| WRITERS
WHO HAVE RECEIVED MENTORING AND DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES
FROM SCRIPT
Paul
Lucas
As a direct result of script development workshops
with the director Anthony Clark, Paul's first
play 'Swamp City' was produced by the Birmingham
Rep in 1996. Birmingham Rep also commissioned
and mounted 'All That Trouble That We Had' (1999)
and 'The Slight Witch' (2000), both directed by
Anthony Clark at The Door, and published by Faber
& Faber.
Paul’s play 'The Dice House' opened in the
West End at the Arts Theatre in February 2004.
First mounted at The Belgrade Theatre, Coventry
in 2001, it was subsequently revived at The Old
Red Lion in 2002 and then in Edinburgh for the
2002 Fringe Festival. A new edition of the play
has been published by Oberon.
Paul also wrote 'The Star Throwers', which premiered
at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in The Round in
Scarborough on 19th February 2002.
Sarah Woods
Work
includes 'Cake' premiered at Birmingham Rep's
Door; 'Antigone', produced and toured nationwide
by Tag Theatre Co., Glasgow, and selected as a
finalist of the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize 2001;
'Trips', a ‘promenade’ play with video,
which premiered at the Birmingham Rep.; her play
'Grace' (Jade Theatre Company) was nominated for
the LWT Comedy Writing Award at the 1997 Edinburgh
Festival, and was performed at the Arts Theatre
London after a nationwide tour.
For BBC radio, Sarah has written over 30 original
plays, adaptations and series including her trilogy
'The Trinity', Prix Italia Award nominee 1998,
which she also directed.
She
is currently writing 'Visible', a co-production
with Cardboard Citizens and the RSC, touring autumn
2005; 'My World' for the Stephen Joseph Theatre,
Scarborough and 'Walking on Water' for Theatre
Centre. For radio, she is working on one of a
series of plays commissioned by the BBC and the
Open University.
Sarah
is a member of the Monsterists movement, and also
heads the Mphil(B) in Playwriting at the University
of Birmingham.
Deborah
Catesby
Deborah's play, 'The Mother', will be broadcast
on Radio 4 in November 2005 as one of a series
about women involved in the Gunpowder Plot. The
plays have been written by women writers in the
West Midlands. Her play, 'Protection' (Director:
Jenny Stephens) was broadcast in 2004. She was
selected to write a 10 minute musical (in a day)
for Greenwich Theatre as part of their festival
in February 2005 (Director: Ellie Jones). 'Holding
the Granny', commissioned by Real People Theatre
(Director: Suwe Lister) had its production in
York 2004 and has been touring in 2005. Commissioned
by the Swan Theatre, Worcester, 'Happy Land' was
one of four plays in The Worcester Century Project
staged at the theatre in 2001. Deborah received
an Arts Council Bursary in 1998 and a further
award in 2002 for 'Dressing Up'.
In 1998 'The Second Cosmic Hair Gallery' was commissioned
and produced by The Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond.
'Swimming' was produced by the New Birmingham
Theatre Company in 1996 and directed by Tanya
Nash. In the same year, 'The Malvern Widow' was
produced by the Swan Theatre, Worcester and 'Haven'
was commissioned and produced by The Ideal Theatre
Company at the Bridewell Theatre, London (Director:
Pat O’Toole).
Deborah
is currently a tutor and course co-ordinator on
Birmingham University's part-time degree in Creative
Writing.
Fraser Grace
Fraser’s play, 'Perpetua' – about
the ‘abortion wars’ in the US –
was joint winner of the 1996 Verity Bargate Award,
and was produced at the Birmingham REP in 1999
(director: Jonathan Lloyd), and revived at the
Latchmere Theatre in 2004 (director: Dan
Milne). More recently 'Gifts of War' was
presented at the Latchmere Theatre, and went on
to tour nationally in 2005, in a production by
Menagerie Theatre, Cambridge (director: Paul Bourne).
