Unlike many creative types, the playwright Duncan Macmillan does not claim to have been born with an irrepressible talent. He didn’t write his first play aged 8 to entertain his parents one Christmas. It wasn’t until he won second prize in a playwriting competition that he could afford to call himself a full-time playwright.

In fact, writing is Macmillan’s second choice of career after his drive to become an actor faded. When he enrolled at the University of Reading to study drama, film and theatre, he did not intend to stick it out. “I went to university thinking that I would reapply to drama school in the first term, but I really loved the course. I loved reading these plays and deconstructing them and learning about the context of when they were written. I found that really, really inspiring.”

Still, it did not occur to him to pursue playwriting until a friend suggested that he ditch Plan A for good and try working behind the scenes. More learning followed as Macmillan completed a masters in advanced theatre practice at the Central School of Speech and Drama, at the University of London, and an MPhil in playwriting at the University of Birmingham. It was just as well, he says. “The first things I wrote – as is true for most people, I think – were awful. Pretentious and unfocused ... about theatre and what I thought might be interesting on stage, rather than about the world and things that I was passionate about.”

Monster – his first full-length play and which won second prize in the Bruntwood Playwriting Competition in 2006 – was certainly written from the heart. Based on his parents’ experience of teaching, it was performed in the studio at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester to rows of teachers and their students. After years of study, writers’ workshops and experimenting at theatres, including Theatre 503, The Old Vic and the Royal Court, he got the vote of confidence that he needed – and £10,000 – from the Bruntwood prize. “I’m pretty low maintenance,” he says. “It has allowed me a year and a half of working and writing and working out who I am.”

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It didn’t matter that he missed out on the top prize; the competition opened doors. “It raised my profile and got me meetings at various theatres. People suddenly knew who I was and were interested in reading my work, particularly in TV, radio and film.”

The prize had a domino effect, he says. He has just won a Pearson bursary and is now writer in residence at Paines Plough, a theatre in Central London. When we spoke, he had just heard the final edit of his first play for Radio 4, I Wish to Apologise, starring Bill Nighy.

Macmillan’s prospects are clearly bright – as are those for aspiring playwrights, he says. “There are so many different organisations and theatre companies out there who are hungry for new work and to support new voices.”

www.writeaplay.co.uk

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