Makalla McPherson, who graduated from MA Screenwriting in 2016, will debut her first play, When the Lights Go Out, at London’s Ovalhouse theatre in March this year. Makalla, who is originally from London but now lives in Kent with her two children, wrote and directed the play after several years as a self-taught director who started out making music videos and progressed to short films and TV drama. Having originally enrolled on the MA Filmmaking program, she transferred to Screenwriting after being ‘blown away’ by one of previous Head of Screenwriting Brian Dunnigan’s lectures. She talked to us about the play’s themes, making the move from screenwriting to theatre, finding the confidence to write and what she learnt from her time at LFS.

Sophie McVeigh: What’s been happening for you since you graduated?

Makalla McPherson: Well, I’ve just done a four-month job for the BBC directing a children’s drama called Apple Tree House which will be txing this summer. Then, I got this commission for my play, so I’ve just been working on redrafting the script because we’re going into rehearsals mid-February.

S.M: Who was the play commissioned by and how did you go about getting the commission?

M.M: The Arts Council and the Ovalhouse theatre. I approached Ovalhouse initially about the play. They read it and got back to me and said they were interested and would support me getting funding through the Arts Council. They also provide a lot of in-kind support so it was an amalgamation of both the Arts Council and Ovalhouse.

 S.M: How did you approach writing a play rather than a screenplay?

 M.M: Ultimately, I just believe you’re creating characters and I think the principals are all the same when it comes to story and characters. The format’s different because you’re talking about stage versus screen. I read some plays and I read a lot about plays, and then I just decided to write my own. 

S.M: What is When the Lights Go Out about?

M.M.: It’s about a father and son – a son who wants to live his own independent life, a son that’s done everything right. He’s been to school, college and university, got all good grades, ticked all the boxes, but yet struggles to find work and find his place and identity in society. It’s exploring connection and communication. The son is just your typical person trying to move out of the parent’s house and find his feet. Then you’ve got the father, who has immigrated from the Caribbean and now wants to go back, but he’s brought up his son on his own and is worried about leaving him here in London. So, it’s a play about two men that live together and have grown up together, but yet they can’t connect, they can’t talk. Their perceptions of the world are different. And through Nathan, the son’s struggle to find his identity, he ends up having a breakdown. I was very much interested in exploring mental health within black men. That was one of the triggers for me with writing this play and the main theme that goes across it. I know quite a few men who have suffered and I wanted to know why. From my research, a lot of mental health problems in the black community, especially with men, is because they feel oppressed in a white man’s society. Whether that’s schooling, policing, education, work, housing … It could be a number of things. I wanted to explore that, but also it looks at generational differences, because the dad is almost 60 and the son’s 28. They come from completely different mindsets and have different generational perceptions of life. There’s also a bit of poetry, which was the way that I interpreted the son’s psychosis. It’s a play about people, ultimately, which hopefully covers a little bit of humour, sorrow and reality.

S.M: What did you gain from your time at LFS that helped you?

M.M: The confidence to write, because that’s something I was lacking massively. I’ve got dyslexia and I always liked writing, but it’s never something I’ve had the confidence to do. I thought, “That’s not me, I’m no Stephen King, I’ll leave that to the professionals.” But I do like creating stories as a director, and I have loads of stories going on in my head, so I think what that course did for me is to make me believe that I could do it and give it a go. I mean, I’m 11 drafts into this script and I started writing it as soon as I finished the course, so it’s been more than a year. And I think just learning how to create stories and characters. Even just the basics – the three-act structure, that sort of thing. And knowing that your first draft is not supposed to be a masterpiece. Before, I never would have got to 11 drafts. I probably would have just started the first few pages and given up. So, I think just knowing that masterpieces don’t come from one draft, that they are work. Even the best of writers rewrite, and like they say, writing is rewriting. It was Brian’s course at LFS that gave me the confidence to go out and write, and I’ve managed to get it commissioned. So, even if I never write again. I’ll thank LFS for that!

 

“The course at LFS gave me the confidence to go out and write and to get commissioned”

S.M: What’s coming up next for you?

 M.M: In an ideal world we want to take the play to other theatre houses – bigger ones, as well. Only time will tell as to whether that’s going to be possible, but it’s nice to know, when you’re stuck in a room scrutinising your work that you’ve actually had the opportunity to have people come out and see it. I’ve got another play in my head, and a short film, so we’ll see whether those materialise! I’ve often pondered whether I’ll go back to my feature script that I wrote at LFS. Also, obviously, I direct, so finding my next directing job. I’ve got some meetings in the New Year. So, watch this space.

 S.M: When is the play released?

 M.M: March 1st, 2nd and 3rd at Ovalhouse theatre. Come down and check it out! The best £5 you’ll ever spend.