Looking for work

No dishwashing or building work or anything too manual for a while, which is something of a welcome break, but although Sarah has been amazing through all of my treatment, I feel somewhat guilty relying on her for everything, and money (as always) is pretty tight, so I do feel pressure to find some kind of work.  With this in mind I recently accepted an invitation to attend a seminar about domestic violence and violence to women by men.  I was asked there as a playwright to reflect on the day and perhaps sometime in the near future, write a play about the subject; an area I've already visited with some of my work.  There were some very moving testimonies from abused women who were brave enough to stand up and share their disturbing stories with everyone, and there were two speakers who really blew me away: Karyn McCluskey, the co-director of the violence reduction unit, Strathclyde police, and from the USA, Tony Porter an activist in the social justice arena.  Karyn McCluskey conducted a sort of forensic examination of a young man who had committed a random killing, taking into account his family background; even events that had taken place before his birth, including details that made it depressingly evident that sooner or later something like this was bound to happen, stressing the need for early involvement; in fact it seems clear that 0-3 years are most crucial, after this time unfortunately most of the damage has been done.  She also talked about the sexual exploitation of young girls by gangs; something I have researched myself for my play, The Girl In The Box which has just been performed by East 15 final year drama students... distressing stuff, but sadly very real for the unfortunate victims.  Tony Porter's seminar was equally inspiring, talking about 'breaking out of the man box', and boy did it hit home!  Talking directly to the men in the room, it soon became apparent that long held opinions about women are (however liberated you might think you are) ingrained, and deep-seated attitudes that seem quite acceptable are actually quite offensive and are holding women back.  I wondered later what kind of play I might write to address these particular issues, then I remembered I'd already written it - Phil&Jill&Jill&Phil, which was produced some years ago by the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry.  It was a real crowd pleaser and there was talk of it transferring to the West End, but it never happened, and a few years later it was unmercilessly plagiarised by other writers.  I made the mistake of actually challenging one writer who hadn't really tried that hard to disguise his poor effort.  Of course I can't prove it, but there does seem to be operating (within some quarters) a sort of unofficial black-list paying me back, and on more than one occasion when meeting various people in the industry, the action I took was raised.  I guess what galls me most is the fact that the play was written out of a genuine concern for the subject matter, but once someone nicks your idea you know its just a promotional vehicle for them to make money.  I actually gave up writing for quite a while after that episode, and even now it hurts.  The sad truth is that there are some unscrupulous people in this industry.  But I love writing and can't seem to stop; I'm always writing something.  At the moment I'm writing more poetry; concentrating on my blog - A History Of The World In 100 Poems.  There's no money of course, but it's just good to be creative and keep your hand in I reckon.