Beyond The Canon: The Writers Room Beyond The Canon

In the last episode of season 2, we are joined by writer and playwright Vinay Patel.   Vinay’s debut play, True Brits, opened at the Edinburgh Fringe 2014, before transferring to the Bush Theatre and Vault Festival. His latest play, An Adventure, ran at the Bush in late 2018. His first piece for television, Murdered By My Father, won the Royal Television Society award for Best Single Drama and was nominated for three BAFTAs. Vinay was named a BAFTA Breakthrough Brit for his work.  He has since written for Paines Plough, ITV, Channel 4 and the BFI, as well as contributing to the bestselling collection of essays, The Good Immigrant. Most recently, Vinay wrote for the 11th and 12th series of Doctor Who - receiving a Hugo nomination - and is developing further projects for TV, theatre and film.  

Find out more about Vinay Patel at www.beyondthecanon.com   

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In our penultimate episode of season 2, we are joined by the incredible actor, playwright, director and broadcaster Kwame Kwei-Armah.  Kwame is a British actor, playwright, director and broadcaster. In 2018 he was made Artistic Director of the Young Vic Theatre, where he has directed Twelfth Night and Tree. From 2011 to 2018 he was previously the Artistic Director of Baltimore Center Stage where he directed: Jazz, Marley, One Night in Miami, Amadeus, Dance of the Holy Ghosts, The Mountaintop; An Enemy of the People, The Whipping Man and Things of Dry Hours.  Other work as a director includes: Twelfth Night, Comedy of Errors, Much Ado About Nothing, Detroit’67 (Public Theatre, New York), The Liquid Plain (Signature Theatre, New York and Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Porgy and Bess (Baltimore Symphony Orchestra) the Olivier Nominated One night in Miami for Best New Play 2016 (Donmar Warehouse) and One Love (Birmingham Repertory Theatre).   

As a playwright his credits include Tree (Manchester International Festival, Young Vic), One Love (Birmingham Repertory Theatre), Beneatha’s Place (Baltimore Center Stage) Elmina’s Kitchen, Fix Up, Statement of Regret (National Theatre) Let There Be Love and Seize the Day (Tricycle Theatre).   Kwame was Artistic Director for the Festival of Black arts and Culture, Senegal, in 2010. He conceived and directed the opening ceremony at Senghor National stadium. He was an Associate Director of the Donmar Warehouse and has served on the boards of the National Theatre, Tricycle Theatre, and Theatre Communications Group. Kwame was the Chancellor of the University of the Arts London from 2010 to 2015, and in 2012 was awarded an OBE for Services to Drama.  In 2012, 2013 and 2014 Kwame was named Best Director in City Paper’s Best of Baltimore Awards and in 2015 was nominated for the prestigious Stage Directors and Choreographers Zelda Fichandler Award for Best Regional Artistic Director. In 2016 he was awarded the Urban Visionary Award alongside House Representative Elijah Cummings by the Center for Urban Families for his work in the Baltimore community. In 2019 he was appointed the Chair of the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting. Kwame is a patron of Ballet Black and a visiting fellow of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University. 



Find out more about Kwame at www.beyondthecanon.com    



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In this episode we are joined by the incredible theatre journalist and playwright Satinder Chohan.    Satinder Kaur Chohan is from Southall, West London and completed her BA in English Language and Literature at King’s College London and her MA at Yale University in the US. A journalist and documentary researcher/assistant producer turned playwright from Southall, West London, her plays include Zameen (Kali Theatre UK tour), KabaddiKabaddiKabaddi (Pursued By A Bear/Kali tour), Made in India (Tamasha Theatre, UK tour) and 1984 (Vibrant Festival, Finborough Theatre). As Writer-in-Residence at the Centre for Family Research (Cambridge University), she wrote youth play Half of Me(Tamasha/Generation Arts, Lyric Hammersmith/Made in India tour). 

She received OffWestEnd.com’s 2013 Adopt A Playwright Award and the 2017 ACTA Award for Best Production for Made in India. Audio dramas include Garlands (BBC Radio 3), Steam Rises (Tamasha/National Archives), an audio (and play) adaptation of The Girl of Ink and Stars and Secret Stories (Spark Arts), working with local families in Leicester. In 2016, The Guardian/4th Estate Prize shortlisted her short story 'Chet'. She is currently developing plays including Lotus Beauty (Hampstead Theatre) about multigenerational British Asian women and Empire of the Mind (Sphinx 30 initiative/Kali) about Britain’s imperial past and legacy, short film Bussing and Pind, a novel about the Punjabi diaspora.    

