Apparently the youth 'street theatre' piece is being workshopped tomorrow (news to me!).
That's fantastic, Spooky Purple! Please update.
Yeah, it was a little weird for me to read your posts - teaching, theater, screenwriting, even "youth street theater" - we're living parallel lives! But I'm wildly jealous that you're even South of London, my favorite city. Maybe one day I'll get there for good... sigh...
The brief dope on the novel - I've worked in Hollywood for years, made a fine living, one movie made so far, but the system is HELL on original writers (and women, too.). A few years ago I got so revolted by The Process (which means corporate executives who know nothing about story telling writers what to do) that I started getting back the rights to my scripts. I took one, a supernatural thriller based on a real haunting I experienced in high school, and wrote it as a novel. It sold pretty much immediately - I got a two-book deal with St. Martin's Press and the first, THE HARROWING, is out Sept. 1st of this year. The second is also a supernatural thriller, which will be out next year. You can read all about it here:
http://alexandrasokoloff.com/ - with visuals and everything.
Bottom line is - believe in what you're doing and if it's not happening in one medium, try another. You've just got to be true to your story and keep at it.
Alex