Two
further plays premiered in 2005. Treatment Theatre's
'Who Killed Mr Drum?', co-written with Sylvester
Stein, premieres in Riverside Studios in September
(director: Paul Robinson), followed by 'Breakfast
with Mugabe', at the RSC Stratford (director:
Anthony Sher), in October, which was followed
by a run at the Soho Theatre, London in 2006.
BIRMINGHAM
REP ATTACHMENT WRITERS - 2004
Chantal
Hopkins
Chantal's
first play '650 Watts' was staged as part of the
Birmingham Rep's Transmissions Festival of new
writing in 2001. She was involved with Transmissions
for a second time in 2002 and wrote 'Death and
Custard Tarts'. During that year she also went
to Singapore on an exchange with the Necessary
Stage Theatre, where another play was performed.
She also wrote an episode of 'Fireman Sam' for
Siriol Productions.
The
play 'Birmingham New Street this is Birmingham
New Street' was developed in 2003 and as a direct
result of sending this play to Script, she was
then accepted on the Rep's Attachment Scheme for
playwrights in 2004.
In 2005
she has been commissioned to write a new play
for the Rep's Youth Theatre and this will be called
'Yawn'. She is also currently developing a radio
play with Radio 4 called 'Bob Marley's Donuts'
and writing a book called 'The Lonely PIstachios.'
Mark
Kilburn
Mark's
writing and teaching work includes stints as a
visiting tutor in Drama at Fircroft College, Birmingham,
Dramaturg for Manchester City of Drama New Writing
Project and Storyliner for the BBC series, 'Casualty'.
Since
1995 he has lived in Denmark, where's he's worked
for serveral years at The City Open Theatre, Arhus,
as Writer in Residence and more recently as Literary
Manager. Staged plays include, 'Heaven plc', '1649',
'The Definite Article', 'Beach Stories', 'Toxic
Memory' and 'Talking it Over'. He is a winner
of the prestigious Canongate Prize (2002), Britain's
biggest award for new writing, for his short story
'Greek Play in a Roman Garden'.
WRITERS
SELECTED FOR THE FOURSIGHT THEATRE PAGE TO STAGE
SCHEME - 2005
Penni
Gillis began writing plays in 1999 when
she wrote a Revenger's Tragedy as part of a Theatre
Studies Module at Wolverhampton University. After
the course was finished Penni carried on working
on the play she had begun. A scene from this play,
'The Changling', was produced at the Contact Theatre
in 2004.
Penni's
play 'Home Sweet Home' was one of two plays
that were selected to be produced in March 2005
as part of the Foursight Theatre Page to Stage
scheme. The play tackles difficult subjects such
as being old and facing death and losing a relationship
with a close friend after a lifetime of physical
and emotional abuse. The two elderly women who
make up the cast cope with their situation with
ingenuity and aplomb.
Penni
is working on her next play, 'Ann and Em', which
confronts ineptitude and revenge (again) to work
through the problem of guilt.
Christine
Watkins
As a
result of selection via Script and Foursight Theatre,
Christine's play 'Welcome to My World' was staged
at Newhampton Arts Centre in March 2005 (director
Kate Hale). She has previously had work produced
by Pentabus Theatre, New Theatre Works, Feelgood
Productions (Manchester), Made in Wales and Welsh
National Opera. She also performs some of her
own work solo or in collaboration with other artists.
Recently this has included 'Aurora', inspired
by the work of 17th century painter, Artemisia
Gentileschi and 'Dainty Beryl and the club-juggling
girls', a new musical theatre piece.
Projects
for 2005-2009 include music theatre inspired by
the life and work of Jon Masefield, a new stage
play about the end of the world, 'The Measuring
House', and a radio play featuring the voice of
a newly discovered planet.
Christine
also has two monologues published in 'One Woman
One Voice' (Parthian Books 2000) and co-wrote
the feature film 'Anchoress' (dir. Chris Newby,
featuring Pete Postlethwaite and Christopher Eccleston,
1993).
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