Paul Sirett – författare

Shortlisted for the STR Theatre Book Prize 2023A manifesto for the future of playwriting, this book challenges you to be a part of that future in the belief that it is fundamentally important to write plays. Plays help us understand ourselves, others, and the world around us. Reading this book, you will be challenged to learn your craft, explode what you know, prioritise what is important to you, and write in the way that only you can write.Most books on playwriting explain how to create a believable character in a story driven by plot. This book, however, goes even further in its exploration of the playwright’s most valuable tool: theatricality. By learning from the past, and the present, the playwrights of tomorrow can create new, vivid, theatrical drama for the future.This manifesto also examines the process of writing, the art of collaboration, and the impact of writing on a playwright’s mental health. It identifies the highs and lows, as well as the trials and tribulations, of life as a playwright in today’s world. Theatre is a living artform. It is time for playwrights to acknowledge that fact and to celebrate the unique, primal thrill that a live theatre experience offers us. The future of playwriting is in your hands. Do you accept the challenge?

Shortlisted for the STR Theatre Book Prize 2023A manifesto for the future of playwriting, this book challenges you to be a part of that future in the belief that it is fundamentally important to write plays. Plays help us understand ourselves, others, and the world around us. Reading this book, you will be challenged to learn your craft, explode what you know, prioritise what is important to you, and write in the way that only you can write.Most books on playwriting explain how to create a believable character in a story driven by plot. This book, however, goes even further in its exploration of the playwright’s most valuable tool: theatricality. By learning from the past, and the present, the playwrights of tomorrow can create new, vivid, theatrical drama for the future.This manifesto also examines the process of writing, the art of collaboration, and the impact of writing on a playwright’s mental health. It identifies the highs and lows, as well as the trials and tribulations, of life as a playwright in today’s world. Theatre is a living artform. It is time for playwrights to acknowledge that fact and to celebrate the unique, primal thrill that a live theatre experience offers us. The future of playwriting is in your hands. Do you accept the challenge?

Shortlisted for the STR Theatre Book Prize 2023A manifesto for the future of playwriting, this book challenges you to be a part of that future in the belief that it is fundamentally important to write plays. Plays help us understand ourselves, others, and the world around us. Reading this book, you will be challenged to learn your craft, explode what you know, prioritise what is important to you, and write in the way that only you can write.Most books on playwriting explain how to create a believable character in a story driven by plot. This book, however, goes even further in its exploration of the playwright''s most valuable tool: theatricality. By learning from the past, and the present, the playwrights of tomorrow can create new, vivid, theatrical drama for the future.This manifesto also examines the process of writing, the art of collaboration, and the impact of writing on a playwright''s mental health. It identifies the highs and lows, as well as the trials and tribulations, of life as a playwright in today''s world. Theatre is a living artform. It is time for playwrights to acknowledge that fact and to celebrate the unique, primal thrill that a live theatre experience offers us. The future of playwriting is in your hands. Do you accept the challenge?

Shortlisted for the STR Theatre Book Prize 2023A manifesto for the future of playwriting, this book challenges you to be a part of that future in the belief that it is fundamentally important to write plays. Plays help us understand ourselves, others, and the world around us. Reading this book, you will be challenged to learn your craft, explode what you know, prioritise what is important to you, and write in the way that only you can write.Most books on playwriting explain how to create a believable character in a story driven by plot. This book, however, goes even further in its exploration of the playwright''s most valuable tool: theatricality. By learning from the past, and the present, the playwrights of tomorrow can create new, vivid, theatrical drama for the future.This manifesto also examines the process of writing, the art of collaboration, and the impact of writing on a playwright''s mental health. It identifies the highs and lows, as well as the trials and tribulations, of life as a playwright in today''s world. Theatre is a living artform. It is time for playwrights to acknowledge that fact and to celebrate the unique, primal thrill that a live theatre experience offers us. The future of playwriting is in your hands. Do you accept the challenge?

