n/a

n/a

St John's Junior School, Fenby Avenue, Darlington, Co Durham, UK

1999

Northern Line Theatre Company

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-

I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

TIE/Racism

Youth Audiences

1

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-

Notes: Banners help to prompt the children to remember the pivotal points of the story. Each show lasts about 45 minutes and can be performed in a school hall. A workshop follows in which children can be asked to find ways to communicate without using words.

Synopsis: Colours was written as a direct response to the Stephen Lawrence Enquiry. A Narrator tells the story of two races of people - one blue, the other red - who for centuries are ignorant of one another - until one "discovers" the other and in the consequent culture clash, fear and prejudice raise their ugly heads, leading both sides to the brink of a catastrophic war which is only pacified by the sudden appearance on the battlefield of two purple children. The Narrator also doubles up with speaking parts for certain characters such as the Policeman, the Army General and the Prime Minister. Performed approximately 35 times and twice in Seattle, USA in November 1999. For 7/8 year olds +

Darlington College of Technology, UK

1985

The Poor Theatre

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

Political Drama

Play/Drama

1

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-

Notes: I adapted this as a one-man show because it served for how I personally felt in 1985 - a year after the Miner's strike, riots and and great turmoil in British society. Rumours abounded that filmed sequences of the strikes were re-arranged on government orders and shown on national television to give the impression miners were the aggressors and police the victims. In 1985 media news outlets were limited. It tore me apart, this idea that the beloved Establishment, the very fabric that made up my daily existence, all I believed in, all I trusted, would betray me by manipulating me like a puppet.

Synopsis: Adapted from the novel by Alberto Moravia. Seduced by an older man whilst still a teenager, Marcello Clerici's guilt is so great he mistakenly believes he has killed his aggressor, a chauffeur and so becomes a model Fascist in 1930's Italy, conforming to the Fascist ideals with vigour. A refugee at the close of WW2, he bumps into the chauffeur - who survived - and Marcello's dedicated life - like the Fascist Ideal - crumbles into insignificance.

Rosehill Theatre, Whitehaven, Cumbria

2001

Northern Line

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

-

Comedy

3

1

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Notes: Two act play adapted from Steve Martin's "Roxanne" and Edmond Rostand's "Cyrano de Bergerac. Directed by Tony Stowers and Philip Parr

Synopsis: Publicly Cy Smith is a dustbin man with a big nos and a desire to strive for originality whatever the cost. Privately, he's one of the U.K's leading poets. Chris a local jack-the-lad, good looking but as dumb as a bag of hammers, returns from a labouring job while Roxy the bar maid starts working at the local, run by Mr. Digweed. With Cy's poesy fed into a mouth otherwise full of burgers and lager, Chris attempts, fails and eventually discovers the truth. Then the audience and Cy discover some truths about the "real" Roxy.

Reid Street Junior School, Darlington, UK

1997

Northern Line Theatre Company

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-

I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

TIE/Bullying

Youth Audiences

2

1

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Notes: I incorporated many memories of my own I had when I was bullied at secondary school as well as research with Durham County Council. Although the props and set were rudimentary, the energy was outstanding and, with its interactive workshop, Harry's Dream (and then later Harry's Dream 2) was performed hundreds of times at over 125 primary/junior schools in the North of England for almost 3 years, as well as being translated into French and almost making it into a French production. (We tried !)

Synopsis: bullies in his school. He's not sure what to do. A Green Girl in her spaceship crashes behind the school bike sheds and, as he sets about helping her to repair it, she learns of his problems and helps him devise a way to combat bullying - without resorting to violence himself.

Cockerton Junior School, Darlington, UK

1999

Northern Line Theatre Company

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-

I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

TIE/Drugs Awareness

Youth Audiences

1

2

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Notes: Commissioned by and researched with Darlington Borough Council, the show aimed at drug awareness in primary ages, drugs commonly found in the home or life. The 1st tour featured a set we then ditched, subsequent performances focussing on the door, the key and " Divvy " and was written in an A, B, C, B rhyming scheme. It featured one of the North East's most respected artists. To deal with the seriousness of the subject and the sensitivity of the young audience, the verse made the subject user-friendly.

Synopsis: David " Divvy " Ford, his brain locked Like a door, until one day he found his key and changed forever

The Creperie Theatre, London

1989

Camouflage Theatre Company

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

Adult Drama

Play/Drama

1

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-

Notes: First performed in a rudimentary form to about 50 farm volunteers on Moshav Hatzeva in the Negev Desert, Israel, March 1989 and then The Rose & Crown, Stoke Newington, London in September 1990. Almost no props, pure raw poetic energy.

Synopsis: Three immigrants to London discuss what they left behind, what brought them to them to London and whether or not their dreams match their realities.

St Christopher's High School, West Accrington, Lancs, UK

1998

Northern Line Theatre Company

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

TIE/Drugs/Damage Limitation

Youth Audiences

3

1

-

Notes: A simple presentation: audience on 3 sides, same level as performers, one chair in each corner for the actors when not onstage, simply lit and amplified, props stripped down to two or three chairs. For 11 +.

