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On My Own – The Joys (and Challenges) of Writing a One Woman Show


I’ll be honest – I’ve never seen myself as a writer. Many actors start their careers wanting to branch out into directing, producing, writing; but that was never my idea. But sometimes, a story is just too good to miss. That’s how I felt about the story of Nellie Bly.


Nellie was a female journalist in a time where women didn’t have the vote, let alone careers. Yet this remarkable woman not only carved out a career in journalism, but uncovered some of the most hard-hitting stories of her generation. She got herself admitted as a patient to New York’s most infamous sanatorium, to uncover the abuse being suffered by the patients. She exposed a terrifying black market of buying and trading in infants, and spent six months in Mexico reporting on the lives of Mexicans, while protesting against the dictatorship of the time. She is often noted as being one of the pioneers of investigative journalism, especially for women, and left a wonderfully rich legacy behind.


How could I not write a play about her?


The play itself became a one woman show because of my drama school course. In 2021, we had to present a solo show as part of the degree, lasting at least half an hour. The rules were thus – I had to write the script, produce it and perform it. It had to be just me on stage, but I could use any other tools at my disposal – sound, lighting, props – although it all had to be sourced by me. The script part was simple – I had Nellie’s book to use as my base material and could just improvise conversations around that. The lighting and props would be easy enough – I didn’t need much more than a basic wash of lights, and I’m used to performing with minimal props and minimal budget. Sound was what I was worried about.


Bly’s book ‘Around the World in 72 Days’ is full to the brim of her conversations with people she met on her journey. With no-one else being allowed onstage, it presented a very distinct problem. Luckily, I have a long history working in voiceover, something my mentor for the show reminded me of. ‘You’re a voice actor.’ She said. ‘Just be everyone!’.


So I did. Every character that Nellie talks to in her memories is me. There’s a couple of cameos at the start when she’s not reminiscing (thanks Jack and James!), but the rest is me doing silly voices or different accents to separate the characters. I can honestly say this was my favourite part of the process. I’m never happier than when I’m in a voice booth!


However, this created another problem. The conversations themselves. If half of a conversation is recorded, they need to be timed perfectly with my live performance to make it feel like a conversation. How do you plan comic beats or serious moments when they revolve around timing something perfectly. It took a LOT of editing and a big chunk of the rehearsal process to be able to make this work, but it was one of the most rewarding feelings when I finally got it right.


When the show was given another run at the Little Liverpool Theatre Festival in 2022, we hit another problem. The show had been 35 minutes when I first performed it. Now, it needed to be at least 45 minutes… Back to the writing table! I’d had to miss so much of the journey in the book due to time constraints, so now I could let loose a little bit and cover more of the adventure. I went back into the booth and re-recorded parts of the script I wanted to change, as well as the new material. It was a dream to revisit it, and fix the things I thought hadn’t worked the first time.


And now, Nellie is sailing once again. I’m performing in my home town (a rarity for me!), at a wonderful historic venue, and I’m ridiculously excited. There’s so much that goes into bringing Nellie Bly to life, but it’s worth every minute. And after all, if Nellie has taught me anything over the last 3 years, it’s that you can do anything if you put your mind to it!



Don't forget to book your tickets to "Around the World in 72 Days: The story of Nellie Bly" Being performed at Norton Priory, 7:00pm, Friday 18th October 2024.



Sky with birds and Nellie text.

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