Plays and Screenplays
by
Alan Wakeman
THEATRE PLAYS
| Three of my theatre
plays have been performed in public. Fortunately for
me, all three had triumphant first nights. Unfortunately
for me (as any budding playwright will tell you) writing
the script is the easy part and, despite cries of "Author!
Author!" on one of those three delightful occasions
and standing ovations on the other two, most of my dramatic
output remains unproduced. However those three positive
audience responses have given me the confidence to offer
my three "audience-tested" plays here as pdfs
in the hope of encouraging new amateur
and/or professional productions. I've also included
a musical play for children that, so far, remains unperformed.
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Please note that all rights whatsoever in all my plays
are strictly reserved and professional applications
for permission to perform any or all of them must be
made in advance, before rehearsals begin, to: |
| awakeman@btinternet.com |
However, amateur drama groups will be pleased to
hear that I’m prepared to grant permission for
genuine amateur productions without payment, though
I do ask for my name to be included in the credits
and much appreciate being informed in advance of performance
dates. (I also like receiving photographs, programmes,
flyers, posters etc.) Break a leg!
Click
a title to read or download a pdf of its complete
playscript:
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SHIPS
A Play
for Theatre
by Alan Wakeman
Left
to right: Gerald Chapman, director of Ships, Alan
Wakeman, author of Ships and Roger Baker, founder
of Gay Sweatshop, at a press conference in 1975 to
launch the world's first ever season of openly gay
plays at the Almost-Free
Theatre, off Shaftesbury Avenue, in London's West
End
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Originally booked to run for
3 weeks, SHIPS was sold out every
day and extended for a further 3 weeks before transferring
to The Mickery Theatre in Amsterdam as part of an
international theatre festival.
Other productions have been mounted in Australia,
Brazil, New Zealand and Poland.
SHIPS:
Copyright Alan Wakeman © 1975, 2008
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WHERE
THE HEART IS
A Play
for Theatre
by Alan Wakeman
In 1996 I was presented with this Pink
Paper Play Award for my
play about a south London gay schoolboy's first experience
of love.
Where
The Heart Is: Copyright Alan Wakeman © 1996, 2008
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INNOCENCE
A Play
for Theatre
by Alan Wakeman
At
the time of writing (August 2008) INNOCENCE
has yet to receive a world premiere production. However,
in March 2007 it had a public reading (to acclaim
from a capacity house) at the Tristan Bates
Theatre off Shaftesbury Avenue in London's
West End as part of a season of readings directed by
Rikki Beadle-Blair. |
The
play is set in the early 1960s at Headley Court, a
fictional, minor public school somewhere in the home
counties and portrays the relationships between James,
a newly-arrived, idealistic, (innocent!?) young teacher,
Anton, a rumbustious Rabelaisian colleague, and Carl,
one of James’s (innocent!?) fourteen-year-old
pupils. James responds with kindness to the boy’s
evident loneliness till, in a moment of distraction,
he drops his guard – whereupon Carl reveals
his true nature. What follows shows how innocents
may unintentionally provoke violence in others...
and yet... and yet... what is the meaning of Carl’s
final utterance?
INNOCENCE:
Copyright Alan Wakeman © 2008
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TIM,
WILLIE AND THE WURGLES
A Musical
Play for Children
by Alan Wakeman
Eight-year-old Tim has a special friend called Willie
who only he can see. When Willie says it's time for
‘a confrontation’ with ‘a Wurgle’
Tim agrees even though he doesn't know what either
of these mysterious things might be. But the two of
them set off for the Dark Wood and soon meet a Wurgle
and have what Willie says is a confrontation with
it.
But the very next morning Tim and Willie
meet a different Wurgle; and the next morning another;
and the next morning another; and everytime Tim thinks
he finally understands what Wurgles are, they change
into something completely different; and everytime
they change they get weirder and weirder and weirder;
so that it isn't till the very end of the play that
it becomes clear what Wurgles are and why it's so
important to have confrontations with them.
SONGS
BY ALAN WAKEMAN AND MICHAEL KLEIN
Music by Michael Klein
~ Lyrics by Alan Wakeman
All words and music copyright © Arcturus Music
Ltd. 1993 & 2008
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SCREENPLAYS
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All rights whatsoever in my screenplays are strictly
reserved and professional applications for permission
to produce any or all of them must be made in advance
of actual filming to: |
awakeman@btinternet.com
Click
a title to read or download a
pdf of a its complete screenplay:
WHERE
THE HEART IS
A Film
for Television
by Alan Wakeman
In
the early 1990s Channel Four television in the UK
invited scripts for a series of films to be transmitted
under the generic title of FIRST LOVE.
As I'd never in my life seen a film that portrayed
the experiences of gay teenagers I wrote a screenplay
called WHERE THE HEART IS. My editor
at Channel Four was "impressed" with my
script which she said was "brilliant"
and "exactly what she had in mind" but
added that "because of the controversial nature
of the subject matter" she could only produce
it if it was "utterly unassailable." I
understood that she wanted me to cut the scene where
the two male leads kiss but instead I pointed
out that if straight scripts had to jump through
such ridiculous hoops our TV screens would be blank
most evenings and that was the end of the project.
This experience left me so angry and frustrated
that I rewrote my screenplay for live theatre and
was deeply gratified when the theatre version won
an award (see above). So I suppose you could say
I made my point in the end - but I still long to
see my screenplay made into the film about teenage
love I originally crafted. So if you're a budding
producer, please get in touch:
awakeman@btinternet.com
WHERE
THE HEART IS Screenplay copyright Alan
Wakeman © 1992, 2008
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SHIPS
A Film
for Television
by Alan Wakeman
Having
taught myself to write screenplays, and encouraged
by the international success of Ships as
a theatre play, after the initial spate of productions
subsided I adapted my theatrical
portrait of a day in the life of London into a short
film.
Unfortunately,
in the meantime my agent had retired and I'm too
old to get a new one - so this screenplay is also
available and I'll be just as delighted if a budding
young producer wants to take it on:
awakeman@btinternet.com
SHIPS
Screenplay copyright Alan Wakeman © 1994,
2008
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