Synopsis: Part-funded by Durham County Council and sponsored by Lifeline Lancs, MBJ tells in short scenes, the story of teenage Jake who, despite denials to his struggling Mum and trusting younger brother, continues to deal household detergents, paracetomol and other commonly found substances and passes them off as Class A drugs in local nightclubs. Following a spate of hospitalizations, the police home in on one particular club and eventually catch Jake bang-to-rights. He is sent to a YOI where he finally is forced to come to terms with the effect his betrayal of family trust has had on all those around him. "Pressure" was written as a follow-up to MBJ (showing how Jake struggles to cope after his release from the YOI) but was never performed. My Brother Jake was performed around 50 times over two years. R&D with Middlesbrough Police.

North Wing, The Buddle Arts Centre, Wallsend, Tyne & Wear

2004

Associated Professional Artists

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-

I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

Adult Drama

Play/Drama

3

1

-

Notes: Only performed once, and funded by Northern Arts, it featured actors from the former Actor's Centre North East, set and props by a Live Theatre set designer, sfx by a well-known audiovisual company, music by a Croatian musician and some experimental, promenade theatre for an invited audience. The night of the action was set on the same day the people of Baghdad tore down the statue of Saddam Hussein and one of the play's purposes was to compare genuine pornography on the small screen with the " pornography " of the television war which, as in 1985 with the Miner's Strikes, we were being asked to buy into.

Synopsis: This the story of Velasquez, a Newcastle-based southerner, trapped in a spiral of lousy jobs. One night she and Col decide to take heroin with Mick, a merchant seaman who's smuggled some through Customs at Blyth, with a local contraband dealer, Dirk, operating from his fortress of a council house. Dirk overdoses and dies. The other three have to decide what to do with the most hated man in town.

Durham Johnston RC Comprehensive

1998

Northern Line Theatre Company

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

TIE (School Transport Vandalism)

Youth Audiences

3

1

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Notes: The running time is about 45 minutes. It can be lit with four lights and one or two t-bars. Sound amplification of specific SFX are also used. The audience is arranged on three sides on the same level as the actors, limiting the audiences to about 75 at a sitting. Ideally it needs to be performed in a space with raked seating for visibility. Most school halls lack this. Three seats were scavenged from a bus-breakers yard - one twin seat. They double up as chairs in the home and chairs on the bush. The play is made up of short, sharp scenes and actors stay onstage at all times in the four corners of the performance space.

Synopsis: A serious incident occurs when a bottle is thrown from the window of the top deck of a bus ferrying teenagers from their school to the town centre, involving an injury to a child on the pavement below. Suspects are whittled down to 3. 1 is guilty but the unwritten "grass" law holds firm. The Head Teacher threatens all 3 with expulsion and gives them 3 days to make up their minds. The guilty pupil eventually owns up after undergoing his own ordeal of understanding, when he realizes the child is a distant relative of his. Commissioned by Durham County Council in 1998 and subsequently sponsored by Stagecoach for a tour of schools in Cumbria and Lancashire, Scars was performed 13 times. 11+ age group.

Darlington Youth Theatre, Co Durham, UK

1983

Brevity Theatre

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

Adult Drama

Play/Drama

2

1

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Notes: This play was featured in a " foursome " presentation of local theatre companies - the other three were amateur farces performed by retired, amateur actors. We stuck out like a sore thumb, thankfully.

Synopsis: young lonely man in a bedsit meets another young lonely man. They go back to the bedsit together. Later on a disturbed middle-aged woman joins them. They all talk. Envy and mis-trust form. Alliances shift. The second young man leaves, followed by the woman. In between, they talk about absolutely nothing of any real purpose other than repetitions of words that bear no relationship to their real emotions.

Etcetera Theatre, London >>>

2004

Associated Professional Artists

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-

I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

Solo

Play/Drama

1

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Notes: Directed by Philip Parr. Reviewed by Time Out, The Stage and The Guardian

Synopsis: A one man show telling the half true story of John Sherwood, a man who may or may not have existed, who fleeced millions from Eastern Europe after the fall of Communism in 1989, armed with nothing else than a telephone, a fax machine and empty promises of the consumer rewards of capitalism. Performed 24 consecutive nights in a heatwave - and a business suit, a briefcase full of props, a swivel chair and track excerpts from Killing Joke, EMF, Nirvana and The Stone Roses

Darlington Youth Theatre, Co Durham, UK

1983

Brevity Theatre

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

Asbtract/Surreal Drama

Play/Drama

3

1

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Notes: This was the first serious piece of work I put on. It featured three friends and myself. Three of us went on to Drama Schools afterwards and one of us has become very well-known on UK tv screens.

Synopsis: Waiting Room one dark cold night somewhere in the North east of England, four years into Margaret Thatcher's first term of office. A lonely figure stares into space - until the arrival of a dysfunctional family whose unholy mission, it seems, is to try and save the poor boy's soul.

The End, Scotswood Road, Newcastle-upon-Tyne

2006

Associated Professional Artists

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-

I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

-

Play/Drama

2

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doubling

Notes: The end is otherwise known as a gay bar and was kind enough to host this play first produced as a work-in-progress at Live Theatre (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) in November 1999. Directed by Tony Stowers, with Dave Hannah and Terry Betts. The same two actors doubled up as four different characters. Could be classed as an anti-homophobic play. Reviewed by the Metro.

Synopsis: A typical Saturday night in a small North Eastern town. Two pairs of friends - one pair gay and the other straight - prepare for a night out. Violence, hypocrisy and frustration abound as men struggle to come to terms with their feelings and emotions in a masculine culture.