Deafinitely Theatre Announces Mike Bartlett As Their Writers' Panel Guest Speaker

Deafinitely Theatre today announce that the next Writers Panel guest speaker will be multi-award-winning writer Mike Bartlett. Bartlett will be joined by three deaf and hard of hearing artists - host Charlie Swinbourne and writers Sahera Khan and Nadia Nadarajah. The free event will take place live on Zoom at 6pm on 22 July and places are available to reserve now at www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/writers-panel-tickets-162436077681.

During the panel, the four industry professionals will discuss their writing process the ups and downs of their careers, as well as sharing their top tips for a career in scriptwriting or playwrighting. There will also be a live Q&A at the end of the evening for aspiring writers.

Mike Bartlett is a multi-award-winning writer for both stage and screen. Having begun his career in theatre, he has won numerous awards for his plays, including Olivier Awards for King Charles III (best new play, 2015), Bull (Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre, 2015) and c*ck(Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre, 2010).

Bartlett's first foray into television, The Town, earned him a BAFTA Breakthrough Talent nomination. In 2015, he caused a sensation with his smash hit mini- series Doctor Foster. The first series was BAFTA nominated for Best Mini-Series and Best Writer in 2015, Best New Drama at the 2016 National Television Awards, Best Drama Series at the 2016 Broadcast Awards, and Outstanding Newcomer for British Television Writing at the British Screenwriting Awards. The second series went on to win Best Drama at the National Television Awards in 2018. His television adaptation of his play King Charles III was released in 2017, and was BAFTA nominated for Best Single Drama. Bartlett's 6-part mini-series Life (Drama Republic), starring Alison Steadman and Victoria Hamilton premièred on BBC in Autumn 2020. His other recent original television work includes Sticks and Stones (Tall Story Pictures/ITV, 2019), Press (Lookout Point/BBC, 2018) and Trauma (ITV, 2018).

Sahera Khan is a Muslim artist, deaf and a BSL user. As a writer, actor, poet, filmmaker and YouTuber she has created solo shows, videos and live performances, and has also presented for BSL Zone. She was part of Deafinitely Theatre's Writers Hub Play project in 2016 and recently received a Deaf Freelancers Bursary from the company to develop a new play called No Words.

Khan recently created a new BSL storytelling version of Am I Dulhan (A Bride) Yet?, supported by Talawa x Graeae Collective 2019 and Artistic Director Jenny Seale. She has worked with Wonky Table Theatre at the Victoria and Albert Museum in a pop-up performance The Fruit and Vegetable Olympics in 2019. Her short film Faith won awards including Best Storyline Award at New Zealand Deaf Short Film Festival May 2020, Critics' Choice Award of LGBT Film at Tagore International Film Festival May 2020, Kat Award Winner Best Film in a Language other than English at Together! December 2020 Disability Film Festival, Best Message Award at Top Indie Film Awards Film Awards for the Winter 2020 Edition and was nominated for Jury Award Best Film at Papaya Rocks Film Festival 2021. Her most recent storytelling project, The Cockerel and the Fox, was funded by Foundation for Future London. Her credits as an actor include musical The Throwaways (Lambert Jackson Productions), BSL Poetry Slam, The Message (Redditch Palace Theatre) and Gone Not Forgotten (Mercury Theatre, Colchester). Khan is a Trustee of the Deaf Ethnic Women's Association.

Nadia Nadarajah is an actor and writer mostly known for her monologues performed in BSL. Her one-woman show This or That was recently presented at Derby Theatre in July 2021. On the back of winning the Edinburgh Fringe Award 2015, her show Can I Start Again Please toured the UK for two years. Her monologues have featured in the play Signs of the Life (Watermill Theatre, 2021) and in short films Meet At The Edge (2012) and Unviable (WoW Festival, 2021). In 2010, she wrote a short film All Day, which screened and won awards at Deaffest (UK, 2010), The International Disability Film Festival (Russia 2010), Seattle Deaf Film Festival (Seattle, 2011) and 16th Annual Hartford Jewish Film Festival (Hartford, 2012). Nadarajah is part of Deafinitely Theatre's Hub writers' course in partnership with the Royal Court.

Charlie Swinbourne hosts. Swinbourne is an RTS award winning scriptwriter often making television programmes with sign language and deaf culture at their core. He has written for Casualty, Jimmy McGovern's Moving On, CBBC's Princess Mirror-Belle and created a long-term storyline and new deaf character for EastEnders. He won an RTS Yorkshire Writer award in 2018 for his six-part sketch show Deaf Funny, which he also directed. He is also a journalist and has written for The Guardian and BBC Online as well as running the deaf blog The Limping Chicken.