Why? and What next? |
Only 17% of UK plays are written by women...
11 + 12 March, 6.30pm
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Although over 80% of the attendees on writing courses are female, only 17% of the plays produced in the UK are by women. Only 12% of UK films made are written by women.
Why is there such a huge drop-out rate for women who started out wanting to write for the theatre or screen? Why don’t they make the transition from student to practising writer? Is there an industry bias - and why does it matter if there is?
We opened the debate with a panel of guest speakers on two consecutive evenings, followed by a showcase of new women’s writing.
Podcasts and a report from the event will be available soon. |
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Speakers for the event were: |
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Playwright Emma Adams; Playwright Clare Bayley; Playwright and educator Sarah Davies; 17percent founder Sam Hall; City University Head of MA creative writing (plays and screenplays) Barbara Norden; Educator, director and writer Olusola Oyeleye; Artistic Director, Sphinx Theatre Company, Sue Parrish; Director Lucy Pitman-Wallace, Aurora Metro founder Cheryl Robson...
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Showcase: |
- Ava Cummings - The Love Story of Fred and Buttercup
If you fall in love with someone when you're 15, what chance do you have when you lose him 38 years later? A middle-aged woman with no way forward looks back on the relationship that shaped her life.
- Sue Blundell - Another stab at life
A play about life after death that turns the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice on its head.
- Carolyn Csonka - Pinching squirrels biscuits
Out of food, drink and baccy. Even the cat can’t take any more. Is this their lucky day?
- Sarah Davies - The road to enlightenment – via Maidstone
The world's loneliest man finds love amongst the Little Chefs and petrol stations of the M25!
- Maggie Drury - Do the right thing
What is 'the right thing to do'. Kate is unsure. However, when she thinks the wrong thing, Tom knows exactly what to do ... but is it the right thing.
- Kerry Hood - Magic thing
Shoey the ferryman rows his ex-wife across the river. Twenty years ago today, their son went missing...
- Gill Kirk - The king was in his counting house
A fly-on-the-wall view of coffee breaks at the Treasury one Saturday in October '08, during discussions on whether or not to close down the UK's cash point system.
- Joanna Alexandra Norland - Lydia Bennett returns
Lydia Bennet, the wayward sister in "Pride and Prejudice" seizes Jane Austen's pen and writes herself a redemption - much to the consternation of Elizabeth and Mr Darcy.
- Joanna Pinto - The girl who collected stories
"Once upon a time there was a girl who collected stories. She travelled far and wide to collect her stories. She slept under bridges, up trees, in boarding houses and bawdy houses. She kept with her at all times the Book Girl on whom the stories were all written in a language that only she could understand."
- Marianne Powell - Khao San Road
Jim is a legend on Khao San Road. The backpackers' backpacker. The caner of caners. But girlfriend Daisy wants more from Bangkok than cheap whiskey and lost weekends. Lindsay, fresh off the plane wants to write her creative masterpiece. | |
