Lucy Gough

Creative Research Fellow
BA Hons (Wales)MA

Contact

Email: lug3@aber.ac.uk
Office: FS1 Parry-Williams
Phone: 01970 622216
Fax: 01970 622831

Responsibilities

Creative Research Fellow

Research

As a professional playwright writing for Theatre, Radio and Television my areas of research focus on what happens to text when it crosses from one medium to another. Radio to film, stage to radio, film to radio etc. Also adaptation from the Novel to drama.

The positioning of the writer in physical theatre.

Biography

Received a degree in Single Honours Drama at Aberystwyth University in 1985. I went on to do the M.A. in Playwrighting at Birmingham University in its inaugural year (1989). The course was set up and taught by David Edgar.

In the following years I was commissioned to write plays for companies such as Theatr Iolo, Arad Coch, Theatre Clwyd Outreach, Fallen Angel. In 1994 my first radio play (Our Lady Of Shadows) was commissioned and broadcast on BBC Radio 3, directed by Richard Wortley.

In 1994 my play crossing the bar (a stage play) was short listed for the John Whiting Award and also the BBC Wales Writer of the Year award.

In !997 (from my experience of writing for young people) I joined Phil Redmond (Mersey Television) and three other writers on his new soap Hollyoaks commissioned by Channel 4. I wrote regularly for Hollyoaks for ten years although continuing to write for Theatre and BBC Radio (4 and BBC World Service).

In 2010 I spent 3 months as Granada Artist In Residence at U.C. Davis California. This culminated in a production of my play Hinterland. This was a cross-platform work, a radio play and a stage play both simultaneously broadcast on radio and performed for an audience in the Theatre. Interestingly this experience had similarities with the British Council funded Croation National Radio broadcast in Croatian (Zagreb - British Festival) of crossing the bar as a Radio Play, in which the audience sat in a darkened Theatre and watched the recording of the play.

In 2010 I wrote a ‘short film’ adaption of my radio play ‘Man In Black’ Radio 4 series piece The White Hare. This was filmed near Aberystwyth in 2011.

I have had Radio plays performed as Theatre pieces (Our Lady Of Shadows), Theatre plays broadcast as Radio (crossing the bar, Mapping The Soul) ,I have adapted a Novel for both Radio and Stage (Wuthering Heights), adapted a radio play to a Film script (The White Hare). I have written three Radio Drama documentaries exploring: The writing of a novel (The Red Room – Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte with material from Glyn Hughes); Mythological characters (The Mermaids Tail – with material from Marina Warner); a painting (Judith beheading Holofernes from the painting by Artemesia Gentileschi with material from Germaine Greer). I have also taken poems; Tennysons ‘Lady of Shalott’ (Our Lady Of Shadows) and Keats ‘The Pot of Basil’ (Head) and reinvented them for a contemporary audience.

So my portfolio of work crosses the mediums of Theatre, Radio and T.V./Film. These crossovers have now become my area of interest and research. I recently completed a Creative Wales Award. (September 2010-January 2012) from the Arts Council of Wales. The title of my research program was ‘Beyond Words’, and in it I explored the role of the Writer in Physical Theatre, another crossover.

As always I have a number of projects under development these include T.V. series treatments, Novel adaption’s and Film scripts.

I currently write for the BBC 1 continuing drama series Doctors, and will shortly be starting work on two Stage commissions, one of which is an adaptation of Dylan Thomas short stories.

Shortlisted for BBC WALES DRAMA AWARD 2012

I have been Funded by the Welsh Office to write a stage adaptaation of 'Adventures in the skin trade', a collection of short stories by Dylan Thomas, for Theatr Iolo.

I have been commissioned by the National Theatre of Wales to wrie a play about the artist Brenda Chamberlain.

Teaching

Radio drama writing, playwrighting, performance text.

Module coordinator:

TP22020 Writing for Theatre

Module Contributor:

TP1032 Performance Text

TFM1630 Writing Radio Drama

Publications

Crossing The Bar, Head, Our Lady Shadows, PUBLISHED BY SEREN IN 2000.

‘ONE WOMEN ONE VOICE’. Two Monologues from The Red Room and The Mermaids Tail in this collection, PUBLISHED BY PARTHIAN IN 2000.

