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SEAN BURN |
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Nationality: British Email: Click here to contact Website: Click here to visit |
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Literary Agent: n/a |
sean burn has had plays commissioned / staged / toured / presented by breaking binary; ctc; first draft; the door (birmingham rep); free-thinking festival (radio 3); half moon theatre; maverick productions; pegasus theatre; paines plough; queens hall arts; under construction; weaver-hughes ensemble in association with oval house theatre; zeitgeist. he has held a number of writing residencies including grampian hospitals arts trust, half moon theatre, london and pegasus theatre, oxford as well as cesta, czech republic and interarte, germany. cutter- commissioned and toured by half moon theatre was time out's play of the year for young people, 2004. he received a peggy ramsay foundation award in 2006 for taking the blood of butterflies. he graduated from an m.a. focusing on scriptwriting from newcastle university, 2008. he was shortlisted for a dadafest disability arts award 2009 for next swan down the river might be black. his thirty short films have received screenings worldwide, as well as at tate modern and national film theatre studios, london. the latest - widescream - was joint winner of 2010's old vic short monologue competition. his latest solo show - bastilles englan - taking poet john clares asylum break out and five day walk to freedom in 1841 has toured internationally. next swan down the river might be black was shortlisted for the bbc's alfred bradley bursary award, 2011 and tours nationally in spring 2012
Plays by Sean Burn
calyx | ||
| 1st Produced: | mac, birmingham, england | 24 May 2012 | ||||
Company: | gobscure | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent, where listed, at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #94068 | |||
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Genre: | contemporary drama | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 2 | Female | 2 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | if you were abducted and held for 2,000 days could you grow back into your previous life? can you now let go of the man who kept you captive for so long? this is the dilemma that calyx, eighteen and newly freed from captivity faces. a calyx is the part of a flower that protects the developing bud and this is the name that this young woman now wishes to be called. is she strong enough to fight against the circumstances of her abduction? in this lyrical play by sean burn come and witness how calyx manages to build a fragile hope for herself despite it all. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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collector of tears, the | ||
| 1st Produced: | hexham, northumberland | 2009 | ||||
Company: | queens hall arts centre | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent, where listed, at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #94066 | |||
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Genre: | full-length monologue | |||||
| Parts: | Male | - | Female | 1 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | an epic, magical and poetic monologue told across 6 centuries by a woman who cannot age until she has cried, instead collecting tears across history from people fighting for their rights. she learns to fight for human rights and also to love - taught by many remarkable women and men. she finally understands her own bisexuality, and learns to stand her ground, fighting her oppressors who have followed her down the centuries, finally crying in recognition of all this. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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cutter | ||
| 1st Produced: | Half Moon Young People's Theatre | 29 Sep 2004 | ||||
Company: | half moon theatre, london | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent, where listed, at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #54358 | |||
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Genre: | Play/Drama | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 1 | Female | 1 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | time outs play of the year for children and young people, 2004 | |||||
Synopsis: | is a full length script commissioned by half moon theatre principally for audiences aged 13 - 19. it has 2 characters (granda (kane) and his grand-daughter, louise, nicknamed cutter) & explores coal and carnival, boxing and grief, strategies for fighting and survival thru trauma. told thru various flashbacks to earlier, happier times as well as the more uncertain present - it explores carnivals roots, boxing as a discipline rather than as indiscriminate weapon, and the temptation to self-harm when all becomes too much. cutter is one of thatchers children. born in 1979, becoming 18 in 1997, she has lived thru the destruction of her mining community and watched her family die. with only her granda, an ex-boxer, ex-miner, to guide her - she has witnessed so much decline. her granda brought her up to fight but she teaches him when to still the anger, when to temper the passion with justice. now faced with his death due to emphysema & lung cancer from the mines, she finds it hard to see any future to fight for. boxing is a tool which she uses but still she longs for her mothers tendernesses. her mother died young and its been hard going raised by granda who loves her but finds it hard to show a tender side. she has resorted to self-harm at times because of her loneliness and her fears and now her grief. she is encouraged to return to the ring and fight for what she believes. regaining strength, self-determination, free from ghosts of the past, free of self-harm, she wins thru - winning the boxing bout. she gets to achieve her wish. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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ghost-tag | ||
| 1st Produced: | courtyard theatre and barrons court theatre, london | 2006 | ||||
Company: | under construction t.c. | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent, where listed, at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #54359 | |||
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Genre: | monologue Play/Drama | |||||
| Parts: | Male | - | Female | 1 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | rhiannon looks like a small town girl and single mother; but her nightlife as graffiti artist means her tag (ghost) has become admired around the world. one fateful night she saves a coppers life while out tagging and wildstyling and realises she must now move on | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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in an age of double-glazing defenestration becomes twice as hard | ||
| 1st Produced: | live theatre, bolton octagon, west yorkshire playhouse | 30 Mar 1999 | ||||
Company: | paines plough | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent, where listed, at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #54360 | |||
