Ready, set, write!: Creative writing for live performance

Maddie Rice and Tom Machell are running their fifth course in Creative Writing for Live Performance at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. It’s a Level 1 evening class which runs for six weeks, culminating in a performance of the work by GSMD Drama students. Since the course first launched, four pieces of students’ work have been taken up for further development.

‘We get a tremendously wide range of people,’ explains Machell. ‘On the last course, the youngest student was 18 and the oldest was 67. We get school leavers, retirees and everything in between: teachers, bus drivers, lawyers, doctors, industry professionals and stage managers. They are put into buddy groups of three so that they can learn from each other as well as from us, because there are so many different perspectives. It also helps each student to build a network of contacts for the future and learn how to give and receive constructive feedback.’