KENNETH BRANAGH AWARD FOR NEW WRITING
THREE PLAYS PRODUCED FOR THE FINAL

The three finalists - Michael Pearcy, Valerie O'Connor with Black Forest and Euan Mumford with The Exhibit. The three winning scripts where performed during the final week of the Windsor Fringe

The Team on my play Person of Interest: Mike P, Peter Saracen, Karen McCaffrey, Avena Mansergh-Wallace, Rebecca Bugeja and director Anthony Shrubsall.'

The final short list consisted of three plays out of over 200 entries. My entry A Person Of Interest explores how being a person of interest in a police missing persons investigation can impact on the life of a family man – despite the assumption of innocence and before any guilt is established. The dramatic impact is magnified because the missing person in my play is a child.

A sample of the play is available on the 'plays' page of this website.

DRAMA SHOWCASE RETURNS TO BURNHAM LIBRARY

November will see the return of Autumn Drama Showcase to the stage at Burnham library after three years in which the stage has stayed dark. A completely fresh set of five new plays are in rehearsal and will be ready for curtain up on the evenings of the 18th and the 19th November.

I am contributing two plays: a dramatic monologue called Number One - Tina is caught shoplifting, and they’ve got a video to prove it - is one act of madness going to ruin everything?

My second offering entitled Leather is a comedy which begins as Julia unwraps Tom’s anniversary present, but there is no way she could guess where this simple item of clothing would drive their relationship.

All proceeds from the two evenings of comedy, drama and farce will go to support the work of the Friends of Burnham Library in ensuring that Burnham keeps a thriving and fully accessible library in the community during these difficult times.

Before the covid emergency, we put on five of these annual shows raising over £5000 for the Friends of Burnham Library.

My play Person Of Interest Reaches Branagh Final.

This year, my entry in the Branagh Awards has reached the final short list of three play out of over 200 entries. My entry A Person Of Interest explores how being a person of interest in a police missing persons investigation can impact on the life of a family man – despite the assumption of innocence and before any guilt is established. The dramatic impact is magnified because the missing person in my play is a child.

The two other finalists in 2022 are VALERIE O'CONNOR with Black Forest and EUAN MUMFORD with The Exhibit. The three winning scripts will be performed during the final week of the Fringe in October. One of the three scripts will be chosen as the overall winner and awarded the £500 prize. The plays are judged purely on the writing before they are staged. I'm waiting to hear who has been appointed as my director and looking forward to seeing the play come to life.

The Branagh short list usually includes just nine plays out of the average submission of over 200 plays. In 2020 and in 2021, I also made it onto the Branagh short list. My offering for 2020 was Walkway, a play looking at life in a post global warming society, and in 2021 I submitted NATFIS which explored the pressures experienced by a social worker and how this affects her private life.

I am very lucky to have a play writing competition of the standing of the Branagh Awards on my doorstep in Windsor, especially since this event regularly attracts entries from more than thirty countries. During the nineteen years the Branagh has been running I have entered about ten times so to find myself as one of the three finalists this year is a great treat. Having the Branagh Award deadline occurring every March has been a valuable spur and focus for my efforts as a playwright.

Michael Pearcy - writer's biography
My one-act plays have been performed in the USA, Australia, New Zealand, Greece, Gibraltar and Singapore. There have been many performances in the UK including at The Union Theatre in Southwark where I have taken part in three productions of Union of Shorts. My play Walkway was shortlisted in the 2020 Kenneth Branagh Drama Awards and my play NATFIS was also shortlisted in 2021. In 2022 (see details above) I made it through to the final of the Branagh with my play A Person Of Interest. My short stories have won awards in various festivals and competitions including the Berkshire Arts Festival and the Woman’s Own short story competition.

I have been delivering writing workshops on Wycombe Sound radio both as a physical ten-week course and in the virtual environment. Another radio venture was my Writers' Clinic and all ten episodes are available online. They were first broadcast over two weeks during covid lockdown.

I also lead and contribute on the Wycombe Sound Short Story Week which has become an annual event. Make contact if you want to be involved.

I have led a very successful 10 week writing workshop at Wycombe Sound studios which led to the creation of the Wycombe Sound Writing Initiative and the Saturday Writers group. I have delivered two one-day writing workshops at Moor Hall in Cookham (The Institute of Marketing) and two six-week workshops at The Curve in Slough for Resource Productions.

Slough Museum 20-20-20

Earlier this year I completed this year long writing project for Slough Museum.

Click this link for Full details of the 20-20-20 project including all the PODCASTS

Click this link to Download the project booklet

About The Project About The Project
If you have particular questions about Slough Museum 20-20-20 project