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Genre: | Play One Act | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 1 | Female | 1 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | Part of Black on White Shorts. play subsequently developed into a full-length script - little girl blue with a 3rd character - woman, who was mothers lover and now saves daughter, (its her music tapes posted thru letterbox to save mother and now daughter). play came second in irelands corcadorca theatre awards, 2004. final scene (4) was presented at hampstead theatre, aut 2005, directed by Vanessa Mobiglia. | |||||
Synopsis: | a power battle between father - seemingly respectable -who is abusing daughter who suffers from dissociation due to this; daughter finds freedom in tapes of music (etta james, janice joplin) mysteriously posted thru letterbox | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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next swan down the river might be black | ||
| 1st Produced: | 08 Feb 2012 | |||||
Company: | gobscure | |||||
| 1st Published: | Aurora Metro books, 08 Feb 2012 | ISBN/ASIN: | 978-1-906582- 35-7 | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #136624 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | contemporary drama | |||||
| Parts: | Male | - | Female | 3 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
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| you think you wont survive, but you do'. acclaimed playwright sean burn (time outs play of the year 2004, peggy ramsay award 2006, dadafest shortlisted artist 2009) brings you his latest play : next swan down the river might be black. this is a poetic and personal response to being sectioned under the mental health act. we follow the shifting alliances of three young women on a psychiatric ward over one momentous week. cerys, 19, black and depressive, kay, 26, white and bipolar and zee - a pakistani british student nurse and former service user are all fighting a faceless institution in their own way. at stake are their well-beings and their friendships as they struggle to find creative paths through life. the play examines diversity, friendships, sexualities and power at a time of rising uncertainties. collectively the characters ask if we can summon courage to live through it all, a theme with universal resonances. this hauntingly lyrical play has a fragile hopefulness at its core and is a huge contribution to the diversity of our society in which one in four will experience mental ill-health at some point in their lives. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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red voice | ||
| 1st Produced: | 2004 | |||||
Company: | author | |||||
| 1st Published: | in edgecities - skrev press, | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #54361 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | monologues | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 1 | Female | - | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | red voice is a sequence of monologues constructed in response to a sectioning over the 6 months prior to september '02. i tried writing the first scraps in ICU as an attempt to keep hold of recent events. staff grudgingly allowed me to write, provided i sat at 1 specific place in the secure unit main-room, at set times and while supervised, and no other disturbances occurring. writing was then locked in their office, the pen confiscated. physically negotiating the piece of paper under these conditions made me feel i was working samizdat-like, and engaged in a process of considerable struggle. on discharge i couldnt write - but managed to turn instead to recording a series of improvised monologues. red voice teases out subtleties, humour, wisdom, creativities, turning points - in short, the narratives of people who are excluded from the 'cannons' of literature and psych-narrative | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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sweet | ||
| 1st Produced: | darlington arts centre | 2007 | ||||
Company: | ctc | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent, where listed, at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #94067 | |||
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Genre: | play for young people | |||||
| Parts: | Male | - | Female | 1 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | sweet is an uplifting and exciting one-woman show starting from the two hundredth anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade in the british empire, and weaving together a rich story of four brave women whose lives together span those two centuries. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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taking the blood of butterflies | ||
| 1st Produced: | 24 Oct 2006 | |||||
Company: | Weaver Hughes Ensemble | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent, where listed, at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #58593 | |||
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Genre: | 80 min one act | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 4 | Female | 2 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | loosely adapted from Woyzeck | |||||
Synopsis: | taking the blood ov butterflies concerns the insanities of war; those who survive; those who dont. it is a radical reworking of woyzeck condensed down to 6 characters as archetypes from across cultures and to a contemporary 'peace-keeping' mission - represented by the american colonel, the english doctor, the french private - andre and german private - zek. they are 'losing the 'peace', scarcely keeping order within the perimeter. the territory 'protected' is represented by mother and her daughter - a child of war, mute since birth - but who manages to change all the other characters by performing 'magical realist' events. andre becomes the plays central character moving from a position of 'wanting to serve' thru to a loathing of war and a realisation of all that they stand for. | |||||
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voices | ||
| 1st Produced: | pegasus theatre, oxford | 28 Mar 2006 | ||||
Company: | pegasus youth theatre | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent, where listed, at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #54362 | |||
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Genre: | youth theatre play Youth Audience | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 8 | Female | 12 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | cut england out from a map & balance it on a pin; the phoenix estate where this play is set is the points where it all starts to tip over. following the death of a child killed by her stepbrother, all the youth of the local estate are placed under surveillance, curfews, bans on assemblies. they are pushed to extremes by this and other circumstances such as bullying and mental health and forced to react. some form an anti-gang creating street theatre, flyposting beautiful enigmatic statements and other moments of beauty among the urban while another group believe they are forced towards suicide bombing themselves. the two worlds collide when they both decide to take over the same space at the same time with fateful consequences. the protagonist naomi is undergoing first term psychosis as a result of the oppression; she alone can see/ hear red - a bird which has hung around the phoenix for over a thousand years, as a result of children then saving her from the hunt; can she now help naomi to win over the phoenix estate/ | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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