A GIRL lies unconscious on a beach. A boy finds her. What happens next?

Once, the play that followed was about the aftermath of the 2011 riots. Now it’s about lost friendship and betrayal.

York writer Jessica Fisher’s treatment of Ghost Town made her the inaugural winner in 2012 of Pilot Theatre’s Generation Z project, which aimed to find new texts and ideas “to excite, challenge and inspire audiences aged 11to 15”.

The play that’s on stage in the Studio Theatre at York Theatre Royal is very different from that initial winning idea. Katie Posner, who’s directing the production of Ghost Town, explains that Fisher’s idea went through a two-day development with her and another writer, Richard Hurford, before LOV (Lincolnshire One Venues) became interested in the idea and a co-production was put together.

“The play has gone through so many changes,” says Posner. Fisher agrees, still doing script rewrites and tweaks during rehearsals. “It’s been a long process and it’s unrecognisable now,” she says.

“The initial treatment I wrote for the Generation Z competition about a year and a half ago. Katie and I sat down and both agreed we really didn’t like it. Then I went away that summer and changed more or less everything, except that it was set on a beach.

“We knew it would open on a beach with this unconscious girl and this boy who found her. That’s never changed. Everything else more or less has. When I started exploring the characters, what was interesting was that this boy, Joe, would have a version of OCD. Then I realised this is what I wanted to write about and am really excited about.”

Not that this is just a play about OCD, although Fisher says anything that helps young people recognise the condition or helps if it’s something they’re experiencing. “To me, primarily, it’s a play about friendship,” she adds.

This is her first play produced professionally.

In the past she’s written a lot for young actors and devised pieces with them as a youth theatre director. As winner of the Nick Darke award for writing in 2010 she’s developing another play, Paradise.

It’s part of York-based Pilot’s aim of giving opportunities to emerging artists. Ghost Town’s assistant director, Oliver O’Shea, for instance, is a former York Theatre Royal youth theatre member.

Fisher was part of the audition process and has been in rehearsals.

“I thought it would be nice for her to experience that and with a new play she can then write for the actors we’ve got,” says Posner. “We spent two days in November doing some development work and loads of the stuff from those two days has found its way into the play.

The play might have changed greatly, but Fisher says it still feels it’s her play. “What’s great is Katie and I see things in a really similar way, which is fantastic. It feels really natural. Because I’ve worked so much with young people in devising, it’s a part of how I work to have lots and lots of people in the room contributing lots of good ideas.”

She’s always wanted to be a writer but lost her confidence at university.

“Then I went on an Arden Foundation playwriting course, which made me feel I could do it. I started writing more and sending things off to competitions. It took quite a lot of years to build it up,” she adds.

“One reason I wrote for the youth theatre was because for the age group I was working with, there was so little out there to perform. Very often devising or adapting something is a really good way of getting something with an equal distribution of parts, that interests them and is substantial enough for them to get their teeth into.”

Her move to London to live sees her nearer becoming a full-time writer. “I’m working part-time, which gives me space to write, something I haven’t had before. So I’m a full-time writer – almost. And a parttime cheesemonger.”

  • Ghost Town continues in York Theatre Royal Studio until February 19 (not 16 and 17). Box office 01904-623568 and online yorktheatreroyal.co.uk