Humans of StoryFest - Eleanor Tindall

Ahead of StoryFest, our new writing festival featuring ten new plays starring bright new talent this July, we caught up with Eleanor Tindall, the writer of I Am Asking You To Touch Me, showing at the NYT Workshop Theatre in North London. Tickets Pay What You Decide.

Tell us about your play in one sentence?

A group of strangers meet every week to confront their common addiction.

Where did this play come from?

I’d been thinking a lot about responsibility, about what we owe each other, about how we are all facing an urgent crisis of community. How do we take care of each other in a world that’s become so focused on the individual? What happens when we feel we have nothing to give? I don’t have any answers, and that’s what always makes me want to write.

What does a typical writing day look like for you, if there is one?

One thing I try to not do is spend ages ‘Creating The Perfect Writing Environment’. Shon Faye once spoke about how you can expend lots of energy on this and not actually get much writing done – that some of her best work has been done in bed in her pjs, before she’s even had breakfast. I think this is very true in lots of ways and I definitely relate - however, I have over the years found things that work for me in terms of giving myself the best chance of getting what I want out of the day. For example - I’ve learned that I work best in the mornings, and I find exercise helpful for concentration, so I like to get up early and go for a swim. Then I’ll either go and write in a café, a library or my flat – it really depends on my mood, or if I’ve got other things I need to fit in like calls or meetings. (This is the best-case scenario – but mostly a typical writing day just looks like me reaching for a version of the above and getting as close to it as I can get.)

What draft are you currently on and why are opportunities to share scripts as they are developing publicly important?

I’ve just finished the rehearsal draft as I write this. Sharing scripts as they are developing is really scary and exciting – it’s an opportunity to present an idea or question when it’s at its most fertile, which often means slightly rough around the edges but absolutely alive. The benefits have already shown themselves through what I’ve learnt about myself as a writer, but I think as soon as actors get their hands on the script that’s when the importance of the process will become really clear. Actors are my favourite part of making theatre, and having them embody these characters so early on is a real gift to a developing script.

Why theatre, what can a live, in-the-room script do that other forms can't?

This is such an obvious answer, but there’s just something magic about everyone watching something at the same time. And the ephemerality of it all – how each show is different every night, how it can never be the same. Theatre is the only form that never stays still.