GWC – Wednesday 22nd October – Danny McCahon
Playwright and Screenwriter Danny McCahon
This week, we had the pleasure of welcoming a long-time friend of Greenock Writers Club, the talented, award-winning Scottish screenwriter Danny McCahon. As a writer for some of the most well-known soaps in the country, such as Emmerdale, Doctors, Casualty, and London is Burning. Danny has had a tremendous career and holds a vast amount of knowledge on writing for television. However, this week, Danny talked to us about his most recent endeavour, writing his musical play ‘Rollers Forever’ about the Bay City Rollers!
Collaboration
In writing this play, Danny spoke to the group about the process of playwriting and shared some insights into how the collaborative proceedings unfold. He shared with us the sheer number of voices with a say in decisions and how it’s vital to be able to communicate your ideas clearly, whilst also holding room for negotiation and flexibility. He also shared a fascinating anecdote as to how much control investors can have over creative choices, such as wanting to change the names of one of the main characters of the play!
Writing Rollers Forever
McCahon spoke about his experience in writing a musical play about the famous singer Lulu and how that better equipped him to be able to write another play in a similar style. Danny shared insights into what makes plays and shows centring famous people interesting and how he wanted to hone in on that specific aspect for Rollers Forever; that being the fans! As a lifelong fan of Roxy Music, Danny has personal experience of being a fanboy himself, but he found the booming success of The Bay City Rollers and, as it was called at the time, “Rollermania”, particularly fascinating.
Writing For Your Audience
Danny spoke about his target market for this play and emphasised the importance of ensuring that the dialogue and jokes would be appealing to this particular audience. In this play, the target would be older ladies, who were around and remember the band at their peak, so jokes, humour and dialogue should all be reflective of this group and be kept in mind during the writing process. He shared that they actually have an appointed member of the team on the night of the showings, who will note when the audience laughs most, which jokes don’t land particularly well, or things that are responded to particularly positively. This helped gauge whether changes needed to be made or not.
Reviews
After the play had been released to the public, many reviews came in, varying in opinion. Danny spoke about reviews he’d gotten, ranging from five stars all the way to two. He said some said they felt like it was “The immortalisation of a culture”, whereas a negative few said they felt “It had little plot and poor dialogue”. McCahon highlighted the importance of taking these comments with a pinch of salt, as many writers can get so wrapped up in reviews and critiques of their work that they let themselves question their own creativity, which can completely hinder and stifle growth. So he reminded the group that whilst feedback can be helpful, not every negative point has to be taken on, and not everyone will always appreciate or understand what a piece of art is trying to say.
Overall, it was an extremely valuable, interesting session in which Danny was generous with his knowledge and expertise. Everyone at the club was delighted with the information shared and the new knowledge gained. Thank you very much, Danny!