New Writing SouthOur 2008/9 Education Team
All our team members have enhanced CRB checks, and most are qualified Arts Award Advisers.
Dinos Aristidou
Dinos has written numerous plays, including one commissioned by Chester for their city’s Millenium production. He is currently directing and devising a community diversity production for Watford Palace Theatre. He was Education Manager at Cardiff’s Sherman Theatre, and has run writing and theatre workshops with young people and teachers around the world.
Chris Boiling
Chris was selected for the first BBC Writers' Academy, and currently writes for EastEnders, Casualty and Holby City. He is also working on the next series of The Street with Jimmy McGovern. Chris has taught English to foreign students and has a Masters degree in Television and Radio Scriptwriting.
Sara Clifford
Sara's plays, include several for young people:Head Over Heels (OTTC) & Wedding Story ( Nottingham Playhouse). She has led drama and writing workshops in schools for over twenty years, is an Education Associate for Donmar Warehouse, delivers the Continuing Development Programme for Creative Partnerships, and recently completed Belonging, a project for secondary schools using drama, dance and writing. Sara is co-author of Making a Leap, a drama handbook for working with young people. She is writing a new play, Chasing the Dragon; and a one woman show about Vera Brittain for Nottingham Playhouse.
Dominique De Light
Dominque has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia. She specialises in working with marginalized writers and was writer in residence at First Base Day Centre. She edited The Rough Guide to Trinidad and the Caribbean, and has devised and taught numerous creative writing projects and courses. Dominque holds a PGCE in post compulsory education and is registered with the Institute of Learning.
Julie
Everton
A Royal Court Young Writer, Julie
has written numerous plays and now concentrates on screenwriting
and writing for television. She has worked in schools and community
organisations for over fifteen years, including teaching drama
and running playwriting INSETs. Julie also teaches creative writing
and screenwriting.
Vanessa
Gebbie
Vanessa is a widely published, prize-winning
writer of literary fiction. Her debut collection is Words
from a Glass Bubble (Salt Publishing, 2008). Vanessa is an experienced
and enthusiastic facilitator of Creative Writing and is at
ease with both school groups and adults.
Joe
Hammond
Joe is currently one of 'The50'
- a Royal Court/BBC initiative designed to support and nurture
fifty ‘exciting and emerging’ UK writers. His most
recent play, Costa Blanca, was awarded a grant by Arts
Council England. Joe has a PGCE and an education background.
He works with young people and adults, using techniques to build
confidence and skills in creative writing.
Christine
Harmer-Brown
Christine’s television
writing experience includes working on Casualty, co-writing
with Lynda La Plante, and Inside Out, an original drama.
Her plays include 15 Minutes and Wearing Something
Heavy. She is part of the Writers' Centre at Soho
Theatre, runs various workshops for adults and young people,
and has worked on numerous schools projects.
Marian
Kilpatrick
Marian Kilpatrick is a writer and performer who was a stand-up comic
for six years. She studied drama at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music
and Drama and has worked extensively in radio. She has also written for
television and for magazines. She has worked extensively with young people,
including running writing and drama workshops in schools.
Natasha
Langridge
Natasha co-authored Rage
and Reason: Women Playwrights on Playwriting. She has written
and directed a number of plays, including Beverley which received
a national tour and The Method which premiered at The Oval
House Theatre ,London. Natasha's new play, Shraddha,
is under development with Soho Theatre, London. Her work in schools
includes adaptations of Charlie and the
Chocolate Factory and
the Jungle Book, and new plays, The
Magic Red Cat, Crompton and Blue
Shoes.
Paul
Lyalls
Paul is a performance poet
and storyteller. He has performed his poetry at the Edinburgh Festival,
Glastonbury, and Hay-On-Wye. He is one of the stars of the tv series
The Big Slam Poetry House. He features on the July 08 Oxfam children’s
poetry CD. His education residencies have resulted in four anthologies
of poems.
Sue Maclaine
Sue has worked in theatre as a performer,
devisor, workshop leader and writer for more than twenty years. She
has facilitated various writing and drama groups,
worked with BrightonYouth Theatre, and has created performances
as part of the National Youth Theatre. She
is a qualified British Sign Language (BSL) Interpreter and
has worked with special needs pupils.
Andrew
G Marshall
Andrew is a journalist, writer of non
fiction and published playwright (Oberon Books: Coming
Around Again),
whose plays include Walking
Out and Sex in the Seventies. He is the author
of I love you but I'm not in love with you published
by Bloomsbury and translated into twelve
different languages. He writes for major national
newspapers and magazines and has lectured around the world.
Josie
Melia
Josie has written award-winning work for
theatre and film, plus comedy sketches performed at the Komedia.
She has worked with young people for several years as a teacher and
as a youth counsellor, and worked for the Trust for the Study of Adolescence.
She is currently working on a feature length screenplay.
Mike
Sells
Mike is a playwright. He graduated
on the MA playwriting course from Birmingham University and
taught on scriptwriting projects within a number of local
authorities. Mike then set up and ran the Outreach Program
for Streets Alive Theatre Company. Mike is currently working
on radio dramas and studying scriptwriting for film.
Jo
Smith
Jo has worked in various forms of
theatre and drama in education for many years. Her primary
medium is writing for the stage, and she trained as a director
at the National Theatre. She is currently engaged in developing
a new musical. She works part-time
as a copywriter and has a Masters degree in Performance Studies.
Carolyn
Thomas
Carolyn writes short stories, television
sitcom scripts, plays for radio and theatre and is working
on her first novel. In 2004 was runner up in BBC3’s nationwide ‘End
of Story’ competition. She is currently a part-time
dyslexia tutor at Central Sussex College in Crawley. Carolyn
has experience of working with special needs pupils.
Helen
Nelder
Helen is a theatre director
and playwright. She trained as an actress
in Paris, and worked as an English and Drama teacher
for more than ten years. As a freelancer she teaches
playwrighting and media studies. She is the founder of
w@rn Theatre Company 2000, a community theatre company
exploring social issues, including domestic violence,
young carers, refugees and bullying.
Peggy
Riley
Peggy is a playwright,
writer and community artist living in Kent. She was Writer on Attachment
at Soho Theatre and Writer-in-Residence at HMYOI Rochester. She is currently
writing fiction and plays, and has two musicals in development. Peggy
has a background in creating magazine projects
and live events and she regularly runs workshops on
creative and life writing and filmmaking in schools, prisons, and community
centres
throughout the UK.
Heather Taylor
Heather is a writer and performer. Her work has been published and produced throughout Europe, Asia & North America and includes film, theatre, poetry, fiction, radio, journalism and acting. Her feature film, The Last Thakur, premiered at the London Film Festival in Autumn 2008. Her latest book of poetry and prose, Look of Vultures will be published in 2009.
Suhalya El-Bushra
Suhalya is a trained drama teacher who now writes for TV, film and the stage. She has an MA in screenwriting and a Diploma in cinematography.
She has been invited on two BBC writing initiatives, both of which resulted in commissions. She is currently working on a play, Whirlwind, Heat and Flash,
and is in the process of setting up Paper Planes, a night of new writing for the stage.