Last year, I attended a performance of work-in-progress plays as part of Criterion New Writing, a programme which includes three on-stage afternoon showcases at the Criterion Theatre. I met with the programme’s founder, Greg Mosse, to find out more about this important initiative aimed at mid-career writers aiming to take their work into a West End space.
You can find more about Criterion New Writing on the theatre’s website and on Greg’s own website.
How did the Criterion New Writing programme begin?
Fifteen years ago, talking to my good friend Peter Clayton – who sadly has since died – we discussed how difficult it is for a playwright who has never had the experience to imagine writing for a West End theatre.
There’s the question of scale – the Criterion seats around 600 – and style. It’s an Italianate theatre with pink velvet seats, plaster mouldings and a proscenium arch. That’s very different from either studio spaces or more modern publicly funded theatres like the National or Chichester, which have more flexible auditoria. And the Criterion is underground, beneath Piccadilly Circus, so it has no fly tower.
In some ways, you have less freedom than in a black box space, and there’s also the financial reality: you have to write something that won’t break the bank but can attract substantial audiences over a significant run.
So, Peter and I spoke with the Managing Director of the Criterion Theatre Trust, Fiona Callaghan, and discussed how writers could begin imagining their work in a place like that. The obvious answer was: let them work in the space itself.
I wrote a one-page executive summary for a programme that would be delivered on stage at the Criterion — including story development, discussion about the structure of well-made plays, and what tends to succeed in the West End. Since then, my associate director Felix Mosse and I have taught fifteen years of Criterion New Writing, fully funded by The Criterion Theatre Trust, on the sets of a series of hit shows, including The 39 Steps, The Comedy About a Bank Robbery and, currently, Titanique.
What did you decide to focus on in the programme?
You can’t do everything – every kind of play. We decided to focus on traditional, well-made two-act dramas and musicals. If you look at shows that transfer from the National Theatre – for example, War Horse or The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – or from Chichester – Enron and Quiz – they all have that strong shape. (There are successful exceptions, of course, which work in different ways, like the intercut monologues of The Lehman Trilogy, for example.)
We advertised the first programme through Arts Council channels, looking for six playwrights. The format was six afternoons a fortnight apart over twelve weeks, on the Criterion stage, with professional West End actors reading the brand-new words. Fiona Callaghan was and is the key, helping us fulfil the educational mission of the Criterion Theatre Trust, slotting our work into the busy program of a thriving venue.
From that beginning fifteen years ago, we’ve now run the programme 29 more times, reaching our 180th playwright.
How did Felix Mosse become involved in the programme?
Fifteen years ago, Felix was in The Book of Mormon, playing nearby at the Prince of Wales. So, when I needed quick, energetic actors to read the new scripts, I asked Felix and some of his colleagues – Aisha Jawando, Sia Kiwa and Mark Anderson.
Over the years, whenever Felix wasn’t busy – he later starred in Rocky Horror, Aspects of Love, Les Misérables and many others – he would return to support the programme. Following the pandemic, fully engaged with his own parallel career as a script editor, he became central to Criterion New Writing.
Now, he attends all sessions and curates the readings and showcases, supervising drafts, redrafts and polishing, accompanying the writers editorially in a way I never could.
How do you measure the success of the programme?
These are mid-career playwrights, not beginners. I would never feel comfortable claiming someone’s play as “our success”. We celebrate constantly when writers go on to have work produced. Ideally, we’d love those shows to be in the West End. That hasn’t happened yet – not quite – though some have been staged in large spaces.
It’s worth adding that many have also gone on to write novels or move into television. The story development model we use lends itself well to screenwriting and to prose. It’s a philosophy guided by questions:
- What story do you want to tell?
- Who are these imaginary people?
- What could happen next?
- What could have happened earlier?
- What are the twists – who wins and who loses?
- How will it end?
Trying to help the writer fulfil the potential of their own idea, you might think of it metaphorically. We’re not architectural critics pulling apart the design of a completed building; we’re labourers, getting our hands dirty, mixing the cement and putting in the stairs and the toilets!
Another aspect of our success, all due to the generosity of the Criterion Theatre Trust, is the creation of an extraordinary and mutually supportive network, going beyond 180 writers into a massive team of experienced actors and directors.
Could you tell me about the different programme strands?
The main on-stage programme welcomes three groups of six playwrights each year. Graduates from that programme can take part in our separate, small-group story-development sessions, working on treatments and outlines rather than full scripts.
Felix’s curated showcases present long extracts of six selected shows each year, on-stage at the Criterion, free to an enthusiastic public. Felix’s full-script program helps writers – who have completed a two-act drama – to redraft and polish, working towards a public reading.
We also have a partnership program that has taken us outside of London, for example, to Bradford, Worthing, Halesworth, Portsmouth, Manchester and Plymouth.
It’s important to add that, while everything we do is fully funded by the Criterion Theatre Trust, we take no ownership or percentage. The work belongs entirely to the writer. Actors are paid reasonable fees.
Do you think the lack of venues between small fringe spaces and the West End is an issue?
It’s complicated. There seem to be more and more venues, but not necessarily more audience members. And theatre is always about maths. If you have 1,200 seats in a main house, 400 in a smaller one, and then another 150-seat studio, you’re asking a lot of your audience base.
It’s not right or wrong — it just requires entrepreneurship. Different spaces often attract different audiences. A Hampstead audience, perhaps, isn’t the same as a Soho audience. When the National or Chichester create temporary venues like The Shed and The Nest, I think it’s about putting different kinds of shows in the right-sized space.
How do you support writers beyond the room?
We bring in writing agents and producers to see work. We help build networks. Some writers already have agents; others don’t. We’ve introduced writers to BBC Writersroom and accompanied them to meetings. We’ve supported them in negotiating the industry. It’s about accompanying them on their journey beyond the initial development.
How do producers and commercialism fit into the theatre ecosystem?
Putting on a show in the West End requires serious investment. People invest hoping to get their money back, but also because they love theatre. What you do, Louise, writing about theatre, is valuable. What we do at CNW is valuable. We’re all contributing in different ways.
I was recently at the Women’s Prize for Playwriting. Ellie Keel, who set it up, has taken extraordinary risks as an independent producer. I talked to Katie Posner of Paines Plough, who is directing a show at The Park by a previous WPP winner.
We’re all feeding the same ecosystem, but it’s important to remember that Criterion New Writing is only possible because the Criterion runs successful commercial shows that generate income, allowing the Trust to fulfil its mission.
Theatre is special. It can never be done in isolation. We all play a part – producers, writers, investors, actors, critics, bloggers, front-of-house, tech crews … So many of us all striving for the next – well-deserved – round of applause.