EROS!! Do your thing!It's 1950s London, and Ferdy, Bernie, Dennis and Lennie arrive from the West Indies full of expectations and aspirations.Eager to make successes of themselves, they are optimistic about what the future holds. Building this new life will take focus and sacrifice, and the young men make the bold decision to forswear wine and women for three whole years and devote themselves to their future in London. However, Sybil, Mary, Zulieka and Kathy have other ideas and the men's resolve is put to the test as the reality of life in a less-than-welcoming England makes forgoing the warmth of female company hard to resist. Will the men stick with their idea of the Big Life, or will Eros have the final say? A joyful and uplifting journey, where the story of Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost meets that of the Windrush generation in a fun-packed Ska musical. The Big Life returns to the stage twenty years after its Stratford East premiere and subsequent West End transfer.This edition was published to coincide with the February 2024 production at London's Stratford East, presented in association with Chuchu Nwagu Productions Ltd.

EROS!! Do your thing!It''s 1950s London, and Ferdy, Bernie, Dennis and Lennie arrive from the West Indies full of expectations and aspirations.Eager to make successes of themselves, they are optimistic about what the future holds. Building this new life will take focus and sacrifice, and the young men make the bold decision to forswear wine and women for three whole years and devote themselves to their future in London. However, Sybil, Mary, Zulieka and Kathy have other ideas and the men''s resolve is put to the test as the reality of life in a less-than-welcoming England makes forgoing the warmth of female company hard to resist. Will the men stick with their idea of the Big Life, or will Eros have the final say? A joyful and uplifting journey, where the story of Shakespeare''s Love''s Labour''s Lost meets that of the Windrush generation in a fun-packed Ska musical. The Big Life returns to the stage twenty years after its Stratford East premiere and subsequent West End transfer.This edition was published to coincide with the February 2024 production at London''s Stratford East, presented in association with Chuchu Nwagu Productions Ltd.

EROS!! Do your thing!It''s 1950s London, and Ferdy, Bernie, Dennis and Lennie arrive from the West Indies full of expectations and aspirations.Eager to make successes of themselves, they are optimistic about what the future holds. Building this new life will take focus and sacrifice, and the young men make the bold decision to forswear wine and women for three whole years and devote themselves to their future in London. However, Sybil, Mary, Zulieka and Kathy have other ideas and the men''s resolve is put to the test as the reality of life in a less-than-welcoming England makes forgoing the warmth of female company hard to resist. Will the men stick with their idea of the Big Life, or will Eros have the final say? A joyful and uplifting journey, where the story of Shakespeare''s Love''s Labour''s Lost meets that of the Windrush generation in a fun-packed Ska musical. The Big Life returns to the stage twenty years after its Stratford East premiere and subsequent West End transfer.This edition was published to coincide with the February 2024 production at London''s Stratford East, presented in association with Chuchu Nwagu Productions Ltd.

How do you explain the amorphous, complex discipline that is dramaturgy? This book provides the answer to that conundrum and offers a simple, effective, visual method using concrete examples that takes you from being a beginner in dramaturgy to a confident practitioner in the time it takes to read this book.Drawing on the author's tried-and-tested dramaturgical practice with text-based theatre, built up over his 30 year-long career to date, the book concentrates on three specific areas as a way of better understanding dramaturgy and the dramaturg's function within that, offering a 360-degree view of each:Roles – the multitude of roles a dramaturg might be expected to play during a careerScript Development – the areas you need to understand to get the best from a new scriptProduction – the preparation, rehearsal and performance aspects of a new productionBy exploring different perspectives in each of these areas, this book completely demystifies the practice of dramaturgy, offering a clear, practical, and accessible method for working as a dramaturg. Whether you are a seasoned dramaturg or entirely new to dramaturgy, this book provides a method by which to review, revise and renew your own practice.

