I REALLY HATE CO-CREATION!

Mortal Fools specialism is co-creation with children, young people and communities and a true co-creation process is equitable. In our setting, for example, that means the professional theatre artists are no more important than the children devising the new play with them.

Everyone’s ideas have equal value – everyone understands that the idea which ends up being central to the new play or film we’re devising could (and quite frankly, almost always does) come from the unencumbered brain of a 9-year-old who has just found their confidence with us.

There is, I confess, a small and petulant child in me who wants the genius idea to have been mine. I want to be the creatively brilliant one. I want people to look at me and think “Wow! She’s special! She’s so creative. I could never have done that!” My child ego wants that praise and admiration so so much (probably a legacy from childhood that this is definitely not the place to unpick!).

However, the more evolved adult ego part of me also knows well that solo is not how I work best and certainly not how the most effective creative processes work. Creativity with others – while necessitating the ego to shrink a little – ALWAYS results in the richest and most engaging creative outputs. 

"a true co-creation process is equitable"

"Creativity with others ALWAYS results in the richest and most engaging creative outputs"

Take the children’s novel I recently co-authored with the inspiring Danielle Burn, with illustrations from the super talented Lily May Kroese – Melva Mapletree and the Great Undoing – taking place in and around Scratchicle Town, a world originally conceived by Danielle back in 2017.

It all started with her sending me a handful of pages of her first play for children and asking for my honest feedback. I saw something in her ideas that was emotionally real, poignant and cleverly portrayed, fun and playful – and so, supported by the mentorship of me and others, Danielle wrote her first Melva Mapletree story, a play that Mortal Fools produced for Christmas that same year.
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With the contributions of many creatives, the stories of the eye-rolling, sweet-eating, feisty and worrit-ridden adolescent have gone through many iterations since then, with the illustrated novel being the latest.

Danielle and I started writing it with only a few scant ideas – we knew we wanted it to take place a year after the story in the original play – we knew we wanted it to tackle topics like puberty, big emotions – like grief and loss, and challenging subjects like self-harming behaviour – and so over many coffees in offices, cafes and libraries, we talked and waded our way through our ideas, forming the story a piece at a time – chaotically and mostly out of order.

I have a love / hate relationship with the creative process.

It’s naively exciting to begin with, there’s lots of energy and vigour for the project, but very soon, you enter the messy stage (most of it is messy!), where ideas are suggested / rejected / developed / finessed and finalised – and it’s confusing and arduous and complex and confronting and enlivening and both personally and professionally challenging.

"I have a love / hate relationship with the creative process."

"it’s confusing and arduous and complex and confronting and enlivening"

So why do any of us choose to do it?

We do it because it’s addictively satisfying – that point where things become clear and an idea sticks and everyone’s excited by it – it’s a rush!
​And a good creative project is usually full of them.

Danielle and I happened to be very complementary creative writers; Danielle is (quite astoundingly to me, who can get stuck staring at a blank page) unashamedly courageous in getting words to paper. She and I would chuck ideas around until she had enough to go away with and then she would write scenes, chapters, fantastical ideas, conversations and playful turns of phrase… and give them back to me.

And I am much better when there is actual content to work with – I can instinctively tell what has real potential, what is over-written or under-written and am accomplished in doing what is needed to give it full structure and impact.

The two of us are quite the creative powerhouse!

And then when we added in Lily’s illustrative genius – wow! Not only were Danielle’s and my ideas given life through her visuals, but Lily contributed ideas that directly influenced, changed and improved the story. 

With the proof-reading by our Producer, Zoe Anderson, and the suggestions from our test readers, it is now almost impossible to say where most of ideas in Melva Mapletree and the Great Undoing originally came from. It truly is a blend of several creative minds.

My needy child ego may hate it a little bit – but I cannot deny that co-creation has led to a far better book than I could ever have written on my own. 

Kiz Crosbie
Artistic Director (CEO) 
Co-writer of Melva Mapletree and the Great Undoing