29-year old Vinay Patel studied for an MA in Writing for Stage and Broadcast Media at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. His dissertation play Ayodhya, produced under the mentorship of Ola Animashawun, an Associate at the Royal Court, received the highest mark awarded to a dissertation script on the course and he graduated top of his class, with a distinction, in late 2011.
Since then, he has won competitions run by Ideastap, the BBC, the National Youth Theatre, Shine Drama and the Brockley Jack Studio Theatre.
His debut full-length play, True Brits - written as part of his attachment to High Tide Festival Theatre and published by Methuen Drama - premiered at Assembly Hall, Edinburgh Fringe 2014. It went on to be part of the Bush Theatre's new writing season, Radar and ended with a three-week run at the Vault Festival in February 2015. The follow up, Free Fall, opened at the Pleasance Islington in October 2014 and was nominated for three Off West End awards.
He is currently developing projects for the BBC and Channel 4 as well as an historical political thriller,Sons of India, about the relationship between Mahatma Gandhi and Subhas Chandra Bose and is also under commission to the Bush Theatre and Theatre503.
Vinay has an interesting explanation about the point at which he decided to pursue his chosen career.
“When I realised that if I became a doctor, I would end up killing lots of people. More precisely, when my tutor on my writing Masters told me to give it a go or I was giving up on myself. I pursued it by throwing myself into it completely for the last few years, taking on every opportunity I could. I’m only really now coming back up for air.”
Vinay said that the biggest challenge he faced in the early years of his life concerned one of his parents.
“My mum died when I was quite young and though I didn’t feel that loss too strongly due to the care of my grandparents, it did create a bit of a cultural disconnect for me. (I still find it hard to write two parent families in my scripts.) I was also a very shy child and writing gave me a way to communicate with the world on my own terms.
So what was the biggest challenge of his career to date?
“Getting that initial traction is what most people struggle with. It can be hard to get your work seen by the right people. Also, early on, it’s difficult to watch your friends in more conventional careers shoot ahead with their lives, settle down etc. You always ask yourself ‘is what I’m doing worth it?’ The self-doubt can be crippling but it does also help make you good.”
Asian families and their progeny often worry about the financial security of being in the arts. How soon did Vinay become financially viable in his career?
“Writing is tricky to make a living from. It’s only in the last year that writing alone has given me enough to live on. It’s not impossible at all, but it needs an understanding of the financial environment. For example, you’re unlikely to make a living as a writer for theatre alone unless you’re very lucky or already quite established so you need to do TV work as well or work part-time.”
For Vinay, financial viability is not likely to be a problem in coming years.
“My big historical piece is still in the research stages - it’s a play about the relationship between Subhas Chandra Bose and Gandhi and their competing visions of India, so there’s a lot to dig through there. My plays for Theatre503 and the Bush are early drafts that I will spend the next year developing and my BBC script is shooting next month so that’s pretty intense right now!”
Vinay was identified to the Asian Voice by Spread the Word, London’s writer development organisation. On Saturday 12 September it is holding an event for writers at Waterstones in Piccadilly.
Vinay said, “Their upcoming workshops look like a good opportunity for writers to meet up and feedback off each other which I think is the most useful thing you can have - people whose critical eye you can rely on and whose shoulders you can cry on.”
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“My BBC script is shooting next month so that’s pretty intense right now!” Playwright Vinay Patel.
