Drama Department

12 students participated in the 2022-23 New Views National Playwriting competition run by London’s National Theatre: many congratulations go to Grace, Millie, Adam, Nevaeh, Hannah, Alex, Charlotte, Erin, Eve, Jodie, Tommy and Zoe. Students undertook an eight-month drafting process rooted in weekly extracurricular lessons and workshops run by Head of Drama, Ali Boucher; they were then mentored by Jasmin Mandi-Ghomi, a Yorkshire-based professional playwright, who visited the school twice for teaching and feedback. All students submitted 3000-5000 word plays for consideration by a panel in the National Theatre. Four students – Alex, Eve, Jodie and Millie – had their plays performed by students in Ackworth’s Interhouse Drama Competition 2023. Grace was successfully longlisted, and finally awarded Highly Commended for her play, ‘Parmesan’. Only 43 of the 468 submissions were selected as Highly Commended: the New Views team felt that her piece of work ‘showed something unique and deserves to be acknowledged’. Congratulations, Grace!

I read plays, a lot of them. I read the classics, the contemporaries, the macabre, the brutalist, the feminist, the obscure… the list goes on. I am utterly fascinated with theatre. It reaches me. But when I’ve read these plays, never has it crossed my mind that I could write one. What would I even write about? Time and time again it has been proven that theatre is not all stories of monarchies and tragic heroes: and personally, I’ve never really been in a situation where I need to kill the leader of my country to avenge my dad. But maybe that’s just me.

It turns out it’s quite hard to write a play. I kept thinking that it was a crazy idea to even be trying: who am I to write a play? It’s like playing God – you can create absolutely anything out of anything and some human has to try and make it happen. But New Views has honestly taught me that it’s ok, it’s even fun to play that part. It is incredibly refreshing to just create. Even the silliest little thoughts can be turned into something beautiful. So, for New Views, I wrote a play about cheese. Parmesan, to be specific. I think a lot of people (who tolerate lactose) have experienced Parmesan in some shape or form, so I hope it’s not too much of a foreign concept.

I learnt a lot about myself, and Parmesan, in the process, and what it means to turn something mundane into art – what it means to fill a blank page with life. I think the whole point is to try everything at least once. I never thought I could write a play. Parmesan probably never thought it could inspire a piece of theatre, either.

For me, writing ‘Parmesan’ was just about the joy of freedom, to say what you want to say without thinking twice. It’s about the gift of human consciousness and experience, and realising that there is art in everyone and everything. Existence is art, whatever ‘art’ or ‘existence’ means, “and here is Parmesan, whatever Parmesan is. It is always something.” Grace