Mark Ravenhill @MarkRavenhill2 Twitter profile

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Mark Ravenhill

4 months

My second 101 Exercises for Playwrights newsletter is ready to go. You can read and subscribe using the link. 'Exercise 1'.

Exercise 1

Welcome and thank you for subscribing to my twice weekly 101 Exercises for Playwrights. Each email will take a few minutes to read. Then it's over to you ......

buttondown.email

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

I’ve lived with HIV for 30 years and I’m healthy and happy. Can I ask you to make one small step today to end stigma and shame? Maybe start a conversation in your home, school, workplace? The old slogan ‘silence is death’ still holds true. Share if you can. Many thanks.

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

Today we took my dad with us to the registry office and converted our civil partnership to a marriage

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

I’m surprised that so many people are surprised that I’m ‘giving away’ my experience for ‘free’.Growing up in the Uk in the 1970s/80s my entire education to graduation was free!It’s in my bones - knowledge is not a commodity and that we share it out. Another world is possible!

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

I’m amazed and overwhelmed by the response to my tweeted playwriting notes. I started without a plan but am now thinking it will be‘101 notes on playwriting’. Could you do me a favour and retweet/quote tweet this to get more followers? Quick before The Rock buys the movie rights!

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

Playwriting note 22: a new character entering should be like someone stepping in to a dingy - everyone in the dingy has to reposition themselves to find a new balance or they’ll capsize. The action of the scene is the negotiation of that repositioning. Same for an exit.

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

Began new play. Wrote 1000 words, which is my daily target. Characters paper thin. But that’s OK. Ibsen said ‘first draft - characters like someone you sit opposite on train. Second draft - people you’ve known a few days. Third draft - people you’ve known all your life’

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

1 year

Funny thing .. I don’t win awards, get short listed for awards or get invited as a guest to award ceremonies. But this is my 27th year of earning a good living writing for the theatre. I feel like a winner every year

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

Excited to share this news. We are an Artistic Director.

The Stage

@TheStage

3 years

Playwright Mark Ravenhill ( @MarkRavenhill2 ) and director Hannah Price ( @HannahPrice ) have been appointed artistic directors of King's Head Theatre ( @KingsHeadThtr )

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

25 years ago today I was writing a pre-rehearsal draft of Shopping and F for a September opening. But also no anti retro viral drugs so assumed I had a couple of years to live. Quarter of a century later : still alive, still writing for the theatre. Hooray !

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

Playwriting thought of the day #5 : for a theatre play, an hour of playing time is 9,000 to 10,000 words. Basic but no one tells you this! Think in minutes - after a thousand words, the audience are six minutes into the play. And so on. Writing a play is ‘sculpting in time’.

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

2 years

BREAKING: Boris Johnson to give two speeches - one in which he leaves and one in which he remains as PM

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

Playwriting thought of the day #4 : try writing a draft zero/dirty draft. Let the characters say all the exposition, themes, everything they think and feel. Don’t show this to anyone - even yourself ! - and then write the first draft. Sarah Kane told me she did this for Blasted.

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

2 years

I’ve survived ! 33 years HIV + thanks to NHS and amazing friends

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

Playwriting notes #10 :a teacher in school told us ‘drama is conflict’. When I started to write plays I found this led only to scenes of characters arguing. When I tried writing deferred conflict, conflict avoided until it was the only thing possible I found this more productive

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

8 months

I’ve been HIV+ for over 30 years. I’m happy healthy(and kinda hot). On one pill and can expect average life span. Pre exposure prophylaxis now means new cases have dropped hugely. The biggest challenge in the Uk is not medicine but stigma. So let’s talk about HIV. Silence =death

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

2 years

Last night I dreamed : THE MUPPET THREEPENNY OPERA. Make it so universe. Kermit the Knife und Piggy Peachum

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

Just thinking aloud would welcome your comments (if not too hostile!)as reply to this tweet.If I did a pod cast - guest chooses one of my 101 notes and discusses how it relates to their work as actor/ director/ novelisetc then adds a note of their own? Too many podcasts already?

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

Lay on the sofa for a day trying to figure out how to start new play - nothing. Went for a two hour work this morning - play revealed itself to me. I forget it every time but my walking brain is way more creative than my sitting/lying down brain. You ?

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

2 years

Having a soup, top floor of Waterstone’s Piccadilly. Table one side is a writers’ group giving each other toe curling notes. The other side an agent/editor talking to a writer: ‘Could you draw on your Indian heritage but write something set in this country?’. The soup’s good.

