Gillian Plowman
Gillian won the Verity Bargate Award in 1988 with ME AND MY FRIEND, a poignantly funny play about the release of four patients from a psychiatric hospital into the community. It was first produced at the Soho Poly Theatre in 1990 and at the Chichester Festival Theatre in 1992, directed by Ian Rickson.
THE PURITY GAME formed part of the opening season of Chichester's Minerva Theatre Studio in 1989. STORM was produced in Hastings and London's Soho theatre by Freehand Theatre Company in 2000/2001.
Radio plays for the BBC include: THE WOODEN PEAR in 1991 starring Anna Massey; PHILIP AND ROWENA in 1993 with Leslie Phillips and Renee Asherson; A SEA CHANGE in 1995 with Jenny Funnell and DAVID'S BIRTHDAY in 2000 with Amanda Root and Clare Holman. A film script, DAISYWORLD, was commissioned by Paramount Pictures.
BONIFACE AND ME, a radio version of YOURS ABUNDANTLY FROM ZIMBABWE, was broadcast in December 2007, the first in a trilogy of radio plays featuring Harriet Walter. GRACEY AND ME was broadcast in 2010 and LOVENESS AND ME in 2012.
YOURS ABUNDANTLY FROM ZIMBABWE*, directed by Annie Castledine was produced at the Oval House Theatre, London during Black History Month, October 2008. CROOKED WOOD was produced at the Jermyn Street Theatre, London in September 2008.
THE END OF THE JOURNEY, a full-length play directed by Pamela Howard and linked to the start of WW1 was produced at the Pavilion in Selsey in August 2014, a first production in the near derelict building for over fifty years. TONIGHT IN THE PAVILION - CHARLIE CHAPLIN was produced there in 2015 and transferred to The Cinema Museum in London in 2016. TONIGHT IN THE PAVILION - LAUREL AND HARDY was produced in the Pavilion in May 2016, THE OX AND THE ASS and SPINDRIFT in 2017, and TOUCHING TOMORROW and BEATA BEATRIX in 2018. These plays prompted planning application for the building’s renovation as a centre for the arts. Gillian directed JOURNEY'S END there in October 2018, as part of Selsey’s commemoration of the centenary of the Armistice. She is the resident playwright for the charity Arts Dream Selsey and continues to write, direct and perform in that town.
As well as ME AND MY FRIEND, plays published by Samuel French include: BEATA BEATRIX; CECILY; CLOSE TO CROYDON; DAVID'S BIRTHDAY; THE JANNA YEARS; A KIND OF VESUVIUS; PHILIP AND ROWENA; TWO SUMMERS; UMJANA LAND; THERE'S NONE SO BLIND; TIPPERS; TWO FAT MEN; TOUCHING TOMORROW; THE ALLOTMENT and THE WINDOW CLEANER. TONIGHT - CHARLIE CHAPLIN was published in 2016.
* YOURS ABUNDANTLY FROM ZIMBABWE was featured in Plays for Today by Women, published by Aurora Metro Books in 2013 and CROOKED WOOD was published by Oberon Books.