Play & Screenplay writing

I've been writing several short plays and a few longer ones for fun and for contests. "A Sandwich for Scotland" was part of the National Theatre of Scotland's The Great Yes, No, I Don't Know 5 Minute Theatre Show, the whole 24 hours of which was streamed online. My contribution was performed live at Eden Court by an actor who worked with me on Lost Things, Kenny McCallum, and he was great! So here is my 5 minute monologue from a man using a bacon sandwich as an analogy to try and explain the choices in the independence debate to his friend.

What does a bacon sandwich have to do with the referendum? John will explain all...
Written by Leila Eadie
Performed by Kenny McCallum

A Sandwich for Scotland | The Great Yes, No, Don't Know Five Minute Theatre Show from National Theatre of Scotland on Vimeo.

My short play "Lost Things" was included in Play Pieces Shorts in Inverness. I had a great time working with drama students from Inverness College, and the optimistic, feel-good play (unusual for me!) was the finale of the first night of the festival on 14th November. It went down well - feedback from the audience suggested they enjoyed it - and it was a great experience!

One 10-minute short-sharp-shock play: "First Date (It Ends Badly)" was staged at Eden Court theatre in Inverness at the end of June 2013 by the DramaLab group. It was the first performance of my work since we put on my plays in school! I was able to attend the rehearsals and see how my initial script was transformed as it was produced, which has been massively useful to me in my continuing writing.

"Possession" is the longer play I'm currently working on, a courtroom drama looking at life, love and responsibility through a tale of demonic possession. I'll received some feedback from George Aza-Selinger of the National Theatre of Scotland and several NTS actors about an excerpt from the play and they had really interesting (and encouraging) things to say... This opportunity came about thanks to Eden Court's Playwriting Group, which is a really great writers' group populated by some wonderful voices.

I'm mainly writing short pieces for contests at the moment, and I think my background in short fiction is helpful here - at the very least I'm used to writing for a 15 - 30 minute length. The BBC Writers' Room also has a screenplay of mine - though everything I've learned since submitting it makes me suspect it'll swiftly end up lining the hamster cage.

I recently participated in a screenwriting weekend course run by The Two Phils. It had one day looking at creativity and structure, and another focussed on pitching and the business of writing, a useful mix. Plus a script editor from the BBC talked to us and answered our questions, which was very enlightening. I definitely learned a lot and met some interesting and talented people, who I hope to keep in touch with as our writing careers progress!