Highlight on James Graham (Playwright)

 

James Graham is a British playwright and screenwriter. His work has been staged throughout the UK and internationally, at theatres including the Bush, Soho Theatre, Clwyd Theatr Cymru and the National Theatre.

Graham grew up in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, and was educated at University of Hull, where he studied drama.

Graham's first professional play Albert's Boy was produced by the Finborough Theatre in London, where Graham became playwright-in-residence. His first major play This House was commissioned by the Royal National Theatre, where it was critically and commercially acclaimed, transferred to the larger Olivier Theatre, and was nominated for the Olivier Award for Best New Play.

In 2018 Graham won his first Olivier Award, for Labour of Love as best new comedy (his other play Ink was nominated for an Olivier in the same year).  He wrote the book for the Broadway musical Finding Neverland, and two of his own plays, Ink and Privacy, transferred to Broadway.

Graham's debut feature film X+Y premiered in 2015, and he has written numerous TV dramas, including the TV films Coalition (which won the Royal Television Society award for Best Single Film) and Brexit: The Uncivil War. Brexit: The Uncivil War aired on Channel 4 on 7 January 2019.

His plays are published by Methuen and we have every published play as part of the Whittaker collection at 822.92 GRA.

In January 2019, Graham's life and work was the subject of an in-depth BBC One documentary as part of the Imagine series. Check out this documentary on one of the UK most interesting young playwrights.

Maybe something form his body of work would make a good audition monologue or a duologue for showcase? "He's so hot right now"!

 

Click Here to Visit BBC I-player and Imagine

 

Click here to visit James Graham's agent's Website Curtis Brown

Playwrights' Studio Scotland Mentoring Programme

A mentoring programme for emerging young artists sounds like a really good idea - could it be for you? 

Playwrights' Studio Scotland website: http://www.playwrightsstudio.co.uk/

The organisation describes itself as, 'the nation's only arts organisation exclusively dedicated to the long-term support, development and promotion of Scotland's playwrights', aiming to connect them with audiences and organisations for the enrichment of  Scottish audiences.

Find out about the Playwrights' Studio Scotland scheme on their website.  They introduce it like this:-

"Every year, Playwrights' Studio, Scotland selects at least six aspiring or emerging playwrights for a six month programme of mentoring, by established playwrights, to support the development of new plays. This is an opportunity to improve playwriting skills and gain valuable insight into the playwriting process and profession."  Read more - click here.

Emerging Scottish Playwright Jennifer Adam

http://www.jenniferadamwriter.com/

We came across Jennifer Adam's website today, and thought you might be interested to read about an emerging Scottish playwright with a row of successes to her name.
 
Here's her brief bio, quoted from the website:-

"Jennifer is an emerging Scottish Playwright and Theatre Maker from Kinross and currently living in Edinburgh.
Her plays have been performed across Edinburgh, Glasgow, West Lothian, Ayrshire, Falkirk and Stirling.
Jennifer is currently attached to the Tron Theatre in Glasgow as part of their year long artistic initiative, The Tron 100 Club. She is also one of the founding members of the Tandem Writing Collective and is one of the Playwrights' Studio Scotland's Mentored Playwrights for 2017."

Visit Jennifer's website - click here.
Twitter: @RubiedMoon

Learning to Write - Talking with Sam Shephard on Digital Theatre Plus

 
https://www.digitaltheatreplus.com/study-guides/sam-shepards-family-trilogy

Staff and students at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland benefit from our library subscription to Digital Theatre Plus.  Here's the latest offering!  As described online ...

This extensive insight into Sam Shepard's 'Family Trilogy' has been created for Digital Theatre Plus by Ed Madden. Ed is a freelance theatre director, creative associate at the Gate Theatre, and co-founder of new writing company Walrus. 

Ed's work has featured at Warwick Arts Centre, the National Student Drama Festival and Latitude Festival, and achieved sell-out runs at the Edinburgh Fringe and Camden People's Theatre. 

Read more of Ed's work in our The Crucible Study Guide and our Death of a Salesman Study Guide.

Ways to Do Opera and Write Plays? Guardian Culture Professionals Address the Issues

The Guardian Culture Professionals Network is a great blog to follow - there's always good material there.  This week:-

• "There is no Traditional Way of Doing Opera", says English Touring Opera's chief. 
• And for the theatrically-minded, "Playwrights in Search of Characters"

These are just two of the subjects raised - there's also tech talk about 3D printers, virtual reality in film, and more.  Take a look!

Calling writers & performers. Get your drama writing performed or take part in performing new work, in a evening of workshops!

The Arches and Playwrights’ Studio, Scotland continue their collaboration to encourage artists of all kinds to engage with the work of contemporary playwrights.  Pushing the boundaries of the theatrical experience, whilst firmly focusing on text, this performance evening sees artists of any genre taking a piece of contemporary playwriting and illuminating it within a live setting.

They are looking for as many different artists as possible who want to work with text in new and exciting ways. Pieces should be around 10-15 minutes long. They don’t have to be finished or polished – it’s more to do with a fresh, radical approach.

Check out link for further information

http://www.thearches.co.uk/jobs/crossing-the-lines-call-for-applications

Blogging lite - links for musicians, actors, dancers, trad Scots

While off, I haven’t blogged at length.  However, I’ve blogged links instead, just to keep the pages fresh.  Scroll down to find a rich variety of subject matter!  

• The Voice Explained, 
• The Bullet-Proof Musician, 
• Healthy Musicians (a link from Chicago), 
• the Scottish Society of Playwrights, 
• National Chamber Music Day, 
• the Clarsach Society Young Composer Award, 
• Basse Danse,
• and a link to a bit of trivia about a piper called Wanton Watty McAulay of Port Glasgow.  (Well, with a name like that, who wouldn’t?!)

Calling all Playwrights

Applications invited for the George Devine Award 2012.
More here on the Paines Plough blog.


Paines Plough describes itself as the National Theatre for New Plays.

"Paines Plough is a touring theatre company, specialising exclusively in commissioning and producing new plays. Visit our website."

Whittaker will also log this award on our Awards, Competitions, Prizes page, so you can come back to it later.