I’ve been working on adapting the Agatha Christie Murder of Roger Ackroyd for a while now. Honestly, the reason it’s “a while” and not “finished” is that I appreciate it as a technical exercise, but now that I’m in a world where I don’t have to produce something, I get/have/am forced to be a little more discerning and ask, “What do I want to spend my time on?” So, I’m enjoying spending my time figuring out why I should care who killed Roger Ackroyd.
This is a new experience for me. When I was running theatres, the need was to get the next show up, because that was what paid salaries (at its worst framing) and brought interesting work to the public (at its best) for 48 weeks a year. Now, since my salary is being made elsewhere, I’m faced with the requirement of making something interesting for myself. This is great. Its freedom. It’s a little too free.
I need a deadline, arbitrary though it may be, to work towards. I’m sure that’s why I gravitated towards theatre and not, let’s say, novel writing: a group project that has a definitive deadline. I find that helpful, and really makes creation easier. Working alone in the creation room is daunting and lonely and heady. It’s also exciting and full of depth and self-reflective. I’m nicer after being alone. I work harder on being kinder. I want to engage with people more.
That’s a better place to be.