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Morgan Matthews sheds light on what happens when the 300-odd scripts have been whittled down to a rather more manageable 20-odd scripts, and the enthusiams and passions of the dedicated long-list team are roused…

My part in the Script Space process doesn’t start until the long-list reading gang gets together in March. It’s something I really look forward to - carrying off my clutch of scripts and feeling wholly entitled to hide away surrounded by paper, annotating and muttering to myself. I expect that this year more than ever I will be met with a huge amount of incredibly diverse writing. Previously, bizarre titles and autopsy-like synopses have peppered the entries. However, it’s what’s inside that counts. When reading through the selection I have found myself surprised, shocked, delighted, impressed and sometimes just very keen to hear what the other readers have to say.

A major strength of the Script Space process is the long-list reading stage. Opinions are diverse and tastes broad. What one member of the reading panel will biro as ‘old fashioned’, someone else will have noted as ‘classic’ or ‘charming’. Whilst I have been alone, befriending certain plays and souring toward others, so have my fellow readers. Often, their professional leanings will affect the plays they plump for - the writers in the pack often drawn towards the more lyrical pieces and those that show great word craft. Those with a producer’s eye are drawn to plays with broad appeal or tapping into the zeitgeist. The actors like the plays with big characters who have plenty of lines, with the potential for a regional tour. As Sophie said in her blog, the group debates are spirited and opinionated - as they should be. They ensure scripts are examined fully and that there is no single formula for success.

For me, it can be the skill employed in the writing, even if the premise needs work. Sometimes, there is a fantastic idea that needs help for it to be best realised. Other times, a writer comes up with something so bold and unusual I just want to see if it can actually be done. The group discussion has also given me a very necessary empathy - it is not just the authors and their work which is being exposed and judged. There can be brutal suspended silences as you haltingly give your opinion on a script only to be met by bafflement (and sometimes ridicule) for your allegiance to a piece no one else likes.

Last year I was lucky enough to meet one of the authors we put through. It was great to be introduced to the person behind the work after so long facing paper. To be able to discuss her previous writing as well as the play she submitted was of great benefit to both of us. Our discussions led to a greater insight of what was driving her writing, and positive questioning of what she and the piece would gain from a script-in-hand showing at the TFT.

Aside from the tea and cake that accompany the readings, the great thing about the Sunday afternoons is seeing an audience respond to the potential we have haggled over. As someone who truly believes in the importance of good theatre and the nurture needed to necessitate it, I am very proud to play my part in Script Space. I look forward to the stories I’ve yet to read and their transition from head, to paper, to stage. 

Find out more about Script Space here.