Steve Waters examines how the very idea of film has defined him as a playwright and a person in this book. Through the the lens of cinema, it provides a cultural and political snapshot of life in Britain from the 2nd part of the 20th century up to the present day. The films spanning almost a century, starting with The White Hell of Pitz Palu (1929) and moving most recently to Dark Waters (2019), each chapter examines aspects of Waters's journey from his working-class Midlands upbringing to working in professional theatre to living through the Covid epidemic, through the prism of a particular film. From The Wizard of Oz to Code Unknown, from sci-fi to documentary, from queer cinema to world cinema, this honest, comic book offers a view of film as a way of thinking about how we live. In doing so, it illuminates culture and politics in the UK over half a century and provides an intimate insight into drama and writing.

A guide to the hidden workings of plays and the trade secrets that govern their writing - by the acclaimed playwright Steve Waters. Drawing on a wide range of drama, both historical and modern, Waters takes the reader through the key elements of dramatic writing - scenes, acts, space, time, characters, language and images - to show how a play is more than the sum of its parts, with as much inner vitality as a living organism. Almost uniquely amongst accounts of playwriting, Waters' book looks at the ways in which good plays move their audiences, generating powerful emotional responses that often defy conventional analysis. The Secret Life of Plays is for playwrights at any stage of their career, and will inspire and inform drama students as well as working actors and directors. Most of all it is for anyone who has ever laughed or cried in the theatre - and wants to know why. 'Theatre is a live medium, about bodies, sweat and feeling, even if it is informed by ideas and reason. How a thing composed of words manages to carry within it the currents of energy that generate that impression of life is what I want to explore...' Steve Waters 'Steve Waters' book is like his plays: clear, elegant and stimulating throughout' David Edgar

A double bill of plays from the frontline of climate change – an epic portrait of Britain in the grip of unprecedented and catastrophic floods. In On the Beach, glaciologist Will has followed in his father's footsteps, dedicating himself to studying climate change. Back from Antarctica, he visits his parents on the Norfolk coast. With catastrophic flooding growing more likely by the day, he has news that forces long-submerged secrets to rise to the surface. In Resilience, Will, freshly appointed as a scientific advisor, is in Westminster and he's out of his depth. Surrounded by ministers manoeuvring to impress, and with the threat of environmental disaster, can he get them to listen before it's too late? Impressive in scale and chilling as a prediction of our immediate future, the two plays are complementary but can also stand alone. Steve Waters' The Contingency Plan was first performed at the Bush Theatre, London, in 2009, and shortlisted for the John Whiting Award. It was revived, in this fully revised and updated version, at Sheffield Theatres in 2022, directed by Caroline Steinbeis and Chelsea Walker.

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Steve Waters examines how the very idea of film has defined him as a playwright and a person in this book. Through the the lens of cinema, it provides a cultural and political snapshot of life in Britain from the 2nd part of the 20th century up to the present day. The films spanning almost a century, starting with The White Hell of Pitz Palu (1929) and moving most recently to Dark Waters (2019), each chapter examines aspects of Waters's journey from his working-class Midlands upbringing to working in professional theatre to living through the Covid epidemic, through the prism of a particular film. From The Wizard of Oz to Code Unknown, from sci-fi to documentary, from queer cinema to world cinema, this honest, comic book offers a view of film as a way of thinking about how we live. In doing so, it illuminates culture and politics in the UK over half a century and provides an intimate insight into drama and writing.

A divisive left-wing leader at the helm of the Labour Party. A Conservative prime minister battling with her cabinet. An identity crisis on a national scale. This is Britain 1981. One Sunday morning, four prominent Labour politicians - Bill Rodgers, Shirley Williams, Roy Jenkins and David Owen - gather in private at Owen's home in Limehouse, East London. They are desperate to find a political alternative. Should they split their party, divide their loyalties, and risk betraying everything they believe in? Would they be starting afresh, or destroying forever the tradition that nurtured them? Steve Waters' thrilling drama takes us behind closed doors to imagine the personal conflicts behind the making of political history. Limehouse premiered at the Donmar Warehouse, London, in 2017, directed by Polly Findlay. It is a fictionalised account of real events, and it is not endorsed by the individuals portrayed.

