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An idea can come from anything; something you hear or see or it can even come from a character or group of characters. For instance, I once saw in a news paper a picture of a group of three people in bizarre costumes with really unusual head gear. I'm not sure now what the picture was all about, it could have even been an advert for something, but I know I cut it out of the paper, scanned it and put it into my ideas file. A while later I wrote a really weird children's play called the Three Magic Handkerchiefs.

The Daughters of Tomas Madigan was written after a chance meeting with a nun

OZ is based on a story that already exists, with characters that are known to the public and that should make things easier but it doesn't. In fact it restricts me a bit, but the play, the actual physical thing that people will be performing and, hopefully, watching, is all mine. The story is told in my words.

2) And you write it down.

An idea for a play, of any genre, can come to you at anytime, anywhere and so you should always have a means of recording that idea, whenever and wherever it comes, close at hand.

Douglas Furber often got ideas when he was falling asleep, so kept a pad and pencil by his bedside. It is said that one night he actually dreamed the entire show of Me and My Girl complete with sets, music, costumes, characters, the lot. He half woke from this fantastic somnolent entertainment and reached for his pad and pencil. On waking in the morning, and knowing that something tremendous had occurred to him during his sleep he looked at his bedside aide memoir. All he had written was 'boy meets girl'.

But a means of recording ideas is essential.

I personally have lots of little books, old electricity bills, bank envelopes – RATS was written almost entirely on A4 envelopes – where I can jot down ideas that then get transferred to the computer and, if they're not worked on immediately, get stored in a file called ideas. Hardly original but you're getting the picture.

3) Writing the step outline and the back stories

The first stage of actually writing any play whether that is for the stage or TV or movies, is the step outline.

You block out your acts and scenes without direction, action or dialogue listing only the characters that are basic to the scenes, what happens to them, where it happens and what are the consequences of it happening. It may take a while, with OZ the step outline took me about twenty four hours in total, but you just can't do with out this stage in the process.

The back stories; descriptions and details of the characters and their lives and what they were doing prior to the action of the script, is written after the step outline. The OZ characters already had their own stories, particularly Dorothy, told in the book so that part of the process took hardly any time.

4) Deciding to write.

Sometimes, deciding to actually write the play that the original idea has generated is the hardest part of all. If you're lucky, the decision to write is taken out of your hands. Someone, in my case it's usually the committee of the society, says; "Will you do the Pantomime (Christmas Play) this year" and it's usually said sort of half way through the year so, once you've agreed, you don't have that much time to procrastinate. Having a deadline to work to certainly helps.

I always start at the beginning and go on to the end. Some writers don't, they may start with a particular scene that comes say in the middle of the second act because that's the thing that gave them the idea in the first place but I always work from first to last. Depending on what I'm writing, a scene can take me anything up to four hours to work out and get down on to the page.

5) Deciding what to write and for whom you are writing.

In my case that's easy! I loath 'traditional pantomime', with a passion that verges on the psychotic . I hate the ethos that surrounds the concept of trad panto; the last show of the year that is, by its nature second rate because it isn't one of the 'proper' plays by the well known, terribly worthy and usually dead writers the company did in the Spring and Autumn

I write plays, that's what I do. The plays may tell a well known story but they tell it with words and not just daft water slinging, thigh slapping, broo ha ha action. THE WORDS MATTER! Oh yes they do!

Early on in any play's life, I have to decide whether I'm writing for the audience or the cast. I am not an actor but I have been around theatres of one persuasion or another, in a dogs body or a writing capacity for the best part of forty five years and I know that sometimes the cast may want a fairly easy ride with little to learn in the way of lines relying on visual humour, which is great for the average child but I have also been an audience member for longer than forty five years and I know that the wham bam pie in the face ma'am style of comedy is not so great for the brighter sparks and certainly not for the adults who accompany them. The audience might want something that doesn't have them longing for the interval two minutes after the curtains open.

This choice of who it's for also effects the basic structure of the play.

In OZ there are a number of necessary scene changes in the first act. The audience can suspend their disbelief quite happily if a change of scene actually means a physical change of scene. It's hard to see on the programme the note; 'Some hours later in a different part of the forest', when everything the audience sees is exactly the same, so unfortunately with out a revolve, curtains have to be closed to strike various bits of scenery. I've tried to get over this by using the narrator to keep the audience engaged but only public performance will show how successful, or otherwise, that has been.

6) So, you've written your masterpiece, now what?

Despite being based on the Frank L Baum story (Not, I repeat, not, on the, I'm sure admirable, MGM movie) OZ took me 80 hours of hard graft. I have written it as I have because I wanted it to be the best I could do. In my opinion, and I stress at this stage, it is only my opinion, it is a funny, intelligent script and has enough detail to satisfy any director.

Over the years I've been writing for Theatr Fach, I've tried very hard not to be too precious about what I've written especially if I'm turning it over to someone else to direct. It is part of a director's job to put his or her own interpretation on a play but it should also be part of their job to do the best they can to protect the integrity of the author's work. Samuel French Ltd. have even written a paragraph to that effect in their books.

