Pull Back the Curtain: Michelle Chan's Charlie

Pull Back the Curtain performances begin tomorrow! Before we move into the theatre, we speak to one of the featured playwrights, Michelle Chan.

Michelle, what inspired you to write your piece?
The original first draft of this play is very different to what it is now, even the characters’ names are different! Originally, the plot started off as a joke, where a friend and I were just coming up with the most ridiculous plot twists we could think of. As I started to focus on one particular climax, I started to take ideas from my favorite dramatic TV shows, such as 'How to Get Away with Murder', 'Grey’s Anatomy' and ‘Scandal'.

What are the key messages you are trying to get across? 
The reoccurring aspect in this play, is the longing that Lily has for her son. Despite being denied, she never gives us hope to be with her son again. And at the end, we see that Charlie too has never given up on Lily either. I think this really shows the irreplaceable connection of love and sacrifice between mothers and their children, and I hope through this play others are able to recognize that in their own mothers/children.

What were the biggest challenges of writing this play?
The biggest challenge was creating complete character profiles for my characters, as they weren’t based off of anyone in real life nor fiction. Many times I would go back to certain parts and ask myself: “What he really say that?” and “How would she really react if that happened?” But you have to remember that you can never know TOO much about your characters!

How was it being part of this programme?
This was the first time I’ve ever participated in a play writing course, and this is actually the first play I’ve ever written! Thus, the greatest thing about this programme is that I was exposed to a whole new aspect of the theatre world that I hadn’t touched upon before at school. With my school’s drama studies and extracurricular activities, I have explored theatre as an actor, director, and choreographer, but this was the first time to explore it from a writer’s point of view. The greatest thing I learned from Clare (my mentor), is that you just have to just go for it. You need to push aside your fears and just continuously write for a good five minutes to get all your ideas out. Don’t cross anything out. Don’t hesitate. Just go! After that, then you can cut out all the bad bits and move things around and add in cool lines. But if you hadn’t been able to just throw it all out on the page, you would have anything to work with at all!