Winsome Pinnock

Last updated

Winsome Pinnock

Born1961 (age 6263)
Islington, London, England
OccupationPlaywright
Language English
Nationality British
Education Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School
Alma mater Goldsmiths, University of London
Notable worksLeave Taking; Talking in Tongues; Mules
Notable awards George Devine Award
Alfred Fagon Award
Windham-Campbell Literature Prize

Winsome Pinnock FRSL (born 1961) is a British playwright of Jamaican heritage, who is "probably Britain's most well known black female playwright". [1] She was described in The Guardian as "the godmother of black British playwrights". [2]

Contents

Life

Winsome Pinnock was born in Islington, North London, to parents who were both migrants from Smithville, Jamaica. Her mother was a cleaner, and her father a checker at Smithfield Meat Market. [3] Pinnock attended Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Comprehensive Girls' School (formerly Starcross School) in Islington, and graduated from Goldsmiths' College, University of London (1979–82) with a BA (Joint Honours) degree in English and Drama, [4] and in 1983 from Birkbeck College, University of London, with an MA degree in Modern Literature in English. [5]

Pinnock's award-winning plays include The Winds of Change (Half Moon Theatre, 1987), Leave Taking (Liverpool Playhouse Studio, 1988; National Theatre, 1995), [6] Picture Palace (commissioned by the Women's Theatre Group, 1988), [7] A Hero's Welcome (Women's Playhouse Trust at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, 1989), A Rock in Water (Royal Court Young People's Theatre at the Theatre Upstairs, 1989; inspired by the life of Claudia Jones), [8] Talking in Tongues (Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, 1991), Mules (Clean Break, 1996) and One Under (Tricycle Theatre, 2005). [9] She also adapted Jean Rhys' short story "Let Them Call It Jazz" for BBC Radio 4 in 1998, and has written screenplays and television episodes. [6] Pinnock's work is included in the 2019 anthology New Daughters of Africa , edited by Margaret Busby.

Pinnock has been Visiting Lecturer at Royal Holloway College, University of London, and Senior Visiting Fellow at the University of Cambridge. She lectures at Kingston University, London. [5] In 2020, she was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (FRSL). [10]

In 2022, Pinnock was the recipient of a Windham-Campbell Literature Prize for drama. [11]

Awards

Selected works

Further reading

Related Research Articles

Stephen Lowe is an English playwright and director.

Roy Samuel Williams is a British playwright.

Gary Mitchell is a Northern Irish playwright. By the 2000s, he had become "one of the most talked about voices in European theatre ... whose political thrillers have arguably made him Northern Ireland's greatest playwright".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mustapha Matura</span> Trinidad and Tobago playwright (1939–2019)

Mustapha Matura was a Trinidadian playwright living in London. Characterised by critic Michael Billington as "a pioneering black playwright who opened the doors for his successors", Matura was the first British-based dramatist of colour to have a play in London's West End, with Play Mas in 1974. He was described by the New Statesman as "the most perceptive and humane of Black dramatists writing in Britain."

Michael John Abbensetts was a Guyana-born British writer who settled in England in the 1960s. He had been described as "the best Black playwright to emerge from his generation, and as having given "Caribbeans a real voice in Britain". He was the first black British playwright commissioned to write a television drama series, Empire Road, which the BBC aired from 1978 to 1979.

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.

Tanika Gupta is a British playwright. Apart from her work for the theatre, she has also written scripts for television, film and radio plays.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nigel Williams (author)</span> English novelist, screenwriter and playwright

Nigel Williams is an English novelist, screenwriter and playwright.

Jonathan Paul Harvey is an English screenwriter, actor, playwright and author.

Judy Upton is a British playwright.

Alexi Kaye Campbell is a Greek-British playwright and actor. In 2009, his play The Pride was given the Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre.

Sucker Punch is a play by the award-winning British playwright Roy Williams. It was first staged in 2010 at the Royal Court Theatre in London. The play was nominated for the Evening Standard Award and the Olivier Award for Best New Play.

