Sara Clifford

Sara has written over thirty plays including commissions for the Soho Theatre, York Theatre Royal, and Nottingham Playhouse, and her work has been produced in France, Italy, Guadeloupe and Hong Kong.

She was a writer on attachment at Chichester Festival Theatre, and her play A Thousand Days was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn award.

She was selected for the Collideoscope artists’ residency at Brighton Festival; and was Writer in Residence at the University of Brighton, both in 2014/15; and in 2016, initiated the project, Twelve Angry Women, for which she wrote Cream Cakes.

In 2017 she received a British Council Artist’s International Development Fund grant to visit New Zealand, where she ran Twelve Angry Women in Wellington at the Circa Theatre.

She also wrote The Day after Yesterday and Sonnerie aux Morts, both portmanteau shows, produced at La Charite sur Loire, France; and lyrics for The Song of Contagon and What the River Brings for the Grand Union Orchestra.

In 2019, she was Writer in Residence for the South Downs National Park, resulting in the touring one-person show, Cherry Soup.

As writer/ director of her company, Inroads, she has written five site-specific plays, including Home Fires; Our Dancing Feet  (True, and not so true, Tales from the Dancefloor); The Port, the Beast and the Traveller; and The Tribunal, all co-productions with Zap Art, incorporating an extensive outreach programme and community participation.  In 2019, Inroads are developing a Heritage Lottery funded project about the Spanish Flu and the end of World War One; and Flo’s Gals, about an older woman circus performer.

Sara has many years’ experience of applied theatre, working as a practitioner in health, education and criminal justice settings, and managed the training programme for artists for Creative Partnerships for five years. She has led training workshops for many organisations, including the Oval House, the Soho Theatre and New Writing South; was an Education Associate at the Donmar Warehouse. She now works as a freelance consultant and evaluator in Creative Education and as a dramaturg and script tutor. 

Academic Qualifications

MA Screenwriting, London College of Printing, 1999

BA Hons English, University of Manchester

Teaching

Goldsmiths, Current

• Convenor, Contemporary Dramaturgy, BA English and Drama year 3
• Associate Lecturer, Questions of Performance (Community),  BA Theatre and Performance,  year 2
• Visiting lecturer, MA Applied Drama, Writing with Communities

Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, Current

• Visiting Lecturer, MA Applied Theatre and MA Writing for Stage and Broadcast Media, Writing with Communities
• Assessor, Placements, BA Applied Theatre, year 3

University of Brighton

• Visiting lecturer, MA Creative Writing

Creative Writing Programme, New Writing South

• Tutor, Dramatic Writing programme

Previous:

Goldsmiths

• Associate Lecturer, MA Community and Participatory Theatre ( course now closed)

University of Brighton

• Writer In Residence
• Convenor, Creative Practice and Learning ( also at University of Sussex, Arts and Learning)

Professional Experience

Sara has bee a member of The Fence network of international playwrights since its inception in 2003 and has visited Italy, France, the Netherlands, Serbia and Guadeloupe, meeting writers, observing and exchanging new work.

She was on the board of Writernet for ten years.

Recent Work/Selected Work

Sara has written over thirty plays, including five site-specific community-based plays for her company, Inroads.

Research Interests

Publications include

• Co-facilitator/consultant and guide writer, with Chrissie Tiller:  Artists in Creative Education: with input from artists from five European countries- guide published, Brussels, 2011.
• Clifford, S and Herrmann, A, 1999, Making a Leap, Theatre of Empowerment. A practical handbook for creative drama with young people. Jessica Kingsley, London. Also published in Poland, 2007.

More information is available on www.saraclifford.com