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02 December 2024

Posted by Tabby Hayward

Festive Scripts

This week, in the final session of 2024, we got into the festive spirit! Collaboratively, we came up with reasons why a character would dislike Christmas (from comedic reasons, like not liking the smell of cinnamon, to deeper emotional reasons, like a difficult relationship with family) and from this, built a character who strongly disliked the festive season - coming up with memories for them, ways they cope with Christmas now, and 5 other facts about them. Next, we did the same for a character who LOVES Christmas (reasons included loving ice skating, living alone and loving the community of Christmas) and their favourite Christmas memory, Christmas to do list, and a Christmas goal for this year.

Next, we came up with festive occasions where these characters might meet (from Christmas food shopping to office parties or carol singing) and a problem which might occur in this place (e.g. a shortage of potatoes, someone's inability to sing, etc). Then, the writers came up with their own scene of dialogue between these very different characters and what would happen when they met:

Here's David's sharply observed, comedic script:

They leave the Supermarket on Christmas Eve and walk toward their residential block. They enter the revolving door and it jams.

Bob - It won't move
James -  Oh no! It's stuck
Bob - I've got my frozen stuff in here
James - I've got the Turkey
Bob - Oh no, not Turkey. Can't stand the sight of it. Don't show me, don't talk about it, keep it out of my eyeline!
James - Why?
Bob - Used to have one outside in the bath tub outside my Grandparents, when I was a lad. Could not have a wash for days. It had to sit in the water until Chirstmas day, then the tub needed a proper clean and i'd smell of bleach.
James - Cannot believe you had an outdoor bath
Bob - Now you'd probably call it a hot tub. You could probably boil the bleeding thing in it now!

Finally, we looked at an extract from the opening act of Snowflake by Mike Bartlett and, inspired by this, the writers created their own short scenes where someone is preparing for Christmas and an unexpected visitor turns up...

It's been a brilliant term of Writing for Page and Stage and we're excited to see what the New Year brings! In the meantime, have a lovely festive break!
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