Biogs - Second Night

Artistic Director Lisa Parry writes:


Following on from our earlier post, here are the biogs of our second night writers, whose work you can see at Chapter on February 18, Theatre503 on February 20 and at The Arches on February 23.

IOANNA ANDERSON

Ioanna Anderson was born in Edinburgh and, after escaping to Dublin for quite a long time, now lives there again. She co-founded (with Audrey Devereux and Pam McQueen) Greenlight Productions, which produced her first play Describe Joe (Dublin Fringe Festival, 2000). Describe Joe won the O.Z. Whitehead Award. Why I Hate The Circus was produced by Greenlight, in association with the Civic Theatre Tallaght in 2001. Words of Advice for Young People was developed by Rough Magic Theatre Company as part of their SEEDS programme for emerging artists, and produced by them in 2004 at the Project Arts Centre, Dublin. In 2005, Ioanna received an Arts Council bursary to develop Six Acts of Love, produced by The Tron Theatre in 2008. Also in 2008, the site-specific show You Are Here (co-produced by Bedrock/Living Space Theatre companies) for the Dublin Theatre Festival. Ioanna has recently received a bursary from Creative Scotland to work on a novel.

Ioanna Anderson

BRANWEN DAVIES

Branwen trained as an actress at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and started writing her own performances and plays there. She received a bursary and was mentored by Sgript Cymru for her Welsh language play Dyma Deulu Dedwydd that went on to win the Anglesey Eisteddfod Playwriting Award in 2007 and was produced by Theatr Fach Llangefni. Branwen writes in Welsh and English. Professional stage work includes co-writing Dominos for Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru, Exquisite Corpse for True Fiction Theatre Company, The Beginning of the So Called End for Dirty Protest and Cardiff Swan Song for Undeb Theatre. Two of her Welsh language plays - Drama Sa'n Dde De? and O Na Byddai'n Haf o Hyd - have been produced by Llandegfan Drama Society. TV credits include episodes of Caerdydd for Fiction Factory. Online work includes co-creating and writing the online drama Break Free - a Cyfle and Glass Shot productions collaboration. She is co-creator of the Welsh language theatre company Torri Gair whose first production was Yr Argae, a Welsh translation of Connor McPherson's The Weir in 2008. Branwen worked as the literary assistant at Sherman Cymru for three years and was responsible for producing the new writing initiative Script Slam. She is also a script writing tutor having tutored at The University of Wales Trinity Saint David, on Sherman Cymru's New Arrival project working with asylum seekers and refugees in Cardiff and Sherman Cymru's Spread the Word project at Aberystwyth. 

Branwen has just returned from a gap year in Japan and is currently doing a PhD in new writing at Aberystwyth University and writing a trilogy of plays as part of her research. 

Branwen Davies

SARAH GROCHALA

Sarah studied on the MPhil in Playwriting Studies at Birmingham University and has been recognised as one of the course’s most distinguished graduates. Before turning to writing she worked as an actress for many years, playing roles in the West End and in television drama. Her play S-27 won the 2007 Protect the Human Playwriting Competition and was also shortlisted for The King’s Cross Award. S-27 premiered at the Finborough Theatre in June 2009 and was revived at the Griffin Theatre in Sydney in March 2010. Both productions were selected as Time Out Critics’ Choices. Other plays include: Waiting For Romeo (Pleasance Islington 2009; Edinburgh Festival 2006) and Open Ground (Theatro Technis 2005). Sarah has written short plays for The Miniaturists and for Theatre 503, where she currently works as a senior reader. She has taught playwriting and other aspects of theatre making to students at Central School of Speech and Drama, Queen Mary University of London and Kingston University. She occasionally writes about theatre for the Guardian’s theatre blog. Sarah is currently Off West End.com’s adopted playwright and is working with them on a play about nationalism in Eastern Europe. Other current projects include a commission for the RSC.

Lisa Parry

LISA PARRY

Lisa is currently developing her piece 2023, supported by Arts Council England. She was recently named as a finalist in the Internationalists’ playwriting competition, the inaugural Ronald Duncan award and the King’s Cross New Writing Award.

Play credits include: Dark Frequencies (TACT Studio, Broadway, NYC), Butterfly Fugue (Sherman Cymru as part of Egin: Springboard), Not A Death Knock (Dirty Protest), Fairy Steps (Bootleg), March SW3 (Arcola, as part of Miniaturists 23), Waterbaby (Martin E. Segal, NYC), Inside A Grave (Bridewell), Second Life (Tara), Happy Birthday Luke (Tara), Carpet and Floorboards (Tara), The Giving of Flowers (Theatre 503, later at Sherman Cymru as part of ScriptSlam), From Brum to Manhattan (Theatre 503).

MORNA PEARSON

Morna Pearson is from Elgin and currently lives in Edinburgh. Her first full professional production was Distracted at the Traverse Theatre in 2006. Distracted won the Meyer-Whitworth Award, nominated for a CATS Award, and was shortlisted for the Wolff-Whiting Award. Morna was awarded the inaugural Rod Hall Memorial Award in 2006. Her other plays include; Elf Analysis (Òran Mór, Glasgow), McBeth's McPets (BBC Radio Scotland), Side Effects (BBC Radio 3/Bona Broadcasting), The Company Will Overlook a Moment of Madness [adaptation](National Theatre of Scotland/Oran Mor).

Lindsay Rodden

LINDSAY RODDEN 

Lindsay Rodden is a writer and dramaturg.  Recent writing work has included Letters (The Miniaturists / Cornerstone Festival), The Almond Tree (State of Wonder / Everyword), and Endz (a verbatim play created with dramaturg Suzanne Bell for Liverpool Everyman Theatre which toured Liverpool in 2011).  Recent dramaturgy includes My Life in Dresses (Project Arts Centre, Dublin / national tour), and Why Do All Catherines Call Themselves Kate? (One Small Step / Edinburgh Fringe). 

She founded Almanac in 2009 with playwright / songwriter Lizzie Nunnery, producing, directing and writing adventurous collaborations with writers, musicians and other artists and theatre makers.  Their most recent shows include bringing together over thirty artists to make Radical City: A Happening on Hope Street (Everyman, April 2011); and Stories in the Walls, a site-specific commission for Un-convention Tyneside in the thirteenth century Morden Tower, Newcastle-upon-Tyne (June 2011). 

Lindsay is from Buncrana, Co. Donegal, and currently lives in Liverpool.