I'm always pleased to be commissioned to write for Theatr Fach. OZ is my seventh comedy children's play for the society and despite all the hard work, it is mostly a pleasure when I see my work on stage.

I do desperately dislike it when people alter my work with out asking me. It's good manners and incidentally a legal requirement to ask permission to change a writer's work. Of course, if something doesn't work when it's actually on stage, I'm willing to change but I would beg anyone who's in charge of my play to please ask, don't tell.

7) Books or Scripts.

Not much difference in my opinion. A book is a lot easier, physically for an actor to deal with, and they're cheaper, for me to produce. You also don't tend to lose pages from a book and you're all on the same page at once. A script, the A4 sheets clipped together with a bulldog clip or in a clip on cover may be more beneficial to the technical bods. Generally, any play script is worked to a minute a page -- with a book it works out to around two minutes to three pages -- so a script can be useful for timing. I always do books for the cast and books plus scripts for the director and crew.

8) Auditions or Readings?

Historically, the Society has made the distinction between these to terms. When I first joined and wrote 'Shoes' the 'Auditions' were held on stage. I suppose this was because more people turned up for the 'pantomime' auditions than did for plays.

OZ is no great opus of literary genius so I don't really mind what it's called or where it's held so long as it leads to the next step which is;

9) Casting.

I wrote OZ deliberately for a smaller cast for two reasons. Firstly because we have lost, through defections and natural maturing, a lot of the youngsters who used to come to the theatre just to be in the pantomime and so the roles will probably be filled by adults and secondly because the number of adults who want to be in it will more than likely be on the low side. There are 13 separate characters in OZ but I have written in such away that by doubling up various roles, we can reduce the number to 9! Thus, if we have a great influx of folk who REALLY want to do it, there are parts there for them but if, as I suspect is more likely, we have just the usual suspects and I mean that in the nicest and most thankful way, we can still cast it successfully.

10) First readings/rehearsals.

At Theatr Fach most initial readings take place in the Club Room. It is a chance for the director to see how his/her cast handle the words and to make changes if they are necessary. It also gives the cast a chance to question their characters in a less formal situation and to get to know the play without the need to go through the actions.

First readings should not last for too long. Especially with children and young people involved there is always the boredom factor but it has to be the director's decision when the transition is made.

11) On Stage with/without books.

Their first proper, on STAGE rehearsals are very busy times for actors, directors and technicians. Movement around the stage has to be worked out, how your voice sounds in the larger space and from different areas of the stage and, as OZ has the afore mentioned scene changes, how they are to be worked. It's a busy, busy time for all concerned and with the Christmas offering not just busy in the theatre. It must always be born in mind primarily by directors and producers, that people have lives out with the theatre and accommodations have to be made. It can be at very best a frustrating, at worst a despairing time but it is something that has to be gone through with compromise, consideration and calm on all sides.

It is also the last busy time for me, the writer. It is the time for tweaks and fiddles and little bits and bobs that may not be really necessary but make people feel they've had an input and that's vital.

Books no more

There are no hard and fast rules about taking away the comforter. It depends on how assiduous the players have been about learning their lines and parts but I think, and this is just my personal preference, that when you're in to the twice weekly rehearsal phase, the comforter should be firmly placed on the emergency shelf at the back of cupboard. There will need to be a prompt and this can't be the director because he/she will be directing but by this stage in the proceedings if it can't be done with out books then it ain't worth doing.

Dress & Tech

Traditionally, Christmas plays (did I mention I don't like the Panto concept?) have two dress rehearsals. The first is usually on a Saturday morning and the second on the Sunday afternoon when it combines with the technical rehearsal where all the carefully worked out lighting and effects (sound, flashes, quick dims et al) curtains and scene changes are put through their paces.

It's a good way of working especially if there are youngsters involved because it gives them a chance to time their costume arrangements without eating in to rehearsal time before hand.

Then there is usually a two day (Monday and Tuesday) break. This gives people a chance to settle their nerves and in one, to me, memorable case, to decide they don't really want to do it.

12) On STAGE without a safety net.

This is or should be the point where I pack up my traps and say; "My job is done, I wish you joy." but it never has been. From SHOES (the only production of mine that I have ever taken part in,) to ALICE and probably also with OZ, I have been there, every night admittedly with my slippers on but certainly not with my feet up, to see the play through to the end. I suppose the words control and freak spring most readily to my mind but it's the way I am.

Of course there's nothing I can do if things do go pear shaped but I'm still there, hovering like a wee black dwarf offering support and encouragement until it's all done and dusted for another year and the cast 'drag' me on stage, if they remember, and yes, I sometimes wish I got paid for what I do, it would be very nice to pop a couple of centuries in to the pot but at the moment, I don't do it for that. I do it, like everyone else, for the MAGIC! Because theatre is or should be magic; for writers, directors, cast and crew but mostly, it has to be magic for the people watching, for the little ones who really don't want Tinkerbell or Snow White to die, who want Jack to kill the Giant, Sleeping Beauty to wake up or Dorothy to get home again, for all the believers it has to be MAGIC!