Introducing your host, Liam Gillies

I came to theatre pretty late in life. I was doing my masters degree in comedy (graduated with a distinction last year so, I was technically the funniest person in the country for a while there) when I saw the royal court Liverpool were running a yearlong course in writing for the stage. I had never given stage writing much thought. I was bottom sets in everything in school so we never did Shakespeare in English, but I thought I would apply with a radio play I won a runner up prize with a few years previous and, to my surprise, I was invited to take part on the course.

After the years I have spent writing and pitching scripts one of the most important lessons I have learnt is listen to people in the industry, they got there for a reason. The Royal Court course gave me a great opportunity to do this, I got to learn from someone with experience in theatre and television, I got to see lots of different plays, I was exposed to all sorts of weird and interesting classics I never knew existed and I became a better writer because of it. I had a pretty good 2023. I had an extract of my anti-Shakespeare play Fools staged to a sold-out

audience in Leeds, my long running podcast Edquiring Minds with Stephen Edwards was preformed live at the Blackpool Winter Gardens as part of their comedy Festival, I got a gig writing for the Daily Mash the UKs most popular online satire magazine. I even managed to round out the year with my first commissioned stage piece, a short Christmas play that ran through all of December on the Royal Courts studio space, but I wanted to keep that momentum going, and that is how I ended up here.

I am no one to offer advice, I have had a handful of tiny successes after years and years of graft, but if you do choose to listen to me, I will just echo one of the things I have been told over and over again, network network network. Liverpool has a large community of active writers and we all need to take better advantage of that. Go to writer’s groups, help out on other people’s projects, and most importantly, go see more live theatre.

I plan to become a real pain in the arse of the arts scene this year, you will see me at every play, reading, and random art exhibition talking to people, pitching ideas, and asking you to come on the Likeminded Productions podcast. If there is one thing I hold more dear than the creative process, it is the city of Liverpool. In 2024 I will be around and I will do what I can to help the scene flourish so if you happen to see me, come say hi and tell me what you’re working on, we might get a podcast episode out of it.