Nurturing Ideas and Keeping Them Alive

with Anna Jordan

This performance has taken place in the past

with Anna Jordan

Writers need ideas. They’re our currency. We depend on them. Covet them. And when we actually have one – a GOOD IDEA – it feels great, doesn’t it? Maybe it’s for a play or film, a miniseries or monologue – maybe you don’t know yet. But you feel alive. It might even keep you awake at night. The stuff of dreams! So we scribble down a few words, a few pages, hurriedly sketch out a few images. But then…. LIFE. There’s work to be done, bills to be paid, relationships to be had, the patriarchy to be smashed. There are many demands on our time and attention and sometimes we just can’t get round to it, or don’t have the confidence. The idea fades and eventually… dies. So how can we prevent this? How can we save these poor ideas? 

 In this online workshop we will look at:

  • Writing exercises for developing ideas.
  • Identifying your ‘Anchor’ – what thrilled you about the idea in the first place and how to get back there easily.
  • Techniques for keeping notes and growing stories and characters organically
  • Drawing inspiration from other work
  • Finding new habits and breaking the rules

All you need is a pen, paper, and an idea you had once and never quite followed through on, no matter how vague.

Anna is a writer for theatre, film and TV, a theatre director and acting coach.

TV credits include Succession (Season 1, HBO), Killing Eve (Season 3, Sid Gentle) and currently Becoming Elizabeth (The Forge / Starz). 

Theatre credits includes We Anchor In Hope (Bunker Theatre), Pop Music (Paines Plough / Birmingham Rep – National Tour), Mother Courageand Her Children (Royal Exchange / Headlong), The Unreturning (Frantic Assembly – National Tour and Theatre Royal Stratford). Anna won the Bruntwood Prize in 2013 for her play YEN, which has had productions at The Royal Exchange, Royal Court Theatre and MCC New York as well as several international productions. It was also shortlisted for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.

Other theatre writing includes A Serious Case of the Fuckits (Central School of Speech and Drama), Chicken Shop (Park Theatre) and Freak(Theatre503 / Assembly Studios).

Anna is currently writing for The Royal Court, The National Theatre, Two Brothers Pictures and RAW TV.

Anna directed Jonathan Harvey’s play Tomorrow I’ll Be Happy at The National Theatre Shed as part of National Theatre Connections. Other directing experience includes Freak (Theatre503 / Assembly Studios), 3 Winters, Touched and The Crucible (Italia Conti BA Hons), Earthquakes in London (Arts Educational BA Hons), Crystal Springs (Eureka Theatre, San Francisco), Only Human (Theatre503) Vote of No Confidence (Theatre503). She originally trained as an actor at LAMDA, and she has taught both acting and playwriting at a variety of places including The Royal Exchange, The Royal Court, RADA, LAMDA, Central, Arts Ed and Italia Conti. She runs her own training company for actors and writers: Without a Paddle Theatre. 

No performaces are currently available.
Nurturing Ideas and Keeping Them Alive