Lorna French

Lorna French is a playwright, workshop leader and dramaturg. She is currently under commission to Pentabus Theatre Company, Limbik Theatre and the Hear Me Now monologue series (via Titilola Dawudu and Tamasha Theatre Company). Her most recent writing work includes the short play I SEE YOU NOW produced as part of the 15 Heroines plays at Jermyn Street Theatre in November 2020. Also the short radio drama NFA for Menagerie Theatre Company and the University of Cambridge in October 2020.

ESTHER, a play about Black African Caribbean women of Birmingham and the West Midlands was inspired by oral history interviews with several local women. It received a staged reading at Midlands Arts Centre (MAC) in 2019, and was made possible by a Developing Your Creative Practice award from Arts Council England. Esther was shortlisted for the Theatre Uncut Political Playwriting Award 2 in 2021 and long listed for The Women’s Prize for Playwriting 2020.

Other past work includes THE LAST FLAG, a co-written Afternoon Drama for BBC Radio 4 and Eclipse Theatre Company in 2018 and a co-written adaptation of Jane Eyre for Bolton Octagon, also in 2018. In 2017 Lorna wrote a one act play called TRANSITIONS for Birmingham Rep Education Department and RSA Academy. In 2016 she wrote an audio drama called YOU SAY for the White Open Spaces monologues co-commissioned by Eclipse and Pentabus Theatre Companies. Lorna is also a two-time winner of the Alfred Fagon Award (in 2006 and 2016) and has presented work at, or written work for, Birmingham Rep, Oval House, MAC, Young Vic and New Wolsey Theatre.

Lorna is a lecturer at ICT Manchester and has previously worked as an Associate Lecturer on the Writing for Performance MA and other BA Performing Arts Undergraduate programmes at the University of Derby. She has most recently worked as a dramaturg on Close to the Edge by Viv Manjaro (Planet Arts and Red Earth Collective, 2019) and on Revealed by Daniel Anderson (Rites of Passage Productions, 2018-19).