From TV Script to Stage Play

Back in 2024, I wrote Two Careful Owners as a half-hour television drama. It is one episode of an anthology series exploring love, loss, memory and hope. I was really pleased with the script, but like so many projects, it reached a point where it simply sat waiting for the remaining episodes to be written.

I'd never intended to turn it into a stage play. In fact, the idea only came after looking at the script with fresh eyes and wondering whether the story might actually work better on stage than it did on television.

It wasn't simply a case of changing the format. The script needed completely rethinking. Characters changed, scenes were rewritten, dialogue was tightened and, in some cases, entire sections disappeared altogether. It quickly became clear I wasn't adapting the script – I was rewriting it.

Over the last few months, Two Careful Owners has become a one-act psychological stage play set over the course of a single morning with just two principal characters. It has probably been one of the most enjoyable writing challenges I've taken on because every draft seemed to uncover something new about the story.

I'm pleased to say the finished play has now been submitted to the Summerseat New Writing Festival.

Whether anything comes of the competition or not, I'm really glad I decided to revisit the script. It proves that sometimes an idea simply hasn't found the right home yet.

Now... on to the next project