By A Thread, The Raft , PUBLISHED BY METHUEN 2006.

Wuthering Heights (Stage Adaptation) PUBLISHED BY NICK HERN 2012.

Doctors BBC 1 (broadcast) 2012.

Wuthering Heights. Stage. Aberystwyth Arts Centre. (performance) Toured Wales 2011

Western Stars. BBC Radio Wales. (performance) 2012

Western Stars. BBC Radio 4. (performance) 2011

Mapping the Soul. Castaway Community Theatre Aberystwyth 26-28^th May (performance)2011

Gryfhead. On The Edge season. Rehearsed Reading, Cardiff and tour. (performance) 1^st May 2010

Crossing The Bar. OrigIn Theatre rehearsed reading New York (performance) 10^th 2010

Gryfhead. Origin Theatre rehearsed reading New York. (performance) May 2008

The White Hare. BBC 7 Radio. (broadcast) 2008

Mermaids Tail. Bangor University student performance as research. (performance) 2010

Additional Interests

Details of companies I have been commissioned by and a list of current work can be found at my Agents website:-

http://www.theagency.co.uk/clients/clientdisplay.html?viewListing=MzQ1

A SELECTION OF MY MOST RECENT PRODUCED WORK.

Doctors BBC 1 2012.

Wuthering Heights. Stage. Aberystwyth Arts Centre. Toured Wales 2011

Western Stars. BBC Radio Wales. 2012

Western Stars. BBC Radio 4. 2011

Mapping the Soul. Castaway Community Theatre Aberystwyth 26-28^th May 2011

Gryfhead. On The Edge season. Rehearsed Reading, Cardiff and tour. 1^st May 2010

Crossing The Bar. OrigIn Theatre rehearsed reading New York May 10^th 2010

Mermaids Tail. Bangor University student performance as research. 2010

Hinterland. Main theatre U.C. Davis California. 2010

Gryfhead. Origin Theatre rehearsed reading New York. May 2008

The White Hare. BBC 7 Radio. 2008

My plays have been translated and performed in other countries and are studied in a number of schools and universities, both in UK and internationally.

I was commissioned to write a study aid for schools at key stage 3 by the W.J.E.C. to accompany my play By a Thread

Over the last twenty years I have given Writing Workshops for the BBC, the Birmingham Rep, Stagecoach, Sgript, The Arfon Centre, and many others.

LISTED BELOW ARE A FEW RECENT EXAMPLES.

I Creu , Writing day for Creative and Cultural Enterprises.

Trinity University Carmarthen. 24^TH Feb 2010.

MFA directing students. U.C. Davis California. Nov 2010

Writers Day Dylan Thomas Centre Swansea 16^TH March 2011

Greynog residency. Writing Radio day.

M.A. Scriptwriting The Atrium. 1^ST May 2010.

Young film makers Academi. Workshop day on Scriptwriting. Aberysytwyth Arts Centre. April 2010-April 2011

Guest lectures and papers include amongst others.;

20/20 Birmingham Playwriting Conference 13/14 March 2010. 10 minute play commissioned by and performed by Birmingham University with 19 other working Playwright graduates of the M.A. to celebrate its 20^TH year.

‘A Writers view on the substance of Myth’ - Symposium On Myth and Theatre Aberystwyth Arts Centre. 9^th Feb 2010

UC Davis California, one day symposium – ‘Acting and Identity’ , gave paper on ‘Creating Identity’.October 22^nd 2010

Half day symposium for invited faculty from Mind Institute and Dept of Theatre and Dance U.C. Davis. Linked to the performance of Hinterland. Where I debated the existence of the soul with a Neuroscientist.

Radio Studies Network 2000 Goldsmiths University, London

M.A. in Playwrighting, University of Birmingham.

Trinity College Carmarthen.

Swansea Continuing Education College.

Bath Literature Festival,

Rich Text Festival Aberystwyth, ‘

Sounding Out’ Stafford university.

Hull University.

I am on the contributor list for Arts shows and morning radio shows on BBC Radio Wales, and contribute to discussions on such things as soap writing, scriptwriting and adaptation etc.