I was born and raised in Gibraltar, a British Overseas Territory of about 32,000 people, perched on the southern edge of the Iberian Peninsula.
On a clear day, we can see the North African coast, with Morocco only a short hop across the water, and our famous Rock diligently watches over the entrance to the Mediterranean. I have a British passport, I can speak Spanish, my surname is Italian, and my wife is Maltese, so I feel very much a mix of European unity. I spent my summers at the beach, I am a voracious consumer of fresh fish, and I have always enjoyed having a close-knit family to hand. In all honesty, there are worse places in which to grow up.
Despite this, however, I was pleased to get the chance to study abroad at the age of 18 and see some of the world beyond these two square miles. In total, I spent ten years in the UK – five as a student, five working – but, eventually, the call home got too loud to ignore. I managed to get a job as Head of Drama at my old secondary school, working in the very studio where my drama adventure had first started. I set up two drama groups – one for adults, one for students – and decided to make a point of staging productions as regularly as possible, often juggling a number of projects, with barely a break between them.
Is it possible to be ‘emerging’ at forty?
We are very lucky in Gibraltar in that culture enjoys significant investment. Yes, the funding still pales in comparison to that of sport (doesn’t it always?), but our Government has always valued the role of culture and invests accordingly. Our amateur drama festival offers a first prize of £1,000, and all participating groups receive a generous share of the proceeds from ticket sales. On a number of occasions, I have taken my students to perform in the United Kingdom, heavily subsidised by our cultural body. This level of government funding is rare in theatre and is certainly not taken for granted. Additionally, the people responsible for administering this activity are also passionate and committed to local culture and work hard to provide opportunities for all Gibraltarians but especially young people. The support I have been fortunate enough to receive from Gibraltar’s cultural mandarins since becoming Gibraltar’s first-ever internationally published playwright – including from the Minister himself – has been tremendous.
But playwriting can be a lonely activity in Gibraltar. There is only a small handful of us. At first, I wrote plays for my students to perform, but, as I started getting more plays published in the United States, I began focusing my ambitions further afield. In this small circle – and with no real veteran hand to which to turn – it was difficult for me to get the honest and constructive feedback one needs at that stage in order to make progress with one’s work. Our audiences are mostly made up of family, friends and students. The feedback from supporters can therefore be biased; detractors can be equally as unhelpful, their criticism often coming more from a place of spite than from anywhere else. And, sadly, the more one achieves away from Gibraltar, the less support one tends to get from local peers. I was starting to feel stunted as a writer, needing to hear different voices that would help me grow.
My advice to any writer in such a situation is to use social media – particularly Twitter – to your own advantage.
So the opportunity to form part of Mrs C’s Writers’ Collective came at precisely the right time for me. Through the feedback and guidance from Charlotte, Francis and Jennie, I was able to get honest and objective commentary that made me think about my writing in a different way. As a forty-year-old (is it possible to be ‘emerging’ at forty?) who had spent many years running his drama groups according to his way, it was refreshing to get this kind of confident feedback from younger people. Yes, the COVID pandemic meant that the programme did not run as originally intended, but the quality of dramaturgical support did not suffer. The team embraced the opportunities offered by online platforms and made sure that the programme met its aims. Mrs C never allowed the fact that I was based overseas affect my access to the programme (something that other companies should take note of) and I looked forward to my meetings with them as an opportunity to learn. Of course, there were many moments of doubt, of feeling overwhelmed, of crises of confidence, but their support always led to positivity. The experience made me a better writer, but it also made me aware of what one has to do in order to become better at writing, a self-awareness that makes a huge difference.
Another important factor – and one that takes getting used to – is to not be shy to promote yourself.
Apart from the dramaturgical support, belonging to the programme also gave me a chance to meet people and develop contacts from within the industry. This was very important for me, being based so far from a professional theatre scene (an English-speaking one, at least). I have since realised that the opportunity to form these types of contacts is imperative for any “emerging” writer who may feel disconnected from the industry because of location, age or circumstances, situations that have only been aggravated by the COVID pandemic and its various lockdowns. My advice to any writer in such a situation is to use social media – particularly Twitter – to your own advantage. Follow groups like Mrs C, but also the Space, Up ‘Ere Productions, Yellow Coat Theatre Company, The UnDisposables, and many others. These are all groups that promote new writing. Yes, you need to find them, but that is not too difficult when you start becoming more aware of their work. In this, the Space is an invaluable resource. I try to attend as many of their online functions (which are often free) as possible and make it a point of finding every featured group and individual and follow them on Twitter. Many, in turn, follow you back. And, suddenly, you find yourself as part of a community of people who start recognising your name, people who openly support each other and root for each other’s achievements. Even their small gestures – a Like, a re-tweet, a kind comment – go a long way to making one feel that they are doing the right thing with their time, and you start to notice that there are many in the same boat as you.
Another important factor – and one that takes getting used to – is to not be shy to promote yourself. This can seem cringe-worthy and can make you feel like you are thought of as a braggart, but the honest truth is that no one else is going to do it for you. Put yourself out there: retweet people’s coverage of your work, create a Facebook page and make sure that all your contacts know what you are up to. Yes, people may end up talking about how annoying your posts are, but, at least, they are talking about your work. Another advantage in working in a small place like Gibraltar is that one’s achievements get a significant amount of press coverage, which impresses theatre companies elsewhere (they get international press!), so get a local paper or blog to cover your work and make sure those you want to work with are aware of it. And, as with everything, make the absolute most of every opportunity that comes your way. As is the case with many things in theatre, the process is often more rewarding than the product, and a self-awareness of the skills you are developing becomes an indispensable tool.
I started taking play-writing seriously in my thirties. I am now forty, married, with two kids, and a busy, full-time job. My joints ache and I fall asleep on the sofa thirty minutes into a film, to say nothing of the fact that I am in a small place with no professional theatre industry. All of the signs point away from building a successful journey in play-writing. But I am giving this a try and will keep doing so until I can write no more. And I am loving every second of it.
Blog post by Julian Felice.
Represented by North Artist Management.
Twitter @JulianFelice