| In
this Special Feature for November/December, Brian
Langtry of Legless Productions gives us an inspirational
tale of how of his journey via pop and folk bands
and social work brought him to writing and producing
musical theatre.
There's
Always a Silver Lining
Hi,
I'm Brian Langtry and I've been a member of Script
more or less since its inception. I am delighted
to be asked to write this piece about my personal
journey through the 'writing experience'.
I'm now approaching the end of my
fifth decade and can look back upon a lifetime
of writing. I use the term 'writing' in
a broad sense that skips across those somewhat
artificial boundaries of the professional, the
creative, the personal and the inane! Confused?
A state of mind I instantly recognise. Perhaps
a brief resume can elucidate.
Having
decided very early on in my career that teaching
was not the vocation to which I would aspire,
I extracted myself from college and embarked upon
a nomadic Transit Van existence playing music
(mostly badly) in a variety of uninspiring and
frequently expiring pop bands. Having spent
one too many nights freezing my proverbial ***s
off in a lay-by midway between Dresden and Bremerhaven,
I reached the inevitable conclusion that
somewhere there must exist a less masochistic
way of savouring life's many and varied vicissitudes!
I began a 30-year career in social work, the latter
twenty of which were spent in middle and senior
management positions. In today's Social
Care the ability to 'write' in a variety of styles,
complexities and contexts is very much de rigueur
- reports for court, committee, complaints, commissioners,
service users, councillors, training manuals and
policy documents etc. The list is endless.
During this period I contributed to various professional
journals and undertook two further masters degrees
revisiting analysis, research and cohesively documented
conclusions, each discipline exploring different
and varied styles of written communication.
The
lure of music remained strong and in 1971 I formed
the Black Country Folk band 'Giggetty' luxuriating
in the subsequent 26 years of performing around
the West Midlands and even, on occasions, as far
afield as Evesham! During this period I
became the songwriter for the band and explored
yet another form of the written word. Fortune
smiled and provided a brief period of writing
and contributing, musically and script wise, to
occasional short local radio documentaries and
two national programmes. Along the way I
managed to get a song recorded by Daniel O'Donnell
which unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) failed
to see the light of day.
Add
to the above the everyday writing demands of modern
life - letters to friends and relatives, letters
to the editor signed 'disgusted of Wombourne',
rantings agains the injustices of undeserved parking
and speeding fines etc - and a picture begins
to emerge of the relevance, diversity and importance
of cumulative life writing experiences which are
unconsciously filed and mapped into our cerebral
patterns and memory banks.
Unexpectedly
in 1996, a life threatening illness punctured
this comfortable cocoon and as a consequence I
was forced to retire from live performance.
I needed to fill this deepening artistic void.
Co-opting, cajoling and coercing an old friend,
we produced a musical play which, we believed,
had legs. We set up a website, dipped into
marketing and our enthusiasm was speedily sated
by five sales to the amateur market. Almost
as speedily there followed a chasmic hiatus which
turned out to be somewhat reminiscent of the Bermuda
Triangle. A half dozen further works and
sustained marketing extravaganza did nothing to
revive interest. By 2001 I had come to realise
the full unremitting pain of banging my head against
a brick wall. It hurt. I needed to
assimilate the lessons that this experience espoused.
I decided that action of a different kind was
called for and formed a small touring theatre
company with the aim of performing the acquired
catalogue of aforementioned works. To assist
this process and to form part of a tri-strategic
marketing offensive, we established two Internet
based publishing outlets so that, in addition
to our own work, other new writers might also
benefit.
Two valuable lessons were learned
from this. First, trying to sell new musicals
with original music was in my opinion a 'no-brainer'
and secondly, if I was to realise my ambitions
I needed to engage not with the amateur segment
but with the frequently and often unjustly maligned
'commercial' sector. I wrote my first music
biogs - 'The Middle of Nowhere - the story of
Dusty Springfield' and 'Hello I'm Johnny Cash'
the story of the Man in Black - touring each around
a circuit of studio and small venues. I
now had a way forward.
By complete
chance one boring Saturday I purchased a copy
of The Stage, something I had not done for some
years. An ad. for auditions caught my eye.
The advertising production company was intriguingly
based in my home town.
Like
many thousands I had been transfixed by the ethereal
beauty of Eva Cassidy's 'Somewhere over the Rainbow'.
After a period of research I had a play, a pitch
and, most importantlly, someone to pitch to.
The first UK/Ireland tour of 'Over the Rainbow
- the Eva Cassidy Story' took place in spring
of 2004 and the subsequent four tours have taken
in a further 250 plus UK/Ireland/Europe venues
(including a sell out at the Alexandra) the strangest
of which has to have been the five performances
in Dubai!
My new work 'The Billie Holiday Story'
opened in August at the Hackney Empire and tours
until the end of November and into Europe in Spring
2007.
If you
have arrived still reading a this juncture you
are perhaps wondering just what exactly my message
might be. Here it is:
- It's
never too late to start
- Network
wherever you can (though I was never very good
at this) and join writer organisations such as
Script and Writernet.
- Never
dismiss any aspect of your background or experience
- it is what makes you what you are.
- If
you come up against a brick wall find a detour
- Everyone
needs a slice of luck
- Never
give up and be prepared to sweat
- Your
two best friends are your own self-belief and
the edit/delete key on your computer
I always welcome enquiries from playwrights
looking for publication but please contact me
prior to sending scripts. Additionally,
I am always interested in collaborating and happy
to discuss new ideas and projects.
Best
of luck with your creative joices, thank you for
reading and thank you to Script
for providing me with this opportunity to indulge
in a little reappraisal.
Brian Langtry
November
2006
www.leglessproductions.co.uk
www.oneactplays.org.uk
Special
Features Archive
January
2006 - 'Happy Birthday Script'
April
2006 - The Script/Raw Edge Monologue Competition
winners
June
2006 - Ian Kennedy on writing for the BBC Radio
Drama 'Silver Street.
September
2006 - playwright, Alan Pollock, on the tough
choices writers have to face.
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