I’m so excited to start the development of my play ‘Bruised’ with Playwrights Realm in New York! I couldn’t believe it at first but it must be true as it’s been announced in American Theater and Playbill. Such an honour to be part of this! On the website it says there were 1,000 entries, which is very humbling and inspires deep gratitude in me. 

Please click here to find out more about the other wonderful playwrights who are part of the 2021/2022 season. 

In addition, the amazing New York-based, and ‘The Drama League’ Directing Fellow, Reena Dutt will be working alongside me to develop this text further.

Through the wonders of online connections, I hope ‘Bruised’ will become a special, unique, story that resonates with many, and says that we have to keep trying. Through this story it shows how we have to continue our work so we can solve the climate crisis, to ensure everyone is part of the solution and no one is left behind, especially those who did the least to cause this situation in the first place – humans and more-than-humans. 

Theatre can show us our love for other people and for other beings, our strength, hope and resilience, how we can use our ferocious energy for justice to do good in the world. Theatre helps us imagine a better way, a fairer planet, where every living thing can be part of this intricate web of life. 

As artists, our choices have consequences. Who funds our work matters. So, choose carefully. If our choice of subject matter is monitored, or we’re pressured (overtly or implicitly) to moderate criticism of certain important contemporary issues by those with $$, then we’re not making art. We’re making propaganda. We’re part of the marketing arm of a corporation, or corporate-linked charity, that sees artwashing as a weapon to further its own aims.

Even if our subject matter isn’t directly relevant to the practices or impact of a corporation or corporate-linked charity, even then, by taking their $$ we’re lending them our own social and professional capital at a cheap price, for a brief moment. The people who matter the most, our art-loving community, those who come to see our work, who experience our stories, listen to our sounds, are watching. They will not forgive those who betray our collective future for a few silver coins. We have a duty to educate ourselves about where the funding for our art originates from, and the harm it may have caused, before it’s laundered through us and our work.

(this image is: “Angelus Novus” by Paul Klee – his ‘angel of history’)