How I learned to stop worrying and make a living as a writer (for stage and screen)
When:
—
Venue:
Birkbeck Clore Management Centre
Hannah Khalil takes audiences on a whistle stop tour of her writing career, taking in highs and lows, and how she decided what success meant for her. She’ll also consider the state of UK theatre today and offer tips to aspiring dramatists on how to survive the rollercoaster that is life as a writer.
The talk coincides with the launching of two new degrees: MA Writing for Screen and Stage and MA Writing for Performance, and to celebrate our existing degrees, including MA Screenwriting, MA Text and Performance and MA Dramaturgy.
Q&A led by Daragh Carville.
The event takes place in the Clore Management Centre, B01, and it will also be livestreamed via Microsoft Teams. Bookings for both should be made via the same bookings page. Closer to the event, a link to the livestream will be shared with all who have booked.
The Michael Ross Playwriting Lecture is held in commemoration of Michael Ross, who died aged 40 in 2019, and is made possible through the sponsorship of his family. Michael was a playwright whose works include The Good Landlord (2019), The Shy Manifesto (2019), Work Makes You Free (2018), Blood Wedding (2017) and Happy to Help (2016), among many others.
Hannah Khalil is an Honorary Research Fellow at Birkbeck, University of London. She was the 2022 Resident Writer at Shakespeare’s Globe and her work there includes Hakawatis: Women of the Arabian Nights, Henry VIII and The Fir Tree (2021 and 2022). Hannah’s other stage plays include this summer’s sell out Edinburgh show My English Persian Kitchen which transferred to Soho Theatre, A Museum in Baghdad (Royal Shakespeare Company) which marked the first play by a woman of Arab heritage on a main stage at the RSC, Interference (National Theatre of Scotland) and the critically acclaimed Scenes from 68* Years - shortlisted for the James Tait Black Award (Arcola Theatre, London, 2016). Scenes has also been mounted in San Francisco, New York, France and in Tunisia in a British Council supported production called Trouf. Hannah’s first opera libretto, The Great Stink for young people was produced by English Touring Opera and toured the UK in Spring 2024. She has written multiple radio plays for BBC Radio 4 and TV work includes the Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks. Hannah held the Heimbold Chair of Irish Studies at Villanova University and the Samuel Beckett Research Centre Creative Fellowship. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. She has co-created the Not Beckett Festival of new plays inspired by Beckett which will tour internationally from Autumn 2024 until the end of 2025 visiting London, Paris, New York, Philadelphia and Dublin.
Contact name:
Fintan Walsh