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My Work
DIRECTING (FILM)
Soho Theatre On Demand (2021)
Starring Richard Blackwood.
Writer: Ryan Calais Cameron
DoP: Jermaine Edwards
Editor: Oral Norrie Ottey
Producers: Soho Theatre and Nouveau Riche
A collection of six short poetry films that I wrote, directed and performed in 2019.
DIRECTING (AUDIO/RADIO)
BBC Radio 4
A regular series director from series 3 onwards.
Writers: Roy Williams OBE, Carol Russel, Rex Obano.
Faith, Hope and Glory charts the lives of three women, connected forever by the theft of a beautiful pram in Tilbury in 1946. As they live through the eighty years since then, they witness and take part in the emergence of modern Britain.
Written by Zodwa Nyoni
Produced by Fifth Word Theatre
A collection of 9 audio stories inspired by oral history interviews of Zimbabwean-born residents living in Nottingham. You can listen to them on the Fifth Word Website.
Written by Fin Kennedy
Written by Barbara Bergin.
November 2022
Irish War of Independence audio plays commissioned by the National Archives and produced by Applied Stories.
The Irish War of Independence audio plays, The Bulletin and Persons Unknown, were commissioned to help explore more about the military dimensions to the conflict and the efforts on both sides to win the propaganda war. The plays use records at The National Archives to integrate the high politics with the everyday lives of people effected by the conflict in inventive, witty and powerful ways.
You can listen to them on the National Archives Website.
BBC Radio 3
(Broadcast in March 2022)
Middlemarch is an extraordinary 19th century novel about provincial lives during significant social change, such as the building of new railways. It creates an engrossing web of individual experiences in an unidentified Midlands town, largely modelled on Coventry, where Warwickshire born George Eliot lived for a time.
These bold new Middlemarch Monologues weave together eight 21st-century voices. Covid 19, Brexit, HS2 and Black Lives Matter feature, mirroring the social upheavals of George Eliot’s day. The characters are updated versions of the originals.
You can listen to them here.
Written by Mel Pennant.
Produced by Tamasha and commissioned by the National Archives.
November 2021
From Marine Engineer, to working as a ship hand and in timber yards, Claudius Smart has given the motherland his blood, sweat and tears – a most loyal son. But now all doors to employment have been closed on him. His crime? Falling in love with May – a white woman. Hurt and betrayed in an openly racist Britain and facing zero employment prospects and hungry stomachs, now Claudius’ only choice and wish is for repatriation back to his native land of Jamaica for him, May and their young son. But will his request be granted?
A true story from The National Archives’ files, brought shockingly to life by playwright and screenwriter, Mel Pennant.
Written by Roberta Livingston.
BBC Radio 4.
First Broadcast: 21 May 2021, 2.15pm
A humorous and heartfelt comedy that explores womanhood, class and how being let down by the system leads to heart-breaking choices.
DIRECTING (THEATRE)
Written by Roy Williams OBE
9 March 2023- 1 April 2023
Tramshed Theatre, New Wimbledon Theatre Studio, Theatre Peckham, Bernie Grant Arts Centre
Written by Vernon Vanriel and Dougie Blaxland.
7 January 2023- 4 February 2023
Park Theatre
Seeds
Written by Mel Pennant.
Spring 2020 national tour.
Leeds Playhouse, Live Newcastle, Derby Theatre & Warwick Arts Centre.
(Cut short by the Covid-19 pandemic).
Typical
Written by Ryan Calais Cameron.
Soho Theatre, Sept 2019 & Pleasance Courtyard Beneath (Edinburgh Fringe) Aug 2019.
Written by Charlene James.
Royal Court, London and Birmingham (19 schools)
Written by Maureen Hunter.
(Finborough Theatre, co-produced by Wrested Veil).
Short pieces:
An Adventure by Vinay Patel (An excerpt, Bush Theatre, private opening).
Cell by Nathaniel Martello-White, 5 Plays Project, (Young Vic Theatre).
Dishonour by Tanika Gupta, Acts of Defiance Festival (Theatre503).
Here comes the Bride by Milli Bhatia, Black Lives, Black Words (Bush Theatre).
All The Ways to Say Goodbye by Neil LaBute, Fresh Direction Project (Young Vic Theatre).
The Christians & The Kalki Project, Wrested Veil in partnership with the Gate (Gate Theatre).
Hosea’s Girl, Studio Firsts Award (Talawa Firsts).
You know that I’ll be back by Tamara Felisa Micner (Theatre503).
Universally Speaking by Connor Caroll (Theatre503).
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF WRESTED VEIL
2017 to present.
Wrested Veil is a producing company unveiling stories with potency and flourish, founded in 2017 to produce Footprints On The Moon at the Finborough Theatre. We have a desire to reveal stories that explore truth and the human story behind real world issues, in the hope of sparking change. Our second co-production was Seeds (Spring 2020). Our next production will be 'Before Evening Comes' at Theatre503 in 2022.
ASSOCIATE DIRECTING (THEATRE)
Associate Director at Theatre 503 ( 2019-2021).
Trainee Artistic Director (Associate Director) tiata fahodzi (2017-2019)
good dog by Arinzé Kene. tiata fahodzi and Tara Finney Productions in association with Watford Palace Theatre, Spring 2019 UK tour, 14 venues. Dir. Natalie Ibu.
The Hackney Volpone, The Rose Lipman Building. Dir. Anna Jones.
Flowering Cherry by Robert Bolt, Finborough Theatre. Dir. Ben Whitrow.
ASSISTANT DIRECTING
mixed brain, a tiata fahodzi and Paines Plough co-production, Roundabout Summer Hall Edinburgh. Dir. Natalie Ibu.
Macbeth, Dorfman National Theatre, Stratford Circus and Schools tour. Dir. Justin Audibert.
Romeo & Juliet, Dorfman National Theatre, Stratford Circus and Schools tour. Dir. Bijan Sheibani.
Cuttin’ It, a Young Vic/Royal Court Theatre co-production with Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Sheffield Theatres and The Yard Theatre (Part of the Young Vic’s Jerwood Assistant Director Programme 2016, supported by the Jerwood Charitable Foundation). Dir. Gbolahan Obisesan.
Plaques & Tangles, Royal Court Theatre. Dir. Lucy Morrison.
Alpha Beta, Finborough Theatre. Dir. Purni Morell.
Idomeneus, Gate Theatre. Dir. Ellen McDougall.
Henry the Fifth, Unicorn Theatre. Dir. Ellen McDougall.
Three Generations of Women, Greenwich Theatre (and touring). Dir. Ria Parry.
Andy Capp The Musical, Finborough Theatre. Dir. Jake Smith.
A Doll’s House, Young Vic Theatre (as Boris Karloff Trainee Assistant Director). Dir. Carrie Cracknell.