The University of East Anglia is proud to announce its new anthologies of work from the prose (including life writing), poetry and scriptwriting strands from their world-renowned creative writing MA.

Here ten scripts for the stage and screen showcase a variety of techniques and styles, each demonstrating high standards of creativity, craft and application.

'He is the sickness and you maintain that sickness.' Idi Amin is the self-declared President of Uganda. When Scottish medic Nicholas Garrigan becomes his personal physician, he is catapulted into Amin's inner circle. A useful asset for the British Secret Service, is Garrigan the man on the inside, or does he have blood on his hands too? Giles Foden's multi-award-winning novel The Last King of Scotland is an electrifying thriller about corruption and complicity. This stage adaptation by Steve Waters premiered at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, in September 2019, directed by Gbolahan Obisesan.

On 15 October 2011, protest movement Occupy London makes camp outside St Paul's Cathedral. On 21 October 2011, a building that had kept open through floods, the Blitz and terrorist threats closes its doors. On 28 October, City of London initiates legal action against Occupy to begin removing them from outside the Cathedral... Steve Waters' play Temple is a fictional account of these events, set in the heart of a very British crisis - a crisis of conscience, a crisis of authority and a crisis of faith. Temple was premiered at the Donmar Warehouse, London, in May 2015 in a production starring Simon Russell Beale, directed by Howard Davies.

Europa brings together four European theatres: Birmingham Repertory Theatre (UK), Dresden State Theatre (Germany), Teatr Polski Bydgoszcz (Poland) and Zagreb Youth Theatre (Croatia) - and four leading playwrights from each country - Steve Waters (UK), Lutz Hubner (Germany), Malgorzata Sikorska-Miszczuk (Poland) and Tena Stivicic (Croatia). This revelatory piece of theatre sets out to explore the possibilities of collaborative playwriting, to produce a single work that is multi-authored and multi-lingual. Drawing on first-hand accounts, including memories from the 1930s up to the present day, the playwrights have collaborated to overcome language barriers and weave their separate languages into one single dramatic entity. The resulting play engages with increased levels of debate about European identity versus national identity. This edition features both the multi-lingual and the English text, and has an introduction by the dramaturg behind the project, Caroline Jester.

An absorbing study of attitudes towards outsiders, spanning two continents and sixty years. 1949. Small town Colorado. A group of regular American students struggle to accept a foreigner in their midst; their unthinking behaviour will have terrible consequences that are to change world history. In London, sixty years later, a university professor's work analysing those consequences takes on a frightening personal dimension when Layla Ahmad walks into his office... Steve Waters' play Ignorance/Jahiliyyah was first performed at Hampstead Theatre, London, in 2012.

Moving from satiric comedy to poignant family drama, Little Platoons explores what the retreat of the state and the growth of people power really means for society and its youngest citizens. When Rachel's ex threatens to remove their son from London to sort out his education, she joins a local group of parents setting up a 'free school'. Her new friends, led by the charismatic Nick, want to create an education their children can enjoy not endure. But the vision of the Big Society they seek to create tears their lives apart. Steve Waters' play Little Platoons was first staged at the Bush Theatre, London, in 2011.

A hard-hitting play about the collapse of idealism in contemporary politics. The founder members of a radical think-tank meet to toast their success - fifteen years of second-guessing the next big idea; fifteen years of shaping politics on the left; fifteen years of thinking the unthinkable. But there's a spectre at the feast, and a scandal is about to break that will ruin more than just the party. Steve Waters' play The Unthinkable was first staged at the Crucible Studio, Sheffield, in 2004.