Bryony Lavery
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Bryony Lavery (born 1947) is a British dramatist, known for her successful and award-winning 2004 play Frozen. In addition to her work in theatre, she has also written for television and radio. She has written books including the biography Tallulah Bankhead and The Woman Writer's Handbook, and taught playwriting at Birmingham University.
Having begun her career as an actress, she decided that she was fed up with playing poor parts in plays, such as the left arm of a sofa, and decided to write plays with better parts for women.[citation needed] Early in her career she founded a theatre company called Les Oeufs Malades with actor Gerard Bell, she also founded Female Trouble, More Female Trouble and served as artistic director of Gay Sweatshop.
Her plays have a feminist undertone in them[citation needed] and she has even written plays (like More Light which has only one male speaking role) with almost entirely female casts. She has written more than twenty plays since 1976. [1]
In addition to her original plays and adaptations, she has authored translations of foreign works such as her 2007 version of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya.
She has written five plays for the National Theatre Connections series.
Contents |
[edit] Selected writings
- The Two Marias (1988)
- Her Aching Heart (1992)
- The Pink Paper's Play of the Year
- Peter Pan (1991) - a pantomime
- Goliath (1997)
- More Light (1997) - National Theatre Connections
- Frozen (1998)
- Nomination/Tony Award for Best Play
- Eileen Anderson Central Television Award
- TMA Best New Play Award
- The Magic Toyshop (2001)
- A Wedding Story (2000)
- Illyria (2000) - NT Connections
- Last Easter (2004)
- Stockholm (2007)
- Red Sky (2007, play) - NT Connections
- It Snows(2008, play) - NT Connections
[edit] Background
Lavery was raised in Yorkshire. She was married until her early thirties, but now identifies as gay.