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

1 year

Germany announces 200 euros voucher for everyone born in the year 2004 to spend on arts as part of post pandemic move to re engage young people with society. Hurrah !

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

Playwriting thought of the day : a play often progresses by the characters choosing to say -either directly or in so many words - ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to an offer of action. If you get stuck look at changing a no to a yes or vice versa and explore the consequences. Make sense to you ?

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

Shocked that @BBCRadio4 is planning to axe The Film Programme, one of the freshest most incisive shows on the network with a distinctive female led voice. Plenty of less fresh shows that could go instead ! Retweet if you want to save The Film Programme. #savethefilmprogramme

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

I’ve been asked to think about a list of forty plays that an early career theatre director should read. I guess I’d want them to be exposed to a great variety of forms with important classics alongside new developments. What 3 plays would YOU suggest for the list? Thanks !

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

I think I’ve found a producing partner for a podcast based around my 101 notes on playwriting. Plan at the moment to record a bloc in December then start dropping them in January. More on this breaking story as the newsroom receives it …!

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

Playwriting note 13 and three quarters; Be respectful of actors. They’re highly trained people working under enormous pressure. Be kind to directors. They’re mostly chancers who’ve blagged their way into a rehearsal room *orders second negroni *

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

10 months

Fourteen years ago today I got married to this gem. My 89 year old dad reminded me that it was my anniversary - twenty years ago I would never have thought i could get married or that my dad would celebrate it. Progress has been made

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

Walked in to my local cafe in Berlin and the barista said ‘Wie immer?’ [the usual?]. After two years away with lockdown and Brexit ..well..my eyes were a little moist.

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

Notes on playwriting #7 :in early drafts the character most like the playwright is often passive, watches, listens, is enacted upon rather than acts. We’re reluctant to commit this character to dramatic action and the challenge and change that will bring about. But it must be done

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

10 months

In 1983 my mum had a word with a teacher ‘Mark likes drama - what play should I take him to?’. We went for the first time to a theatre in London. Michael Gambon and Helen Mirren as Antony and Cleopatra at the Pit, a studio theatre. Actors are great but also mums are amazing !

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

#MarkRavenhill101 Hey!On Sunday 26th Sept 2 -4pm I’ll live tweet my ‘masterclass’ for playwrights exploring how these notes apply to Brecht’s 20 minute play Die Judische Frau/The Jewish Wife (scene 9 of his Fear and Misery’).Track down a copy. Please retweet to get more on board

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

2 years

Woke up to hear Radio 4 newsreader announcing RSC 37 plays - initiative to find 37 new plays for the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s folio. Delighted to be asked to be an ambassador for this and for my new 101 notes podcast to be produced by the RSC.

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

1 year

It continues … Dad is ok with me but can never get over me not being Richard Osman (who went to the same local comp). Latest : ‘couldn’t you write a murder mystery and branch out like Richard has ? ‘ A pensioner is murdered and his playwright son is the prime suspect ..

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

101 notes on playwriting podcast recording in progress !

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

9 months

Stranger stopped me in the street last night and said ‘we need another play from you!’. I’m going to spread the love. For anyone who doesn’t get stopped on the street and is struggling with writing : We need a play from YOU !

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

1 year

It’s the 50th anniversary of the Royal Court Theatre premiere of Rocky Horror Show. The Royal Court often seems to not embrace it as part of its canon but it must be one of the most impactful Royal Court shows ever. (It played Upstairs,Edward Bond’s The Sea played Downstairs)

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

1 year

Beryl Reid in an old episode of The Good Old Days: ‘I’ve only had three men in my life. No I tell a lie. I’ve had eighty two. I was forgetting that weekend in Bridlington’.

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

2 years

Husband: where’s the kitchen bin gone? Me: it’s appearing in the Kings head La boheme. Sooo fringe theatre these days !

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

1 year

Keith Johnstone who wrote the book ‘Impro’ has died. He led the first Royal Court writers group : Wole Soyinka, Anne Jellicoe, Edward Bond et al. He inspired new theatre around the world, including Phelim McDermott. I was lucky know him a bit and attend his classes. A genius.

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

10 months

Preparing to teach my class today. I bought this book 37 years ago and it’s been the basis of everything I’ve done ever since. Beyond life changing

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

2 years

Re: opera and class. Plenty of film careers are built on pretty face/good hair/private education and little else. But to sing in opera needs a little bit of anatomical luck plus decades of graft. I’ve met more working class folk in opera than the screen world.

