Coming up next… ‘Snookered’ by Ishy Din

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Snookered Q&A with writer Ishy Din

Ishy Din, writer of 'Snookered'. Photo by Keith Pattison

What inspired Snookered? Is it autobiographical at all?

There are certainly parts of it that are autobiographical, I think that to make any character honest and real one needs to put ones own experiences, both emotional and physical, into them but then you also have to make the piece dramatic so once the characters were in place I had to find a journey for each character that would heighten the drama.

Small Fish Big Cheese – Sudha Bhuchar

Small Fish Big Cheese by By Sudha Bhuchar Directed by Jim Johnson at the Unicorn Theatre

 

When Carl Miller from Unicorn approached me to be their Class Acts playwright for 2011, he told me that it was a commission for a world premier, bespoke for the year six class room that I would be paired with and a strict half an hour length. I was nervous that I didn’t have any idea what to write about as I was given carte blanche to write about anything, as long as I followed these rules and made sure that all thirty kids in the class could participate in an uplifting ‘rite of passage’ experience of performing the play on the main stage at the Unicorn, giving them a unique way of saying Goodbye to Primary school.

Small Fish Big Cheese – Jim Johnson, Peshkar

As I write this I am preparing my final thoughts before day one of rehearsals for Sudha Bhuchar’s play ‘Small Fish Big Cheese’ which will feature actors from Tamasha’s developing artist programme and will be presented at the Unicorn Theatre for a week commencing the 10^th of January.

Actor/Director Lab November 2011 Day 5

Photo by Robert Day

Taj Atwall – Actor Participant

“This week pushed my creative limits and exceeded all my expectations. Kristine’s intense, direct ‘hands-on’ approach and really breaking your work down and working every little detail is something I have rarely experienced. From day one she created an environment for us to relax and dispel any nerves. With people at all levels and stages of their career on the course I was apprehensive about what benefit I would gain from the course.

Actor/Director Lab 2011 – Kristine Landon-Smith

Photo by Robert Day

“I have been reading participant’s blogs and now want to share my own thoughts. I am so completely flattered by comments that have been posted and so struck by the generosity and curiosity and hunger from all the participants to learn. It’s a tough course but the participants are strong and really want to understand the rigour, the precision and the detail that is required to make an artistic and poetic piece of work. This goes for both actors and directors.