Resources
Steve Tiller & Jonathan Meth performing Two Schmucks
I’ve spent most of my working life in various forms of knowledge transfer: developing and diversifying creative talent; educating international theatre makers and arts managers. I also broker relationships through networking and introductions. In that sense I am a resource, and there to be used…
I sit on the board of Az Theatre and am about to join Untold
I am an expert advisor to Ambitious About Autism, on the artistic advisory committee of Brixton House and a Fellow of The Royal Society of Arts
I was until recently on the boards of Vital Xposure and Jumped Up and was delighted to see the former almost double its investment, while the latter become a new client of Arts Council England, as part of the 2023-26 National Portfolio.
Here is some stuff that might be useful, depending. Better still, email me with what you are looking to find out more about - and I’ll try to help.
For new theatre writing opportunities in the UK as they arise
For Mark Ravenhill’s 101 tips on playwriting
For international connections in Disability Arts
For the Best blog I know which speaks to almost all my interests - and more
Publications
For 15 years (1994-2009) I was Director of writernet (previouly New Playwrights Trust), where I worked extensively with some fantastic people - chiefly Sarah Dickenson, as well as Gabriel Gbadamosi and Kaite O’Reilly. Here are some publications from that work which sit loosely under the umbrella of the Dramaturgy of Writing for Performance… Whether you are a working playwright / dramaturg or a student, there should be something of interest.
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Writernet – Disappearing Through The Skylight
At the end of 2008, in association with Graeae and the Arcola, writernet hosted It Isn’t Fixed, a day of visioning; of ideas and discourse around playwrights and playwriting: of future challenges and possibilities. writernet was winding up after 10 years, with another 13 years backstory before that as New Playwrights Trust. We wanted to bring playwrights together for a day to inspire, affect and challenge current thinking and practice as a spur to better quality work generated in a broader set of contexts.
HYdroponic was a performing arts project aimed at unearthing and developing the very best in new writing and theatre practice from the culturally diverse community and artists in Reading and its surrounding region. A partnership project co funded by the Arts Council England – South East and Reading Borough Council it was delivered in three phases by myself and Gabriel Gbadamosi at writernet.
Commissioning The Future brought together 80 invited literary managers, directors, writers and theatre makers at the Young Vic on a Saturday in March 1997 to consider Literary Management.
Out of Context was a one day gathering of writers and organisations working in Applied Theatre held at Stratford Circus in 2002 to explore The role of the writer in the wider community. This is the Keynote address I wrote, given by Gary McKeone, then Director of Literature, Arts Council of England
Challenging Language was a one day laboratory held 23 January 1999 at the Jerwood Space, in response to a call from theatre writers to explore new processes of writing theatre. It was an initiative of writernet and funded by the Arts Council of England and London Arts Board. The form of the lab’ concentrated on enabling practice to be explored through method led sessions on four different processes. A series of provocateurs had previously been identified, representing disciplines from performance writing through text projection to dance and film. These were invited to make three minute contributions, called upon by the chair at appropriate points.
I wrote this report for the Arts Council of Wales on the state of new writing in the English language in Wales. As an English non-playwright I knew that this was a liberty. I took it and with it the opportunity to try and posit a navigational strategy in which Welsh playwrights might better see themselves. It’s not what ACW were expecting.
Amateur Guide Pathways Final Report
I wrote this report for the Arts Council of England as a way of recognising the enormous quantity of amateur theatre produced in the UK and with the aim of bringing professional playwrights into more meaningful contact with that.
Janus was a 2005-06 EU Culture funded collaboration between writernet, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Theater Instituut Nederland, Finnish Theatre Information Centre (TINFO) and Uni-T in Graz, in which 16 new plays from 15 countries were given staged readings in Festivals in Tampere, Graz and Leeds
Documentation, which I edited, of 4 days of workshop demonstrations, panel debates and masterclasses at the National Theatre Studio in 1998. 20 snapshots showing the diversity of new writing development in the UK in the 1990s
This Reader was designed by me as a precursor to the Pro-sessional day in 2007 at Soho Theatre, engaging with current and established best practice on dramaturgical process. Drawn from the collective knowledge of the partners: The Dramaturgs Network, The Literary Managers Forum, Total Theatre and writernet, the reader functions to establish a relationship between previous discussions and this practice.
disPlay 4 was an 18 month journey towards production, and beyond…This report details in full the programme which saw a commission, three taught terms of dramaturgy for 4 disabled theatre writers as part of a partnership between writernet, Soho Theatre and Graeae Theatre Company in 2003. It was written by me as Project Director and includes reflections from all 4 writers, the partnership of three companies and the Project dramaturg.
Disabled Writers Mentoring Scheme 1999
Disabled Writers Mentoring Scheme II 2007
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This was a presentation I gave originally in 2014 on Sarah Kane, Theatre and Mental Health to students on the Beautiful Mind module on the Mental Health MSc at King’s College / The Maudesley. I updated it for a 2018 presentation and again for the 2019 one.