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

To the well intentioned few who have counselled that it would be best not too be too obvious and not to draw attention to the queer focus of our 2022 onwards plans for the Kings Head, I believe that celebration and not assimilation makes for better theatre and a better world.

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

2 years

Who taught you the most about making theatre and what is one simple thing that they taught you ? Comment below, people of tweet land.

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

2 years

I came over a little queer on Friday and am currently on the ward at the Royal Free. Making good progress and will be soon at Kings Head theatre La boheme

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

Starting next week I’ll be tweeting 101 playwriting notes about Chekhov’s Cherry Orchard. A couple of notes a day, applying my previous notes to an actual play. So grab yourself a copy and get ready for a new series of 101!

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

2 years

Took Dad out to lunch today to celebrate his 87th birthday !

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

Proud that our plans for Kings Head are putting LGBTQ + experience and aesthetic at the centre of a programme. We look forward to welcoming Allies, we may sometimes lift a stone to study the twilight world of the heterosexual but we’ll be queer. Our programme starts April 2022.

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

Playwriting note39: I never imagine my characters sitting down. If they do I find the scenes plateau. I have to feel with each line that they are pushing into the space or pushing out of it, drawing closer to another person or away. I call this the hidden kinetic dance !

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

Me 25 years ago today, the year my first play was produced

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

5 months

I’ve always liked Ibsen’s description of his process (I paraphrase) : First draft - characters are people you once sat opposite on a train Second draft - people you’ve known a few weeks Third draft - people you’ve known all your life time Something to aspire to.

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

8 months

Playwrights- never be embarrassed to demand you get your billing ! The Royal Court always puts the writer up with the title. Here’s my last outing

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

And it’s a wrap on recording’ season one’ of 101 notes on playwriting podcast. Six amazing playwrights sharing their notes. At the end of the day our sound engineer who never met theatre folk before said he felt inspired to start writing a play! Platform/release date soon.

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

What’s the first play - read or seen - that blew you away? I remember lying in the garden one hot summer when I was 14 reading Waiting For Godot and feeling my head go boom. I learnt Lucky’s long speech by heart cos I wanted to know how it felt to speak it. You ?

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

1 year

They do things differently there … Berlin alone receives double the entire English arts funding. Berlin has a substantially smaller population than London.

German Embassy London

@GermanEmbassy

1 year

Good news for Berlin’s cultural institutions: The German capital’s annual funding for culture has been increased to €947 million for 2024 with the aim of reaching around €1 billion by the end of 2025.

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

1 year

Thrilled that my new play will be directed by the inspirational @EricaWhyman for the Royal Shakespeare Company. Yay !

The Stage

@TheStage

1 year

A new production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, an adaptation from Isobel McArthur, and the stage premiere of Mark Ravenhill’s Ben and Imo all feature in outgoing acting artistic director @EricaWhyman ’s last season at @TheRSC

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

I’ve written 600 words about my experience of HIV stigma. Have a read and share if you like. Let’s get people talking about this.

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

2 years

Not been here very much. The last six months I’ve been thrown off balance (literally) by vestibular neuritis. Now working with a physio to get me back on my feet (again literally). Writing a play for @NYTofGB mostly from bed and using my own playwriting tweets as a guide ! Love x

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

Playwriting note 24;there’s a three part structure : establish, intensify, subvert. This can be used to shape of everything from a gesture or sentence through to the structure of a play. Eg 1. They ice the cake 2. They furiously ice the cake 3. They throw the cake out the window

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

Playwriting note 30; I cut the first word of many lines. That last bit of fear of committing to the action of the line has a put in a ‘well’ or ‘but’ or ‘just’. In rehearsals actors sometimes unconsciously put back in that little thing before a line. I try to discourage them!

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

1 year

In 1994 I took an introduction to playwriting course by sitting at my kitchen table for an hour a day and using Keith Johnstone’s Impro book to give myself playwriting exercises. Two years later I was a produced playwright. Keith died on Saturday aged 90. He changed my life.

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

So much incredible talent that should have emerged in the last eighteen months but couldn’t because our theatres were shut. How do we make sure there isn’t a lost generation of new theatre makers? I’d love to hear ideas - so retweet, comment etc - to help form a plan of action.

