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Welcome To Robs Playwriting Page.

Hey there, here I am again, thought I'd better come back and do a bit of updating just in case someone out there actually reads this crap. Not much new lately, wrote a couple of more plays over the past year or so but nothing worth adding on here. It took me a long time to accept that everything we write and apply our blood and guts to isn't necessarily any good. In fact I’ve written far more crap stuff than I have anything that I feel is worth producing. I don’t know if what I write is any good because I have never attended a writing class of any sot, besides school of cours, so I am actually flying by the seat of my pants when I write. I wrote a short book when I was eleven yrs old called In The Life Of Jonathan, which I gave to a teacher to read who thought it necessary to berate me in front of my class about my spelling and comprehension skills or lack of, even though it was not a school project. Consequently, I lost interest in writing then for a long time. I got back into it when I was in my mid thirties where I wrote a few children’s plays. Nowadays there’s not a day goes by when I don’t think about writing. I do it because I love it, it’s in me to tell stories and I like to do it through script writing. I will admit that even today I have problems with Grammar and spelling but I strongly believe that this should not be a reason to prevent anyone from doing what they love. This is a site dedicated to some of my plays but there are also links to sites that I hope will help other struggling playwrights. I'm fortunate to have had the opportunity to produce some of my plays here in Peterborough Ontario. If you are a new playwright, it's a good idea to try to get your plays produced by your local amateur theatre company. This is a great way of work shopping your plays. You may not get paid for your efforts but the most important thing is to get your work performed. Even today, it never fails to amaze me how, what seems to work on paper, fails miserably when you've get people working those lines. I once read good plays are written but great plays are rewritten. This is very true, never be afraid of tweaking your work. I tend to write comedies mostly because I enjoy a good laugh. I've written a couple of musicals, but comedy is my strength. So, I hope you take a few minutes to look through these pages and I hope you get something out of them. I've got extracts from some of my plays like LABOUR PAINS (Formerly called EXPECTING THE WORST) posted on here. It has been my most successful play so far. It was produced in 1997 in Peterborough Ontario Canada. Since then it has received a public reading at the Bakehouse Theatre in Adelaide Australia and as a result of that has now received full productions in Adelaide. What a great country Australia is, my dream is to go there and watch a performance of one of my plays. I had a very successful 3 week run of my new play FROZEN DREAMS about the homeless in Toronto Canada Christmas 2003. The audience reaction was incredible! We took it the Hamilton Fringe in June where it received the title "gem of the festival" If you would like to read the review from the media go to my Frozen Dreams page and take a gander. It was also produced by The Firehall Theatre in Niagara Falls in December 2008 and 2009. In the spring of 2001 I directed my first one act play BE KIND REWIND in the Peterborough one act festival where I was fortunate to receive first prize for most outstanding script. In the fall of 2005 we produced a new musical SLAINTE. I wrote the play and my friend Paul Crough wrote the music and songs. It's a story about of Irish families struggles when they arrive in New Brunswick at the time of the potato famine (1848). The story is funny, dramatic and heartbreaking. The music is brilliant and memorable. It was so successful we restaged it in June 2006 back at Showplace, where again we sold out for 3 more shows. I have now completed my new play AUTUMN LEAVES, a play which deals with the struggles of what we do with an elderly parent who can no longer look after themselves, a topical subject that most of us at one time will have to deal with. It opened at the PTG Feb 16th 2007 and represented Peterborough in the Ontario Drama League festival where it won the best adaptation of a Canadian play. My very good friend Laura Moffat has just produced AUTUMN LEAVES at The Firehouse Theatre this spring 2009. Last year I finished a play called HE AINT HEAVY and Paul and I are writing THE VILLAGE a new musical, which we're both very excited about. I have just completed my "edgiest" play yet It's called THE MOUSE HOUSE and is quite different to anything else I've ever done and a new musical screenplay called THE BOHEMIAN which is my interpretation of the Queen song Bohemian Rhapsody. It has many Queen songs in the movie so go to my links and take a look at it and let me know what you think. If you are interested in any of the plays for future consideration, please E-mail me at r_ains@hotmail.com Also, if you are a playwright and would like to chat then don't hesitate to drop me a line. I look forward to chatting to other aspiring playwrights. We can all learn from each other. Thanks for visiting.
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Rob's writing and links

Synopsis and excerpt from Labour Pains: A new comedy (formerly called expecting the Worst)
Synopsis and excerpt from Begin Again: A new musical.
Synopsis and excerpt from Frozen Dreams: A touching play about a group of homeless folk..
Synopsis and excerpt from Great Expectations: A new play adapted from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.
Synopsis and excerpt fromThe Window Watcher : My first sceenplay.
Synopsis and except from He Aint Heavy: A touching drama about brothers.
Synopsis and excerpt from Dirty Little Secrets: A very funny murder mystery.
Synopsis and excerpt from The Mouse House: A new edgy drama.
Synopsis and excerpt of SLAINTE The Musical: SLAINTE, my new musical.
Synopsis and exerpt of Autumn Leaves: A new play about the concerns for an elderly parent and where to put them when they can no longer look after themselves.
Be Kind Rewind: My first one act play.
Playwrights on the Web : an international database of playwrights & their websites
Quest For The Green Planet: My new screenplay of an animated film. (work in progress)
moonstuck Drama Bookstore: Great site if you're looking for scripts.
Charles Dickens: All his works and something about him
Nigeria Knocking: My first book, scaming the scammer. Tackling the nigerian scam (419)
The Courtyard: A resourse page for new writers, hosted by Erica Davis.
The Happy Prince: Another screenplay of the story of The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde.
synopsis and exerpt or The Bohemian: A new musical screenplay featuring the music from Queen.

Robert Ainsworth

r_ains@hotmail.com
Ontario
Canada