How do you explain the amorphous, complex discipline that is dramaturgy? This book provides the answer to that conundrum and offers a simple, effective, visual method using concrete examples that takes you from being a beginner in dramaturgy to a confident practitioner in the time it takes to read this book.Drawing on the author's tried-and-tested dramaturgical practice with text-based theatre, built up over his 30 year-long career to date, the book concentrates on three specific areas as a way of better understanding dramaturgy and the dramaturg's function within that, offering a 360-degree view of each:Roles – the multitude of roles a dramaturg might be expected to play during a careerScript Development – the areas you need to understand to get the best from a new scriptProduction – the preparation, rehearsal and performance aspects of a new productionBy exploring different perspectives in each of these areas, this book completely demystifies the practice of dramaturgy, offering a clear, practical, and accessible method for working as a dramaturg. Whether you are a seasoned dramaturg or entirely new to dramaturgy, this book provides a method by which to review, revise and renew your own practice.

Marking its 30th anniversary, National Theatre Connections 2025 draws together ten new plays for young people to perform, from some of the UK’s most exciting and popular playwrights.These are plays for a generation of theatre-makers who want to ask questions, challenge assertions and test boundaries, and for those who love to invent and imagine a world of possibilities.The plays offer young performers an engaging and diverse range of material to perform, read or study. Wrestling with themes like the cost-of-living crisis, activism, neurodiversity, the point and pointlessness of regret, human rights, and loneliness, this collection lays bare a rich and complex terrain in which students can fully immerse themselves, explore and discover. This 2025 anthology represents the full set of ten plays offered by the National Theatre 2025 Festival, as well as comprehensive workshop notes that give insights and inspiration for building characters, running rehearsals and staging a production. Like candles on a 30th birthday cake, this collection is bright, striking and set to make a lasting impression – the culmination of the celebrations it also strikes a note of eager anticipation as the next chapter begins

Marking its 30th anniversary, National Theatre Connections 2025 draws together ten new plays for young people to perform, from some of the UK''s most exciting and popular playwrights.These are plays for a generation of theatre-makers who want to ask questions, challenge assertions and test boundaries, and for those who love to invent and imagine a world of possibilities.The plays offer young performers an engaging and diverse range of material to perform, read or study. Wrestling with themes like the cost-of-living crisis, activism, neurodiversity, the point and pointlessness of regret, human rights, and loneliness, this collection lays bare a rich and complex terrain in which students can fully immerse themselves, explore and discover. This 2025 anthology represents the full set of ten plays offered by the National Theatre 2025 Festival, as well as comprehensive workshop notes that give insights and inspiration for building characters, running rehearsals and staging a production. Like candles on a 30th birthday cake, this collection is bright, striking and set to make a lasting impression – the culmination of the celebrations it also strikes a note of eager anticipation as the next chapter begins

Marking its 30th anniversary, National Theatre Connections 2025 draws together ten new plays for young people to perform, from some of the UK''s most exciting and popular playwrights.These are plays for a generation of theatre-makers who want to ask questions, challenge assertions and test boundaries, and for those who love to invent and imagine a world of possibilities.The plays offer young performers an engaging and diverse range of material to perform, read or study. Wrestling with themes like the cost-of-living crisis, activism, neurodiversity, the point and pointlessness of regret, human rights, and loneliness, this collection lays bare a rich and complex terrain in which students can fully immerse themselves, explore and discover. This 2025 anthology represents the full set of ten plays offered by the National Theatre 2025 Festival, as well as comprehensive workshop notes that give insights and inspiration for building characters, running rehearsals and staging a production. Like candles on a 30th birthday cake, this collection is bright, striking and set to make a lasting impression – the culmination of the celebrations it also strikes a note of eager anticipation as the next chapter begins

Think about it. Think what you could achieve without women in your life. If all the time you spent on them, you spent on yourself. Think how much money you could save. Think how much aggravation you could avoid.Journeying over from the West Indies to England, Ferdy, Lennie, Dennis and Bernie are all eager to make successes of themselves and take full advantage of what they think The Big Life has to offer. So they pledge to abstain from women for three years.But Mary, Kathy, Zuleika and Sybil have other ideas. They know that man cannot live by bread alone! Will the men stick with their idea of The Big Life, or will Cupid have the final say?The Big Life is a brand new musical, a wonderfully upbeat story of unrequited love and a great comedy all rolled into one. It was produced at the Theatre Royal Stratford East, April 2004.

