Today's Most Viewed Profiles
Featured Playwright
Susan Hunter Downer
About Me: I'm a Sheffield based writer and workshop facilitator of African heritage. I worked as a journalist for many years and have studied scriptwriting (for the stage and screen), novel writing, and narrative therapy. I specialise in working with community-led organisations to create narratives that give voice to people who are narratively oppressed, either through silencing or through systemic misrepresentation. In recent years I've worked with Sheffield Mind on a play about the lives of people with hoarding behaviours; Sadacca Women's Group on a performance about the experiences of Afro-Caribbean people working for the NHS; and Sheffield University to produce a play about a Black African woman confronted by white supremacy in 1940s Paris. In 2025, I hope to develop the latter into a full-length play and work on a new commission for Sheffield Anti-Racist Education (Share).
Featured Play
penny black
(31 pages) PENNY BLACK follows a woman’s life with her dominating husband and show’s how, despite her circumstances, she manages to re-discover her own hidden talent for singing and goes on to find true love. Author\\\'s note: I used to be a counsellor and I became aware in my work, that although there are lots of happy marriages, there are some marriages that are not working and in some cases the wife is being oppressed by the husband. So I wrote ’Penny Black’ to try to give a voice to these women who are suffering in our community. I am a big campaigner for women\\\'s rights, and feel deep concern about all oppressed people all over the world. Cast: F6-M5 (adult to mature)
Playwright: john collings