Find out more about Sinder at http://www.beyondthecanon.com

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In this episode we are joined by the incredible theatre artist and playwright Jeff Ho.   Jeff Ho is a Toronto-based theatre artist, originally from Hong Kong. As a playwright, his works include Iphigenia and the Furies (On Taurian Land), produced by Saga Collectif; Antigone: 方, produced by Young People's Theatre; and trace, produced by Factory Theatre/ b current performing arts. He has held residencies with the Stratford Festival, Nightswimming, Cahoots, the Banff Playwrights Lab, Factory Theatre, and is the current Bulmash-Siegel Playwright in Residence with the Tarragon Theatre. His works are published by Playwrights Canada Press.  

Jeff is grateful to have been honoured with a Toronto Theatre Critics Award for Best New Canadian Play (Iphigenia); nominated for three Dora Awards, twice for Performance (Prince Hamlet, Hana’s Suitcase) and once as a Playwright (Iphigenia); a Harold Award (House of Nadia Ross). He is a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada.     

Find out more about Jeff Ho at http://www.beyondthecanon.com/   



Intro Music: Chill Soul Rap Instrumental by Nkato https://soundcloud.com/nkato  Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0  Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/chill-soul-rap-instrumental  Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/sdfcUBhRlgs "

In this episode we are joined by the incredible playwright and historian Amy Ng. Amy is a British-Hong Kong playwright.   Her plays include UNDER THE UMBRELLA (Belgrade Theatre Coventry, UK Tour), ACCEPTANCE (Hampstead Theatre) and SHANGRI-LA (Finborough Theatre).  Adaptations include MISS JULIE (Chester Storyhouse).  Radio plays include TIGER GIRLS (BBC Radio 4) and KILBURN PASSION (BBC Radio 3).  She is under commission to the Royal Shakespeare Company and Kiln Theatre, and is developing her play THATCHER IN CHINA at the National Theatre Studio.  She is also part of the inaugural Genesis Almeida New Playwrights Big Plays programme, as well as the Young Vic and Sky Stage and Screen commissioning scheme.     Amy is also a historian, and is the author of ‘Nationalism and Political Liberty’ (Oxford University Press). She is fluent in English, German and Chinese and regularly translates Chinese plays into English.   

Find out more about Amy Ng at http://www.beyondthecanon.com/   



Intro Music: Chill Soul Rap Instrumental by Nkato https://soundcloud.com/nkato  Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0  Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/chill-soul-rap-instrumental  Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/sdfcUBhRlgs

This week we have a special round-table talk with pioneering play specialists of the world’s best play anthologies, featuring Dalbir Singh, Kathy Perkins, Simeilia Hodge-Dallaway and hosted by Sarudzayi Marufu.   

Find out more about Beyond The Canon and our guests at beyondthecanon.com



Kathy A. Perkins, scholar and lighting designer, is the editor/co-editor of six anthologies, in addition to serving as a senior editor for the Routledge Companion to African American Theatre and Performance. A recipient of numerous research and design awards, including Fulbright, NEH, NAACP Image Award, the USITT Publication Award, and the ATHE Career Achievement Award in Academic Theatre, she has traveled to over forty countries as both designer and scholar. Kathy has designed nationally and internationally at such venues as Berkeley Repertory, Arena Stage, St. Louis Black Repertory, Baltimore Center Stage, Goodman, Steppenwolf, Yale Repertory, Manhattan Theatre Club, American Conservatory, Mark Taper Forum, Congo Square, and the Grahamstown Festival in South Africa. Kathy is Professor Emerita at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.



Dalbir Singh is a Ph.D. candidate in Performance Studies at the   University of Toronto. He taught courses there as well as at the   University of Waterloo and the University of Guelph. At Waterloo, he   taught the first theatre course exclusively focused on racial identity   and Canadian theatre. He has edited five collections of plays and   critical essays on topics including Tamil culture and identity, post-colonial theatre, South Asian Canadian drama, and queer Canadian theatre.



Simeilia Hodge-Dallaway is Founder/Artistic Director of Beyond The Canon, Founder of Artistic Directors of the Future, Executive Producer & Senior Coordinating Producer of Black Lives, Black Words International Project and is curatorial consultant for Manchester International Festival. Simeilia has also been former troubleshooter and Manager of the National Theatre's Black Play Archive, Editor of the first monologue anthology for Black Plays inspired by black British Plays: The Oberon Book of Monologues for Black Actors: Classical and Contemporary Speeches from Black British Plays which was followed by a second monologue anthology published by Bloomsbury Methuen Drama: Audition Speeches for Black, South Asian and Middle Eastern Actors, interim Associate Producer at Theatre Royal Stratford East and former Trustee at Company of Angels Theatre Company. She also worked nationally and internationally as a theatre director, producer, dramaturg, teacher/guest lecturer and audience development consultant. Simeilia is currently a member of the editorial team for the Backpages Selection of the Contemporary Theatre Review (Routledge/UK) and editor for The Stage Newspaper. In 2017, Simeilia was appointed as a trustee for the Directors Guild of Great Britain.



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