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

Playwriting note #15 : people create a narrative about themselves to make sense of their place in the world. This narrative becomes frozen and is no longer useful. Many plays explore the problems caused by the gap between this frozen narrative and the life they’re actually living

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

Have a great time watching the football but spare a thought for those of us who will , after years of homophobic bullying by games teachers, be hiding until it’s over like pets on fireworks night.

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

Playwriting note 44: how much story does a play need? Not much. But enough. I normally have too much, cut it away. What’s needed: The emergence, experience and repercussions of an event which will irreversibly change the characters relationship with each other and their world.

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

#MarkRavenhill101 60: Forget standard punctuation. use whatever punctuation helps you to create rhythms of thought and feeling. The punctuation in that Shakespeare play you read in school? Added much later by editors. Contemporary playwrights each discover their own use of punct-

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

Playwriting note 36: I try to find a strong word to put at the end of the line, that final pulse of energy that allows the actor to ‘bat it over the net’ and makes it a strong offer to the other actor. Going through a draft I look at each line, rearrange words to achieve this.

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

How simple a good play can be. A few square feet of stage, maybe a chair, some crackling language. Reminds me of Ken Campbell at a Royal court audition: ‘will this be one of your regular two chair productions or a push out the boat, no expense spared three chair production?’

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

Playwriting thought for the day: Characters asking questions is often the engine of a play. When writing/ rewriting see if you can frame lines as questions and explore the consequences. Could the first line of your play be a question ? Could the last line of the play be a … ?

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

1 year

When I was about twelve I said “I want to work in theatre “. Another boy warned “you wanna be careful it’s full of poofs”. This had honestly never crossed my mind but I instantly thought ‘even better’ and doubled my resolve.

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

Kings Head thoughts for our programme beginning April 2022: we’re open to anything that’s formally playful and inventive with a queer vibe. Casts and creative teams should consist of at least 50% of people who identify as female, trans or non binary. Let’s get the party started !

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

2 years

Thanks to all those who pointed out today’s Guardian feature in which Ben wishaw identifies my first play as a focal moment for his teenage self. I always thought he was a lovely man and a great actor - now I’m convinced !

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

#MarkRavenhill101 67;write the play first then do the research! Do no more than three days research than write zero/dirty draft. So you will see what research you need to do, stuff that informs the dramatic action. Again not too long -research is often what we do to avoid writing

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

Tips for the note givers. 1. a playwright will be a knot of tension until you read the play you’ve asked for. Give them an honest assessment of how long. ‘I’m really busy for the next couple of months then I’ll read it’ is fine but tell the writer and spare them 2 months worry.

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

1 year

Smiled and sang all day long after getting a positive response to a piece I delivered. Silly really but we writers spend so much of the time isolated and ignored. We’re only human - just the odd positive word keeps us going. Remember to give a writer a little praise when you can!

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

1 year

Yay! The Zara jump suit is having its first day

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

Today I prepped, rehearsed and then had long conversation with senior figure about capital funding for our new theatre. I have never done anything like this is in my life and it’s a massive buzz to learn new skills, info, vocab. And I think I got us more money. Yay !

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

1 year

My Dad is 88 today ! We’re going for lunch ! He said to me recently : ‘looking back I realise a lad I did my National Service with was gay. I wish we’d had the words at the time so I could have been more supportive of him. He think he must have had a hard time’.

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

Hangover ? Moi ? Been celebrating with @HannahPrice . We will start at the @KingsHeadThtr in October planning our first season to kick off Easter 2022. We went to celebrate all the queer colours of the rainbow flag not only the stories of cis gendered white men. Come join us !

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

2 years

Our wedding is the first same sex marriage to be announced in the in-house magazine for the Austrian engineering company where my partner works. And there was a small bonus in his pay by way of congratulations!

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

4 months

Thinking that to build on my playwriting tweets of a couple of years ago, I could write a twice weekly ‘newsletter’ of playwriting exercises. I don’t want to charge folk for this. What’s the best platform for this, free to those signing up ? Ideas and advice welcome.

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

Tips for the note givers. 3: when you’re discussing the draft of a play with the writer ask them to identify the concrete thing that got them started with the play: an image, a memory, a gesture, a sound. This is often the real ‘trigger’ for the play which may get lost on the way

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

Playwriting note 18: what is dramatic action? What the characters on stage do to resist change, negotiate with change, initiate change, change the other characters, change the situation they’re in. In a theatre play the characters primarily do this through active use of words.

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 months

Thrilled to report that I’ve now got 2,000 subscribers for my free twice weekly 101 Exercises for Playwrights. It’s such a pleasure to do it - taking stock of all I’ve learned and figuring out how to pass it on is such a buzz. Thanks to all who’ve joined me.

