What is a scratch night?
A scratch night is an opportunity for theatremakers (writers, directors, actors, etc.) to test short excerpts of works-in-progress (usually about 15-20 minutes) in front of a small audience. Audience members sometimes give feedback to the creatives after the showcase. It’s generally a relaxed environment in which to hear your words out loud – and for actors and directors, a low commitment opportunity to practice your craft – and get ideas for next steps with your piece.
Tips for making use of scratch nights
Writers:
- Have an idea of what you’d like to get out of the showcase. What questions do you have about your piece? What are some areas that you’d like to develop further? It may be helpful to share this with the director and actors you’re working with, and see what insight they might be able to give. You could also share a list of questions with the audience so you get more focused feedback from them.
- Manage your expectations. Scratch nights are usually small scale, low commitment productions with minimal tech and prop/set capabilities. Use them as opportunities to work on the text, not necessarily all the other elements of staging (those can come later!)
- Sit in on rehearsals if possible but keep notes to the end! Observing rehearsals can be a useful way to diagnose areas for development in your work or things that are working well because directors and actors generally work by breaking your writing down and analysing it. Watch for places where they stumble or have questions, and listen for how they’ve interpreted characters or particular passages. These can all give you hints as to how the piece is being received by an audience (remember that directors and actors can be your first audience, or second if you count yourself).
- Note: It is perfectly understandable to be anxious about entrusting your work to a set of creatives outside of yourself but it may not always be the most productive for you to be giving notes and input throughout the rehearsal process. Come to an agreement with the director beforehand on how you’d like to manage the relationship between you two. I find it generally more helpful to keep writer notes to the end of a rehearsal, especially because of the short timeline scratch nights operate on. Sometimes directors are just trying to get the work up on its feet first! Trust that directors and actors are there to support your writing and always have its best interests at heart.
Directors and Actors:
- Do no harm! As directors and actors, we are here to support a piece of new writing in its development journey.
- Listen: for what a writer needs, what the text needs (what sounds odd when spoken aloud, are there unanswered questions?), what your creative team needs to tell the story
- If in doubt, ask the writer. It is helpful to have them in the rehearsal room if possible but make sure you (the director and writer) come up with a mutual agreement on how you’d like to negotiate your relationship in the rehearsal room (e.g. notes throughout or after, notes privately to the director or to the company?)
Steps for further development:
As a writer, the time after you’ve done a scratch night can sometimes be overwhelming. It might be helpful to begin with sorting all your notes and the feedback you’ve gotten into things you find useful and things that aren’t so. You know your work the best so don’t feel pressured to work on every piece of feedback that you receive. Once sorted, you should have a list of areas for development and a list of things that are working. Now you’re ready to start the redrafting process. London Playwrights has an online redrafting toolkit course available on our website. Find it here!
Scratch nights can be extremely useful and fun development opportunities for your work and a great way to meet potential future collaborators. Below is a non-exhaustive list of scratch nights happening around or in London. London Playwrights also occasionally posts call-outs for scripts and creatives to participate in scratch nights on our Opportunities page, here!
Scratch nights accepting work on a rolling basis:
- The Sunday Fix (Barons Court Theatre) https://www.baronscourttheatre.com/the-sunday-fix
- Theatre in the Pound (The Cockpit) https://www.thecockpit.org.uk/article/theatre_in_the_pound
- Freelance Royalty Scratch Nights (Theatre Royal Stratford East) https://www.stratfordeast.com/royalty-scheme/freelance-royalty/freelance-royalty-scratch-nights
- A Pleasance Scratch + Pleasance Comedy Scratch (The Pleasance) https://www.pleasance.co.uk/pleasance-scratch
- Camden People’s Theatre
- Note: CPT does not have one particular regular scratch night opportunity but they occasionally release callouts for opportunities that culminate in showcases of works-in-progress
- Hatch & Scratch (Pathway Theatre) https://pathwaytheatre.co.uk/hatch-scratch
- As Yet Unscene (Counterminers and King’s Head Theatre) https://kingsheadtheatre.com/pQ6rbCL/community/as-yet-unscene
Thanks for reading and happy writing!