The Playwrights' Studio is led by Creative Director, Fiona Sturgeon Shea with support from General Manager, Emma McKee. There is also an annually appointed team of Associate Playwrights.
For 2011/12, the Associate Playwrights are David Leddy and Douglas Maxwell. Previous Associates include Davey Anderson and Nicola McCartney (2010/11), Chris Dolan and Nicola McCartney (2009/10), Iain F. MacLeod, Chris Dolan and Tanika Gupta (2008/09), Rona Munro, Iain F. MacLeod and Douglas Maxwell (2007/08) Christopher Deans, Ann Marie Di Mambro and Douglas Maxwell (2006/07), Peter Arnott, John Clifford and Chris Hannan (2005/6) and David Greig, Liz Lochhead and Nicola McCartney (2004/5).
Formerly Head of Communications at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh, Fiona has worked for several important theatre companies in England and Scotland, including the Citizens Theatre, the Royal Lyceum Theatre and the Orange Tree Theatre. She recently held posts in the public sector with the Scottish Arts Council and the Scottish Government/National Health Service
General areas of responsibility include:
Meeting with playwrights, theatre companies and other theatre artists;
Emma joined Playwrights' Studio in November 2009 as the company's Administrator.
Prior to joining the organisation, Emma worked as Office Manager at Borderline Theatre Company for 3 years and for 2 years as their Administration, Research and Marketing Assistant. She has a degree in Archaeology from University of Glasgow.
General areas of responsibility include:
Ailsa Courtney : Administrator
Ailsa joined Playwrights' Studio in January 2011.
Ailsa trained as an actress at Langside College and has a degree in Theatre Arts from Northbrook College.
General areas of responsibility include:
Office management duties
Managing and co-ordinating the script reading service and mentoring projects
Assisting with marketing activity and company reporting
Faciliting company correspondence
Advocacy and representing the company at events
Claire Dow : Projects Manager
Claire is responsible for the Screen Writing Residencies and 360° Narratives projects. These projects receive Creative Future Funding through Creative Scotland’s Talent Development Investment Programme.
Claire became the General Manager of the Playwrights' Studio, Scotland in January 2007. From April 2005, she was the company's Administrator. Prior to joining Playwrights' Studio, Claire worked successfully for many years as a Stage Manager.
David Leddy
David Leddy is an award-winning playwright and director based in Glasgow, Scotland. He specialises in work that combines dramatic new writing with elements of performance art and unusual locations ranging from a graveyard to a greenhouse, from a pitch-black cupboard to his own bedroom. He sometimes even shows his work in theatres. He has been described as ‘ Scotland’s hottest, edgiest young playwright’ by The Sunday Times, a ‘theatrical maverick’ with ‘propensity for fearless experiment’ by the Financial Times and a ‘site-specific genius’ who is ‘one of Scotland’s leading theatre-makers’ by Joyce McMillan in The Scotsman. Outside Scotland his work has been shown all over the world from Boston to Buenos Aires, Santiago to Milan, Delhi to Washington. Recent prizes include the Edinburgh International Festival Fringe Award, two Herald Angel Awards and a Fringe First. He was also the first person in Scotland to complete a practice-based PhD in theatre.
Recent work includes Untitled Love Story, a piece where four narratives in four separate decades interleaved with the audience taking part in a real guided meditation; Susurrus, where the audience followed a map around a botanic garden and listened on headphones; White Tea, which took place inside a huge paper box where the audience donned white paper kimonos and sipped Japanese tea as the actors performed around them; and Sub Rosa, a gothic promenade piece in the backstage labyrinth of a Victorian theatre. More information at www.DavidLeddy.com
Douglas Maxwell is one of the most produced playwrights in Scotland. Since 2010 he has had six professional productions in this country and many more abroad. These include Promises Promises, The Miracle Man, The Bookie with music by Aly Macrae, a revival of the award winning Decky Does A Bronco, a version of Wedekind's Spring Awakening and Small Town with DC Jackson and Johnny McKnight.
During this same period he wrote the musical Watertight with music by Richard Taylor for students of the RSAMD Glasgow; Prom, a comedy for primary school pupils; and his play for young performers, Too Fast, which was performed at the National Theatre London as part of the New Connections Festival 2011. He also worked on an adaptation of Around The World in 80 Days for Lung Has.
Promises Promises transferred to New York under the title The Promise where it earned a Drama Desk Award Nomination for the actress Joanna Tope.
Previous work includes…Our Bad Magnet, Helmet, Mancub, If Destroyed True, and The Mothership, which won the Brian Way Award for Best Play For Young People in 2009.
His plays are published by Oberon and a collection of his work for young people will be released in 2012.
Linda McLean
(Chair) Playwright
Nicholas Bone
Artistic Director, Magnetic North Theatre Company
Stephen Greenhorn
Playwright
Matthew Lee
Executive Editor Cross-Media Development, BBC Scotland
Alison Marshall
Solicitor, CCW Business Lawyers
Rona Munro
Playwright
Denise Nesbitt
Executive and Organisation Development, HBOS
Playwrights' Studio, Scotland
CCA,
350 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow,
G2 3JD
Telephone: 0141-332-4403
Textphone: 0141-332-3208
E-mail: info@playwrightsstudio.co.uk
Charity Number: SC036767
Top image :: IZ by Oliver Emanuel, A Silver Tongue production.