Diane Samuels (born 1960) is a British author and playwright.
Samuels was born into a Jewish family in Liverpool [1] in 1960. She was educated at King David High School, Liverpool, studied history at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge and then studied for a PGCE in drama at Goldsmiths, University of London. She worked as a drama teacher in inner London secondary schools for five years and as an education officer at the Unicorn Theatre for children. [2] [3]
Samuels lives in London [4] and has been a full-time writer since 1992. She was a Pearson Creative Research Fellow at the British Library [5] and is a visiting lecturer at Regent's University London [5] and a reviewer of books for The Guardian newspaper. [6]
Her works include:
Peter Richard Nichols was an English playwright, screenwriter, director and journalist.
The Kindertransport was an organised rescue effort of children from Nazi-controlled territory that took place in 1938–1939 during the nine months prior to the outbreak of the Second World War. The United Kingdom took in nearly 10,000 children, most of them Jewish, from Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and the Free City of Danzig. The children were placed in British foster homes, hostels, schools, and farms. Often they were the only members of their families who survived the Holocaust that was to come. The programme was supported, publicised, and encouraged by the British government, which waived the visa immigration requirements that were not within the ability of the British Jewish community to fulfil. The British government placed no numerical limit on the programme; it was the start of the Second World War that brought it to an end, by which time about 10,000 kindertransport children had been brought to the country.
Phyllis Isobella Pearsall MBE was a British painter and writer who founded the Geographers' A-Z Map Company, for which she is regarded as one of the most successful business people of the twentieth century. She has erroneously been credited with creating London's first popular indexed street map.
Gwyneth Herbert is a British singer-songwriter, composer, multi-instrumentalist and record producer. Initially known for her interpretation of jazz and swing standards, she is now established as a writer of original compositions, including musical theatre. She has been described as "an exquisite wordsmith" with "a voice that can effortlessly render any emotion with commanding ease" and her songs as being "impressively crafted and engrossing vignette[s] of life's more difficult moments".
Isobel Jane Suttie is a British musical comedian, actress, and writer. She played Dobby in the Channel 4 sitcom Peep Show, and in 2013 won the gold Sony Radio Academy Award for her radio show Pearl And Dave. She also provides narration on the UK television show, Posh Pawn.
Camilla Marie Beeput is an English stage, television and film actress and singer.
Helen Edmundson is a British playwright, screenwriter and producer. She has won awards and critical acclaim both for her original writing and for her adaptations of various literary classics for the stage and screen.
Polly Teale is a British theatre director and playwright best known for her work with the Shared Experience theatre company, of which she was an artistic director.
Kindertransport is a play by Diane Samuels, which examines the life, during World War II and afterwards, of a Kindertransport child. Though fictitious, it is based upon many real kindertransport stories. The play is published by Nick Hern Books.
John Stephen Gerrard Jeffreys was a British playwright and playwriting teacher. He wrote original plays, films and play adaptations and also worked as translator. Jeffreys is best known for his play The Libertine about the Earl of Rochester, which was performed at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago with John Malkovich as Rochester, and later adapted into a film starring Malkovich and Johnny Depp.
Selladoor Worldwide is a UK Theatre producing company based in Greenwich, London. Selladoor Worldwide produce musical theatre, plays and family theatre for UK and international touring and the West End. Selladoor Worldwide also operate and manage theatres across the UK, known as Selladoor Venues.
Nine Lessons and Carols for Godless People is a Christmas stage show celebrating a view of science. It was first run in 2008 at the Bloomsbury Theatre and re-run as The Return of Nine Lessons and Carols for Godless People in 2009, then televised on BBC Four as Nerdstock: 9 Lessons and Carols for Godless People.
Alex Gaumond is a Canadian actor, singer, songwriter and filmmaker best known for his involvement in West End theatre. He plays series regular gendarme Caron, the chief of police in Sainte Victoire, in the Channel 5 television series The Madame Blanc Mysteries, starring Sally Lindsay.
Owain Elis James is a Welsh comedian, broadcaster and actor. James is known as a stand-up comedian, for his weekly radio show and podcast for BBC Radio 5 Live, his football punditry and presenting, and for his TV acting roles. James's first language is Welsh and he performs stand-up in English and Welsh.
Caryl Lesley Churchill is a British playwright known for dramatising the abuses of power, for her use of non-naturalistic techniques, and for her exploration of sexual politics and feminist themes. Celebrated for works such as Cloud 9 (1979), Top Girls (1982), Serious Money (1987), Blue Heart (1997), Far Away (2000), and A Number (2002), she has been described as "one of Britain's greatest poets and innovators for the contemporary stage". In a 2011 dramatists' poll by The Village Voice, five out of the 20 polled writers listed Churchill as the greatest living playwright.
The A–Z of Mrs P is a musical conceived by Neil Marcus and written by British playwright Diane Samuels and British composer Gwyneth Herbert. Described as "a musical fable inspired by the autobiographies of Phyllis Pearsall", it tells the story of Phyllis Pearsall's creation of the London A to Z street atlas. The A–Z of Mrs P was performed in workshop with actress Sophie Thompson in May 2011. It opened in London at Southwark Playhouse on 21 February 2014, starring Peep Show actress Isy Suttie and Frances Ruffelle.
Christine Denniston is a playwright, author and dance teacher and one of Britain's leading exponents of the tango. She graduated in theoretical physics from the University of Cambridge.
SimG Records is an independent record label, dedicated to the promotion of new musical theatre and new writers to the British audience. It was founded by London-based director/producer Simon Greiff in 2009. Its affiliate company, SimG Productions showcases new work on stage, in concerts, cabarets, plays and on CD. In 2014, SimG Records releases were nominated for seven Broadway World Album Awards.
3 Sisters on Hope Street is a 2008 British play by Diane Samuels and Tracy-Ann Oberman. The play is a reinterpretation of Chekhov's Three Sisters, transferring events to Liverpool after World War II and re-casting the Pozorov sisters as three Jewish Englishwomen. It opened on 25 January 2008 at the Everyman Theatre, which is located at Hope Street, Liverpool.
Michael Bruce is a Scottish composer and lyricist working in theatre, television and film. He was composer-in-residence at the Donmar Warehouse theatre during Josie Rourke's artistic directorship there from 2012 to 2019.