Writer Hannah Rodger Previews Edinburgh 2013

Happy Never After follows Jen and Neil, a young couple in love who move in together and start to discover what being a grown-up is really like. You could say that Happy Never After is a play about two people but in reality it has involved a lot more people than just the two you see on stage.

In 2011 I was selected to be part of the Old Vic New Voices TS Eliot US/UK Exchange to New York. For all the writers out there I had also applied in 2010 and didn't get selected so it goes to show that when you really want something perseverance does pay off. 50 talented young people, a mix of actors, writers, directors and producers came together to do a week of workshops and meetings culminating in a showcase of our work at the Vineyard Theatre, New York. For the showcase each producer picked a director and a writer who they thought would work well together and the writer and directors met up to choose their cast.

When I went to meet my director, Luke Sheppard, I was running a little late and on arrival Luke said 'Hi, I'm your director and we have about a minute to get to know each other before we pick our cast - can you tell me what kind of things you write?'.

Maybe it was the way he was friendly but direct, that he told me what he needed and when he needed it by or the fact that he seemed ready to take a huge leap of faith with me without even knowing my writing, but something told me my work would be in good hands. We picked our cast, wrote a short play, rehearsed and performed it in New York and my only complaint was that it was over too quickly as we had thoroughly enjoyed the process and all wanted to work together again.

When we came back from New York I had to go straight into hospital to have an operation which I have written about here. The combination of wanting to work with these insanely talented people again and wanting to make sense of what I was going through led to the birth of Happy Never After.

I began creating characters and writing scenes and we would meet up and read and discuss them, sometimes drawing out timelines of the story, sometimes improvising scenes (some of which found their way into the play). I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Luke, the actors and to the people who helped with research for giving up their time (for free) to help make this play as good as it could be and as truthful as it could be too.

The lovely people at Old Vic New Voices gave us a support award and mentor to help us stage a rehearsed reading of the play at Soho Theatre. There we found a wonderful producer, James Quaife, whose belief in and dedication to the piece has helped us to bring the play to a full production at the Pleasance Theatre. He's created a wonderful team including a scenic designer, lighting designer, sound designer, website designer, PR representative, associate producer and company manager.

So if you come to watch Happy Never After you will see a story about two people unfold in front of you. But when you give your applause at the end (which I hope you will) please spare some of it for all the wonderful and generous people who you don't see, who have helped bring my story to the stage. As a writer it's strange to think nothing you do could thank all the people who have given an endless supply of time, energy, feedback, support, imagination and creativity to your play, unless of course writing a blog about them counts. Of course all of this hard work and passion is useless without you guys, the audience, and I do hope you can come and be part of this journey too.

Happy Never After runs at the Pleasance Courtyard Below at 12:40 from this Thursday 1 August. You can follow us on Twitter here.

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