From the category archives:

New Writing

251 post(s)

Pulitzer Prize winner Ayad Akhtar talks about his debut play Disgraced

21 May 2013

in Actors and Performers, Asian Voices, New Writing, Playwrights

ASIAN VOICES: AYAD AKHTAR The Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, script-writer and actor talks to Amardeep Sohi about his debut play, Disgraced, which is currently being staged at the Bush Theatre, and which explores the experience of American Muslim professionals in the wake of 9/11.

Julia Pascal and Ailin Conant: war crimes, guilt and trauma in Nineveh

30 April 2013

in Directors, London Fringe, New Writing, Playwrights

1 Comment

INTERVIEW: JULIA PASCAL and AILIN CONANT The writer and director of Nineveh (Riverside Studios) talk to Judi Herman about Theatre Témoin’s powerful play, born of Conant’s year speaking to ex soldiers about the trauma of guilt, explored by Pascal through the Biblical story of Jonah, the prophet swallowed by a whale in punishment for not taking God’s word to Nineveh.

Ben Power: going behind the scenes at the National’s Shed

21 April 2013

in New Writing, Producers, Theatre buildings, Theatre People

INTERVIEW: BEN POWER The National Theatre Associate Director tells Matt Trueman how the Shed – the NT’s temporary studio theatre filling in for the Cottesloe, which is being refurbished – came into being, what lies behind his programming and muses on what its lasting effects might be. In a theatre landscape undergoing a lot of rapid change, does the Shed serve as an unmissable icon anticipating the theatre of tomorrow?

Ian Talbot directs Imogen Stubbs and Amanda Daniels in new two-hander

16 April 2013

in Directors, New Writing, Playwrights

1 Comment

INTERVIEW: IAN TALBOT The director talks to Aleks Sierz about his production of Dermot Canavan’s two-hander Third Finger, Left Hand (Trafalgar Studios), which stars Imogen Stubbs and Amanda Daniels, and is an autobiographical memory play that explores the lives of two sisters growing up in Preston in the 1970s.

Actor Goldy Notay reports on Kali’s My Daughter’s Trial

16 April 2013

in Actors and Performers, Asian Voices, New Writing

ASIAN VOICES: GOLDY NOTAY The actor talks to Suman Bhuchar about her latest role for Kali theatre company, Parveen the ambitious Muslim lawyer in Jabine Chaudri’s My Daughter’s Trial (Brown’s Courtrooms, London, then touring). This site-specific work is about Parveen’s dilemma about whether to section her own mentally sick mother.

Director and playwright Nine Raine talks about directing Longing

6 April 2013

in Design, Directors, New Writing, Playwrights

INTERVIEW: NINA RAINE The director and playwright talks to Judi Herman about her current production of novelist William Boyd’s first play, Longing (Hampstead), and about her work with actor Tamsin Greig and designer Lizzie Clachan on that play and on Jumpy (Royal Court, 2011).

Playwright Simon Stephens on The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

19 March 2013

in Disability Arts, New Writing, Playwrights, Theatre buildings

1 Comment

INTERVIEW: SIMON STEPHENS The award-winning playwright chats to Aleks Sierz about his superb adaptation of Mark Haddon’s novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Apollo Theatre), which has just transferred to the West End after opening at the National Theatre to enthusiastic reviews last year.

Soho Theatre: public platform about supporting new writers (1/2)

12 March 2013

in Black Voices, New Writing, Playwrights

SOHO THEATRE PUBLIC PLATFORM: NEW WRITERS (1/2) Soho Theatre artistic director Steve Marmion chairs a panel of writers to discuss developing and supporting new work: Arinze Kene, whose play God’s Property (Talawa) is currently running at this venue, playwright Laura Wade, performance artist Bryony Kimmings and Talawa theatre company director Michael Buffong.

Soho Theatre: public platform about supporting new writers (2/2)

12 March 2013

in Black Voices, New Writing, Playwrights

SOHO THEATRE PUBLIC PLATFORM: NEW WRITERS (2/2) Soho Theatre artistic director Steve Marmion chairs a panel of writers to discuss developing and supporting new work: Arinze Kene, whose play God’s Property (Talawa) is currently running at this venue, playwright Laura Wade, performance artist Bryony Kimmings and Talawa theatre company director Michael Buffong.

Activist playwright Anders Lustgarten challenges the ideology of austerity

2 March 2013

in New Writing, Playwrights, Political theatre

1 Comment

INTERVIEW: ANDERS LUSTGARTEN The playwright and political activist talks to Aleks Sierz about his latest play, If You Don’t Let Us Dream, We Won’t Let You Sleep (Royal Court), which questions the pervading clichés about austerity and challenges the global financial system. He explores the politics of the drama and previews his plans for the future.

