Virginia Betts is a tutor, writer poet and actor from Suffolk. An eternal optimist and mid-life-creative advocate, she’d like to point out that it’s never too late to live the dream. And with this month’s blog, some ink to inspire and ignite your creative fire.
Second novels, I have discovered, are as troublesome as that pesky second album that all musicians complain about – much more terrifying and difficult to complete. You’ve done something you liked with zero pressure. Suddenly, it’s everywhere and people like it. So, what do you do next? You’ve got a great idea, you start, but where is that magical flow you had before? Why are you being so self-critical? Why, for heaven’s sake can you not let your other characters go and find the voice of the new one to go with that great idea? And why-oh-why are you writing bits of chapters, but not one is finished? Well, I have found that the only answer is to leave it for a while, do something different, even other stories if you need to write things, and let the dust settle. You’re not going anywhere, so just hold on tight. Make the playlist (that’s my thing to find my groove), mull it over, do some planning and remember that it doesn’t have to be the same as the other one to be just as good. Now I’m back on a bit of a roll. This one might take longer, but I think I think being calm and not trying to force it is the key. In the meantime, I’m also up to some theatrical things in the first week of April, and a poetry show in May in Felixstowe, so I caught up with talented and popular local writer and director at Two Sisters Arts Centre, Suzanne Hawkes, about her next project, in which I play a part.
Tell us about your work as a local playwright, Suzanne:
I’ve always been a writer; I started before I went to school, and I have a little booklet of my poems from when I was 4. I started Black and White Productions in 2005. I’d been writing some one-act plays which did well at some amateur festivals, and in 2005 I got my first professional commission from the Ipswich Caribbean Association – an oral project about Windrush, and I was involved with interviewing the elders, who suggested that I created a play form the material. This went into the IP-Art Festival and did very well. I created Black and White primarily to do this play, but after that I did some more plays about racial diversity: Breaking the Chain, about abolition, and Refugee Café, about refugees coming into Ipswich, and worked with a refugee council on that, and then I went on from there. I have worked on many commissions on several local subjects, including Radar, The Cold War, George Crabbe, Dickens, George Orwell; I have worked with Suffolk Mind; with the Bartlett Conservation Trust; and on the subject of NHS later-life care. I received funding from the Thomas Wolsey 550 Project to tour my play about Thomas Wolsey, which was very successful. I particularly wanted to take local plays out into the community and also, I take them to site-specific venues – for example, I took the Wolsey play to Suffolk churches and I took my play about Patricia Highsmith and Ronald Blythe to areas relevant to them.
Tell me more about Two Sisters Arts Centre.
I opened Two Sisters in 2015, not thinking it would be a home for my company, but as it turned out, we then had a pandemic, so it became a base. I kept it going through the pandemic and out the other side and we are on our 6th year, having signed another 5-year lease. It has become a thriving arts centre with a diverse range of acts – music, spoken word, my plays, touring productions – many well-known acts have performed there. I also host workshops and festivals, and regular folk groups and other groups meet there. We also opened last year for the Heritage weekend.
What’s coming up?
We have a very exciting programme for March to July coming up – some new international jazz groups; Old School Theatre with A Doll’s House; hopefully another Shanty Festival; events for the Felixstowe Book Festival; a folk group from Norway; a singer from Ireland; Christina Johnston with classical music; James Domestic and you, Virginia Betts, poetry with an edge; and Black and White Productions are presenting Operation Radar – which you are part of – in the 90th anniversary year. (Click here to find out more about Bawdsey Home Chain Radar). We open on the 1st March with the Art Themen Trio, who launched their latest album at Ronnie Scott’s.
Thanks very much to Suzanne – if you haven’t discovered the Two Sisters Arts Centre yet, do look them up! Events and the programme can be found on Ticket Source or click on the links included here to book events.
Happy reading, writing and creating everyone – roll on Spring!
Love,
Virginia.
Virginia has written numerous articles and fiction, written for stage and radio, and published three books, The Camera Obscure, Tourist to the Sun and That Little Voice. Her fourth books is a Punk Novel, Burnt Lungs and Bitter Sweets, published by Urban Pigs Press.
Find Virginia at virginiabetts.com