This shot was taken at the top of my road, on my way to a meal with my classmates to celebrate our last ever lesson. It feels like the end of an era, I will finally be leaving university, and that is definitely an odd feeling.
I spent the weekend taking photos at a playwriting conference in Birmingham to celebrate the 20th year anniversary of the course, which was founded in the 1980s by David Edgar. My classmates and I saw to the running of the event, making tea, coffee and generally doing odd jobs. We also went to all the talks and listened to what everyone had to say. Unfortunately, there were disagreements amongst the academics, often quite heated ones, and several of them were rather rude to us before and after the speeches.
It is such a shame that they felt they could behave the way they did. Talking to my peers afterwards several of us felt belittled, degraded and overlooked by some of the ‘names’ there. One of my contemporaries even said that he doesn’t think he wants to carry on to PhD level anymore if he has to be surrounded by people like that all the time.
These people, who have all been in the position we are currently in, were invited back as part of a celebration. They were invited back to commemorate the course and playwriting in general. But most of them spent their time talking and arguing amongst themselves. I’m not sure what I expected to get out of the weekend. The chance to talk to some people with experience in working in the field of playwriting and who have been where I’ve been I suppose, but I didn’t get that chance. Instead I spent the weekend being bossed about and being made demands of by people who felt they had the right to do so simply because they were older and had had a piece of work accepted by the industry.
That said, there were one or two writers who were impeccably behaved, who were genuinely interested in what I had to say and what I was doing. They made me feel comfortable and talked to me about their time on the course or their experiences in playwriting; perhaps I just got unlucky by only meeting one or two of these better behaved playwrights.
It was such a disgrace that we were treated the way we were, especially as we are approaching the end of our course. These people had the chance to inspire us, to show us what to expect as we embark on our own careers, as we are the next generation of playwrights and whether they like it or not, it will be our work that will be gracing the stage in years to come. It’s just a shame they didn’t take it.
This photo for me marks the end of a journey. Not only is it a shot of the end of my road, in a city I will soon be leaving. It is of the end of the day; the sunset, and was taken on the last day of my course. I love sunsets, and more often than not I am without a camera when I really want to capture one. Luckily on this day, I had my ST550 with me; it is so handy to just keep in my handbag as it is so small. I turned off the flash and set it on smart mode to make sure I could keep as much of the colours in as possible. The smart mode is great for quick shots, it requires less faffing about, and it meant I could get my shot and not be late to say goodbye to my friends.
