Gregory Burke

Gregory Burke (born 1968) is a Scottish playwright from Rosyth, Fife, Scotland.

Life

His family moved to Gibraltar in 1979 and returned to Dunfermline in 1984. He attended St John's Primary in Rosyth, St Christopher's Middle School and Bayside Comprehensive in Gibraltar and St Columba's High School, Dunfermline. He attended the University of Stirling for two years before dropping out. He held several jobs prior to becoming a writer.

Works

Gregory Burke's first play was Gagarin Way, set in the factories of West Fife. His play, Black Watch, for the National Theatre of Scotland, debuted at the 2006 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, meeting with critical acclaim. Black Watch has since been performed throughout Scotland and has also toured theatres internationally. He has also written Occy Eyes, The Straits, Unsecured, On Tour, Liar and Shell shocked. His most recent play was Hoors, which opened at the Traverse Theatre on 1 May 2009.^[1]

List of works

Plays

• Black Watch
• The Chain Play (with others)
• Unsecured
• Gagarin Way
• Hoors
• Liar
• On Tour
• The Party
• The Straits

Films

• '71 (2014)

Television

• One Night in Emergency (2010)

Awards

Gagarin Way (Traverse/National Theatre, 2001) won the Critics' Circle Most Promising Playwright Award, Best New Play at the TMA Barclays Awards, was joint winner of the Meyer-Whitworth Award and was nominated for the South Bank Show Theatre Award and Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play. Black Watch (National Theatre of Scotland, world tour, 2006), which won the Writers' Guild of Great Britain Award for Best Play, the South Bank Show Theatre Award in 2007 and the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play in 2009. His screenplay '71 (Warp/Crab Apple Films) was nominated for Best British Film and Best British Debut by a Director or Screenwriter at the 2015 British Academy Film Awards. The screenplay for '71 was also awarded Best Writer Film/TV at the BAFTA Scotland Awards 2016 and nominated for Best Debut Screenplay at the 2016 Writer's Guild of Great Britain Awards.

Controversy

His time at Stirling University was cut short by an attack he and three others committed on a fellow student. In May 2009 Burke turned down an honorary degree from Stirling University stating he wanted to prevent any embarrassment to the establishment. According to the victim's family he has not contacted them to apologise for this attack.^[2]

References