Levi David Addai is a British playwright and screenwriter. He is best known for the award-winning Damilola, Our Loved Boy, the critically acclaimed Youngers and his stage plays 93.2FM and Oxford Street.

debbie tucker green is a British playwright, screenwriter, and director. She spells her name in lower-case. She has written a number of plays, including born bad (2003), for which she won the Olivier Award for Most Promising Newcomer in 2004. Most of her stage plays have been produced at the Royal Court Theatre and the Young Vic in London. She has been called "one of the most stylistically innovative and politically engaged playwrights at work in Britain today".

Patricia Cumper, MBE, FRSA, FRSL, also known as Pat Cumper, is a British playwright, producer, director, theatre administrator, critic and commentator. She was the artistic director and CEO of Talawa Theatre Company from 2006 to 2012, and she has adapted novels for radio and television, including books by Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Andrea Levy, Zora Neale Hurston and Maya Angelou and others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sabrina Mahfouz</span> British Egyptian poet, playwright, performer and writer

Sabrina Mahfouz is a British-Egyptian poet, playwright, performer and writer from South London, England. Her published work includes poetry, plays and contributions to several anthologies her brother is mohamed Salah.

Doug Lucie is an English dramatist.

Inua Marc Mohammed Onore de Ellams II is a Nigerian-born British poet, playwright and performer. He was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2023 Birthday Honours for services to the arts.

Alfred Fagon was a British playwright, poet and actor. He was one of the most notable Black British playwrights of the 1970s and 1980s. Fagon worked for British Rail and served in the British Army before he wrote and produced plays at theatres across the UK, including Royal Court Theatre and Hampstead Theatre.

Maria Oshodi is a British writer and theatre director. A guide dog owner, she is Artistic director and CEO of Extant Theatre Company, Britain's only professional performing arts company of blind and partially sighted people.

References

  1. Goddard, Lynette (2004). "West Indies vs England in Winsome Pinnock's Migration Narratives". Contemporary Theatre Review . 14 (4): 23–33. doi:10.1080/10486800412331296291. S2CID   191553025.
  2. Kolawole, Helen (26 July 2003). "Look who's taking the stage". The Guardian.
  3. Dowd, Vincent (18 March 2020). "The playwright spotlighting Britain's black history". BBC News. Retrieved 19 March 2020.
  4. Bartholomew, Roy (23 April 1996). "A bare shoulder to cry on". The Independent .
  5. 1 2 Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Kingston University London.
  6. 1 2 Nicola, Abram (2015). "Looking Back: Winsome Pinnock's Politics of Representation". In Brewer, Mary F.; Lynette Goddard; Deirdre Osborne (eds.). Modern and Contemporary Black British Drama. London: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 95–111. ISBN   9781137506290.
  7. Aston, Elaine (2003). Feminist Views on the English Stage: Women Playwrights, 1990-2000. Cambridge University Press. p. 125. ISBN   978-0-521-80003-7.
  8. Peacock, D. Keith, "Chapter 9: So People Know We're Here: Black Theatre in Britain" in Thatcher's Theatre: British Theatre and Drama in the Eighties, Greenwood Press, 1999, p. 179.
  9. "Winsome Pinnock", Drama Online.
  10. 1 2 "Winsome Pinnock". RSL. Retrieved 3 March 2024.
  11. Brown, Lauren (29 March 2022). "Jefferson, Dangarembga and Pinnock among winners of Windham-Campbell Prizes". The Bookseller . Retrieved 30 March 2022.
  12. "2018 Award", Alfred Fagon Award.
  13. Snow, Georgia (9 November 2018). "Winsome Pinnock wins 2018 Alfred Fagon Award"". The Stage.
  14. "Winsome Pinnock". Windham-Campbell Prizes. Retrieved 30 March 2022.
  15. Leave Taking at Bush Theatre (24 May–30 June 2018).
  16. "Rock In Water, A". National Theatre Black Plays Archive. Retrieved 14 January 2021.
  17. Winsome Pinnock page at Doolee.com.

Sources