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

2 months

It’s HIV Long Term Survivors Day, apparently. That’s me ! Diagnosed in 1991, progressed to full blown AIDS then the new meds arrived just in time. People: Get tested. If you’re poz, meds now mean you’ll live a normal life span and you won’t transmit to sexual partners.

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

In 2005 I wrote the Barbican Dick Whittington. Today I begin my 10 tips for making panto: 1. The Dame is the lead part and carries the show. Set aside a good percent of your costume spend and your gag writing for Dame. Dame should have a new costume for each entrance.

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

5 months

I first met Sarah Kane in 1996 when I invited her to be writer in residence at Paines Plough. She was incredibly generous with other writers and a great director. Her plays of course are unparalleled. And look at that cigarette ! We filled Paines Plough with a steady fug.

Nastazja Domaradzka🤜🏻 🇺🇦🇵🇸

@NastazjaDom

5 months

‘Theatre has no memory,which makes it the most existential of arts. It’s why I keep coming back, in the hope that someone in a dark room will show me an image that burns itself into my mind, leaving a mark more permanent than the moment itself’Sarah Kane died 25 years ago today

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

Tomorrow I’ll start my #cherryo101 tweets - Daily notes on the playwriting craft of Chekhov’s Cherry Orchard. Grab any old copy of the play or look for it as online file and you’ll be good to go. Suitable for anyone interested in how plays are made.

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

Tips for the note givers. 2: start with the assumption that the writer is ahead of you. Many will be very clear sighted about what their play needs. Start with something like : l loved reading your play. Where do you feel it is now and what work do you want to do on it next ?

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

Playwriting note 17; don’t try to anticipate/manipulate the audience’s emotional response. They will tend to respond with ersatz performed emotions. Just commit to writing the dramatic action of the play and trust that engaging with that dramatic action will elicit real emotions

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

4 months

Friends ! I’ve set up my two times a week FREE newsletter of 101 Playwriting Exercises (more words than my 101 Playwriting Tweets). Once I’ve got a few hundred subscribers I’ll start sending ‘em. Please share so I can start sending soon. Many thanks.

One hundred and one exercises for playwrights

Exercises to get you starting writing a play, keep you writing a play, redrafting a play, starting the next play. For beginners through to old timers. A practical exercise in every newsletter.

buttondown.email

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

Playwriting note29:a play is above all about a space. Who will be motivated to enter that space ? How at ease will they feel there? Who will claim ownership of it? How will their relationship to it change ? How will they transform it? When will they be ready to to leave it?

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

Playwriting notes #9 : when writing your play learn to recognise the voices popping up in your head of those you want to impress, appease, defy. Thank them for their interest and then let them go. A play has its own integrity and you can’t let it be distorted by them.

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

Playwriting note #12 : there’s something cruel about constructing a play, putting characters in situations that are everything from awkward to very painful. Don’t shy from this cruelty but use it responsibly, explore all it’s ramifications and don’t use it cynically or for effect.

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

1 year

Keep going ! We’ve all been there !

Georgie Grier

@georgie_grier

1 year

There was one person in my audience today when I performed my one woman play, ‘Sunsets’ at #edfringe . It’s fine, isn’t it? It’s fine…? 🥹

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

Playwriting note 40: exercise: take a much produced play which you’ve never seen/read. Read to the mid point. Put away and you write the next thousand words.Don’t parody, block, argue, tread water with what’s gone before. Accept what’s there and build as improvisers learn to do.

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

#MarkRavenhill101 101:To finish,Toni Morrison ‘if there’s a book you want to read but it hasn’t been written yet, you have to write it’. Resonates -that’s how I started l-the sense that a play ought to exist,it would be easier if someone else wrote it but they haven’t so YOU MUST

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

2 years

Most over the top encouragement you’ve ever had? Working in an office to pay off student debt when I was 21, my supervisor told me I had to apply to be artistic director of the national theatre. She was so insistent, I pretended I had. She was outraged I didn’t get it. Yours ?

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Mark Ravenhill

@MarkRavenhill2

3 years

We’re solvent and ready to move forward !

King's Head Theatre

@KingsHeadThtr

3 years

We are thrilled to announce that we have been awarded a grant of £155,985 from the third round of the #CultureRecoveryFund . We would like to thank @DCMS and @ace_national for their generous support with this grant. #HereForCulture

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