Plays for 5 December She Writes

5 December 2012, She Writes presents ‘Passions’

As regular visitors to this site will know, we started the She Writes showcase in October 2011, and by the time the last show of 2012 has taken place on 5 December, 48 short plays will have been showcased, by 32 female playwrights from across the UK. This is an amazing total of work by women introduced to the Whitstable audience – you would be hard pressed to see this much work by women in London in several years!

We are delighted that we’ve been able to introduce so many talented women writers to our audience. Why does it matter? If most plays you can see are written by men, then we get into the situation where the same stories are told, over and over again. It is time to tell the story from the other side – that’s why it matters.

We are happy to announce the plays for the next She Writes – the final show of the year on the topic of ‘Passions’ – are from:

Sarah Davies: a Kent-based drama lecturer, director and playwright. Sarah is New Writing South’s Squad Associate (Kent) and a reviewer for Total Theatre Magazine. Sarah also directs She Writes.

Maggie Drury: a Kent-based writer who has showcased plays at the Red Hedgehog, the Old Red Lion and the John Gielgud, a full-length play was performed at the Blue Elephant, Camberwell.

Sam Hall: a Kent-based playwright, who founded 17Percent in 2009. Her plays have been performed in London and Kent. She has spoken about women playwrights internationally and in the UK, and has recently been interviewed by the BBC’s Inside Out for a feature on Aphra Behn and female playwrights.

SM Jenkin: born and raised in Medway, she has been writing since 2004 when she did an evening course at the adult education centre. This is her third short play to be showcased at She Writes.

Melissa Keighley: wrote a column for the Thanet Adscene for two years called ‘Life with Melissa’. In 2009 she completed an MA in creative writing. In 2011 her short play, Champion, was produced at the Theatre Royal Margate.

Ali Kemp & Deborah Klayman: both performers, and co-founders of Whoop ‘n’ Wail Theatre Company. Their debut play, eXclusion, toured the Edinburgh Fringe, Waterloo East Theatre and South Hill Park Arts Centre in 2011.

After this show, we will be taking a short seasonal break, then She Writes will be back in the new year with more news of our showcases.