Keith Gow, Writer

Reading.
Last night, the Cold Readings Series (CRS) hosted a reading of my new full-length play, “A Modern Superwoman”. CRS usually focuses on film scripts and mostly reads extracts. This is only the second time they’ve read a full-length script; the first was the screenplay for “41”, which was released as a feature film last year.
“Superwoman” is in its fourth draft at the moment. I’ve been developing it for a while now, but most the script was written in the last twelve months. Some of the scenes that were read last night, were only written last week. After the third draft, I got some feedback that suggested the play was underwritten – that connections between the characters were vague and their relationships suffered because of that.
In this latest draft, I’ve tried to making everything a little more explicit – without spelling everything out. And at this stage, it’s been very helpful to just lay everything out clearly. I can always pare it back later. The reading was helpful to he…

There’s always something potent about a two-hander about people meeting. We can all empathise with the simple, often relatively benign moment, when we first meet someone. When we first introduce ourselves. When we first start a conversation just to see what happens. It’s a dramatic cliche that instead of having someone come through a door, have them come through a window. But how we meet peopple isn’t always dramatic, but in many ways there is always the potential for dramatic tension.
I’ve seen three plays this week about two people meeting and how their relationships develop over years, one night and several months. The Melbourne Theatre Company is currently staging “Constellations” by Nick Payne. Bridget Balodis’ production of John Patrick Shanley’s “Danny and the Deep Blue Sea” is on at Rancho Notorious, above 1000 Pound Bend. And RoundSquare’s first show is a production of “The Shape of Things” by Neil LaBute, at the No Vacancy Gallery at QV.
While only “Constellations” and “Dan…