Intellect

Authors:  Alexander Kelly 
DOI: 10.1386/jwcp.2.1.69

Keywords
Third Angel, devising, The Lad Lit Project, autobiography, biography

Abstract
Exploring the research, devising and writing processes of Third Angel's theatre piece The Lad Lit Project: a one-man show, devised and written by over 40 people. I asked men, ‘What would you call the chapters in the unwritten book of your life story?’ My friend Annie says, ‘What I like about it most is that I can see the ghosts of the other men on stage – the men who aren't in it.’ Recently I've been thinking about The Lad Lit Project as an act of ghostwriting. The Lad Lit Project isn't verbatim theatre. I retell other men's stories in my own words, to my own ends; casting the audience as the protagonist. They combine to create an (auto)biography made up of chapters from many men's lives; an overall narrative of life experiences that speaks to me. That speaks, I think, for me, somehow. I tell their stories, as your stories, in order to tell my own.