Rufus Norris and Kobna Holdbrook-Smith pick apart Feast

25 February 2013

in Actors and Performers, Black Voices, Directors, International, New Writing

INTERVIEW: RUFUS NORRIS & KOBNA HOLDBROOK-SMITH Director Rufus Norris and actor Kobna Holdbrook-Smith talk to Matt Trueman about Feast, a staged celebration of the Yoruba culture and belief system at the Young Vic. The production, the final part of World Stages London’s first programme, is a multi-authored project incorporating distinct scenes into a whole united by song, dance and spectacle to chart the spread of Yoruba culture from Africa around the world.

Justin Audibert surveys his Gruesome Playground Injuries

2 February 2013

in American Drama, Awards, Directors, London Fringe, New Writing

INTERVIEW: JUSTIN AUDIBERT The Leverhulme Bursary-winning director tells Matt Trueman about the intricate relationship at the heart of Rajiv Joseph’s Gruesome Playground Injuries (2009), which he directs for the Gate Theatre in Notting Hill, and why the play’s greatest asset is its theatricality.

Sebastian Born, Associate Director (Literary) at the National Theatre

17 January 2013

in New Writing, Playwrights, Theatre People

INTERVIEW: SEBASTIAN BORN The Associate Director (Literary) at the National Theatre tells Sophie Reynolds about the work of a literary department, from how plays are programmed and developed to the relationship a writer may have with a theatre; with reference to playwrights such as Alan Bennett, Lucy Prebble and Alecky Blythe.

West End Review: The Effect (NT), Merrily We Roll Along (Menier) and more

15 January 2013

in Musicals, New Writing, Reviews and Roundtables

West End Review, Dec 2012-Jan 2013: Mark Shenton and regular guests Kate Bassett, David Benedict and Matt Wolf cast a critical eye over some of the major London openings, beginning with Lucy Prebble’s The Effect (National), winner of this year’s Critics Circle Award for Best Play, as well as Best Musical winner Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along (Menier Chocolate Factory), plus Phyllida Lloyd’s all-female Julius Caesar (Donmar Warehouse), Pinero’s The Magistrate, starring John Lithgow (National) and Simon Russell Beale in Peter Nichols’ Privates on Parade (Noel Coward Theatre), The Bodyguard (Adelphi) and Viva Forever! (Piccadilly).

NYC interview: actress Susannah Flood on performing in Nina Raine’s Tribes

5 January 2013

in American Drama, New Writing

New York Special: Susannah Flood talks to Philip Fisher about her performance in the US production of Nina Raine’s Tribes at Barrow Street. In particular she discusses the difficulties of playing a character losing her hearing and having to learn sign language in three weeks. Recorded at Barrow Street Theatre 04-01-2013.

Playwright Nick Payne discusses Constellations: quantum multiverse theory, love and honey

28 December 2012

in New Writing, Playwrights, Theatre People

INTERVIEW: NICK PAYNE The playwright tells Sophie Reynolds about his award-winning play Constellations, which was first produced in January 2012 at the Royal Court and is now running in the West End, starring Sally Hawkins and Rafe Spall.

Philip Ridley’s new one is an epic fairy tale that spans 500 years

19 December 2012

in London Fringe, New Writing, Playwrights, Youth Theatre

1 Comment

INTERVIEW: PHILIP RIDLEY The polymath playwright bewitches Aleks Sierz with his description of his amazing new play, Feathers in the Snow (the last show to be staged at the Southwark Playhouse’s current location), and explains the story behind the piece’s creation.

Playwright EV Crowe explores sexuality in her latest, Hero

17 December 2012

in Gay Drama, New Writing, Playwrights

2 Comments

INTERVIEW: EV CROWE The playwright talks to Aleks Sierz about Hero (Royal Court), her new play which examines the themes of sexual identity and courage in daily life by looking at a gay primary-school teacher who comes out to the children.

Playwright James Graham talks about his hit, This House

13 December 2012

in New Writing, Playwrights, Political theatre

INTERVIEW: JAMES GRAHAM The prolific young playwright talks to Dominic Cavendish about his politically minded career to-date and This House, his backstage House of Commons drama and look back in detail at the 1974-1979 years of British parliamentary life, a hit at the National Theatre’s Cottesloe stage and which transfers to the Olivier in the New Year.

New writing special: David Eldridge and Duncan Macmillan discuss the Antelope group

2 December 2012

in Books, New Writing, Playwrights

1 Comment

NEW WRITING SPECIAL: THE ANTELOPES Playwrights David Eldridge and Duncan Macmillan tell Aleks Sierz about the origins and aims of the Antelopes, an informal network of playwrights who started meeting in 2009, and about two new publications from the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain, together called The Working Playwright.

RADAR Festival – Kieran Hurley: playwright?

20 November 2012

in Edinburgh Festival and Fringe, New Writing, Playwrights, Political theatre

INTERVIEW: KIERAN HURLEY The writer-performer talks to Matt Trueman about his award-winning play Beats, a fable about rave culture in the mid-nineties and the legislation against it, about theatre’s remit as a political act and why he’s finally coming round to the idea of himself as a playwright.

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