normally the case, I won't write in narrative order - rather it will probably be character based, with the scenes that have just a few people (in particular Granny and The Wolf) being scripted first. That simply works better for me as it gives the opportunity for the larger cast scenes to gestate longer.

Sounds as if things are slowly drawing together, C=O. I await developments with keen interest.

So do I - what's needed is a whole day where I can clear the decks and really get my head down to map out maybe 3 scenes (there are 14 in total). Friday April 29th seems the likely candidate!

Well I can see how that would definitely help. It certainly will give you a firm foundation on which to build.

Hope so. I'm *in the zone* at the moment. Just a question of actually having time to sit down and write. You know full well what it's like!

Oh, do I ever know what its like. It's just a questing of maintaining that creative edge now until the 29th. I don't foresee that being a problem for you.

Still very much *up* for this at the moment. Another scene written and loads of creative ideas flowing through the veins. Just need to nail some of then down now!

Excellent. Once you do get the time to sit down those scenes will probably practically write themselves.

Well after a sometimes tortuous process, I've finally craked the back of LRRH.

The plan was to use Royal Wedding Day to write three scenes. However, I only managed 1 1/2 and basically after that gave up for the best part of two months. However deadlines whooshing past me, a meeting with our MD, and some fresh ideas mean that the past week or so have seen great progress and there are now less then 4 scenes to go.

Having said that, I still probably won't finish the draft till mid August, but with rehearsals not starting till 11th September this year that gives me enough .time for fine tuning. I think.

Best of all though, I really like what I've come up with - far better than last year IMO.

*awaits developments*

More progress again today.

Good!

Just one scene, and a few lines for specific characters in a couple ofther scenes to go, for the first draft.

Crumbs! You're motoring!

I had a big spurt!

Actually won't be able to finish it for a couple of weeks though. Costume have a sort out next weekend, after which there's a production meeting the following Monday. I need certain information from these gatherings to finally put things to bed.

One or two things I wasn't happy about at the production meeting. Why do people stick their noses in things that are nothing to do with them, while at the same time completely fail to do their remit?

Nose sticking has continued but, following a meeting with the M.D on Tuesday night, and after many nips and tucks the script is finally complete. Shortest one I've ever done, probably no more than 1 hr 40 minutes long but that's not a problem.

Rehearals start on Sunday week, and there's an awful lot of prep work between now and then!

Oh yes, and completely useless information, but as I said back in February I'd look at the writing process, here's the order in which the scenes were written.

1. Act One Scene One
2. Act Two Scene Three
3. Act One Scene Four
4. Act One Scene Five
5. Act One Scene Three
6. Act Two Scene One
7. Act Two Scene Six
8. Act One Scene Two
9. Act Two Scene Two
10. Act One Scene Seven
11. Act One Scene Six
12. Act Two Scene Four
13. Act Two Scene Five
14. Act One Scene Eight

So it's entriely possible that a scene immediately following another could have been written several months earlier. Which if you believe in biorhythyms is a potentially interesting situation!

How do you keep a rhythm to the whole thing if the various scenes get scripted out of chronological order? That would completely confuse me.

Planning my dear fellow.

But it's all a bit irrelevant now. Last week, owing to irreconcilebable differences between myself and our new producer, the C=O family withdrew from Holy Cross Players.

It's far too long a story to go into, but the summary is that a small cabal, fronted by our producer who was only appointed last year, have spent the past several months trying to stick their noses into what myself and the MD do, rather than actioning a large number of agreed issues that they needed to sort out.

The past 2 or 3 months have been unenjoyable, so I've done the only thing I know which is to walk away and leave them to it. Great shame, and it has casued me a good deal of unhappiness over the past few days, but there was no alternative, as things weren't going to get better.

I leave with a body of work of which I'm exteremely proud, and also have fully documented on numerous DVD's.