Includes the plays Worlds Apart, This Other Eden and International CaféAll the plays in this second volume of Paul Sirett's collected plays focus on dislocation and the clash of civilisations.Set in an airport immigration office, Worlds Apart interweaves the fates of five detainees and the officers handling them, with the Tibetan folk tale of Sukyi Nyima. In Crusade a group of Western tourists break down in the West Bank, reacting in different ways to their situation. This Other Eden portrays the disastrous personal and political divisions within a classical string quartet. The collection ends with the short play International Café which brings together the stories of a restaurant's staff and customers, and was specifically written to be performed in restaurants.

Are Africans being exploited as guinea pigs' to test new drugs for multi-national pharmaceutical companies? Why is HIV/AIDS treatment too expensive for countries where the virus is most rife? Is it okay to sacrifice lives to protect the integrity of medical studies?Bad Blood Blues is a powerfully intense new play that leads us deep into a personal and sexual moral maze while confronting the ethics of HIV/AIDS drug trials in Africa.

A contemporary retelling of a classic gothic story, inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher, set against a background of cuts to our 70 year old NHS.Alison is heading to her first shift at St Nicholas’s Hospital in Gosforth. She’s nervous. It’s a night shift on an all-male psychiatric unit and she hasn’t finished her training yet. But Rod, the senior Staff Nurse, seems to know what to do. Take a deep breath...Inspired by Alan Hull’s time working at St Nick’s the play features many of the hit songs he wrote at that time, including Winter Song, Lady Eleanor and Clear White Light played by a live band. Live Theatre wants to bring this incredible music to a new generation.Clear White Light is based on Edgar Allan Poe’s short story The Fall of the House of Usher and written by Olivier Award nominated writer Paul Sirett.

A contemporary retelling of a classic gothic story, inspired by Edgar Allan Poe''s The Fall of the House of Usher, set against a background of cuts to our 70 year old NHS.Alison is heading to her first shift at St Nicholas''s Hospital in Gosforth. She''s nervous. It''s a night shift on an all-male psychiatric unit and she hasn''t finished her training yet. But Rod, the senior Staff Nurse, seems to know what to do. Take a deep breath...Inspired by Alan Hull''s time working at St Nick''s the play features many of the hit songs he wrote at that time, including Winter Song, Lady Eleanor and Clear White Light played by a live band. Live Theatre wants to bring this incredible music to a new generation.Clear White Light is based on Edgar Allan Poe''s short story The Fall of the House of Usher and written by Olivier Award nominated writer Paul Sirett.

A Night in Tunisia and Jamaica House were produced at Stratford East, while Skaville went on a tour encompassing Edinburgh and London. A Night in Tunisia plays on a stage split between past and present, and describes the fall of a great jazz musician through self-doubt and guilt. Jamaica House features two characters in a tower block that is due to be demolished shortly, deciding whether their lives are worth leaving the building for. Skaville is about desire, escape, violence and music in the late seventies, as a stranger arrives in town to transform the fortunes of a lonely man's record shop.

Think about it. Think what you could achieve without women in your life. If all the time you spent on them, you spent on yourself. Think how much money you could save. Think how much aggravation you could avoid. Journeying over from the West Indies to England, Ferdy, Lennie, Dennis and Bernie are all eager to make successes of themselves and take full advantage of what they think The Big Life has to offer. So they pledge to abstain from women for three years. But Mary, Kathy, Zuleika and Sybil have other ideas. They know that man cannot live by bread alone! Will the men stick with their idea of The Big Life, or will Cupid have the final say? The Big Life is a brand new musical, a wonderfully upbeat story of unrequited love and a great comedy all rolled into one.