Amanda Louise Lay

Having your ten-minute plays selected across three different continents - Australia, America, and India - is an incredible global milestone. What have you discovered about the universal elements of storytelling that allow a short piece to resonate across such diverse cultural audiences?

Stories need to be tweaked to make sense locally. Words are changed for it to make sense, holiday versus vacation from Australia to the States. For India I had to explain that we have magpies that attack people, and people are scared of them and go out of their way to avoid certain trees when it’s nesting season.

Writing a compelling ten-minute play requires immense narrative economy compared to a feature-length script. How has mastering the short-form format helped you structure and tighten the pacing of your longer projects, like your Austin Film Festival second-round feature?

There’s no faffing about with a ten-minute story, you have to launch into it and hope it makes sense. As for writing longer scripts I’m still learning and was very surprised I made the second round at Austin.

Since you only started writing plays and scripts a few years ago, what was the initial spark that pushed you into the world of dramatic writing, and how did you manage the learning curve so rapidly?

I took an acting class for theatre and there were about 6 middle-aged women in the room (me included) and it became really obvious that there was a shortage of monologues for our age range, we couldn’t all be Lady Bracknell. I decided to write my own. I performed it at a showcase and everyone loved it and that’s what started it. I submitted to ten-minute play festivals and was surprised to be chosen. Then I attempted scripts.

When your project was acknowledged by our panel at the Hollywood Indie Festival, what did that specific recognition mean for your creative momentum and confidence as a writer?

I’m always surprised when something I wrote makes it into the finals, and humbled to be chosen.

Now that you are stepping onto the other side of the table as a juror to read a small selection of short scripts, what specific qualities are you looking for in those opening pages? What makes a short script's hook truly stand out to you?

Something intriguing or funny that makes me want to keep reading but even if that is missing I would still keep reading because you never know what is over the next page.