About

Award-winning playwright, theatre and film practitioner and academic

I am a writer/director for stage & screen living in East London. I am also an academic, currently based at Middlesex University.

I have written more than 20 plays for the stage, many of which have been produced or workshopped by professional theatre companies in the UK. I have directed and produced a number of plays by other contemporary playwrights. I have written short film scripts - four of which have been produced - and developed a number of feature film screenplays.

Since the mid-1980s, I have been carving out a means to infuse contemporary drama with my own individual sense of spiritual consciousness. Rooted predominately in the Christian anarchist tradition, this undertaking has involved writing dramas which can speak to an audience in the now, whilst not losing sight of that which is eternal and unchanging. I would describe this practice as an endeavour to create a form of Visionary Drama, a drama first and foremost of the spiritual life.

I have taught scriptwriting at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, at Middlesex University and elsewhere. I have produced academic writing on such subjects as story, my own writing practice, and the intersection of drama with new technologies. Since 2016 I have been Head of the Department of Media at Middlesex.

This website gives you an overview of my work. It serves as an archive of the various plays, productions, and films that I have been involved with since 1985. For each work, I have written a note which talks a little around the process of development, the ideas which fed into the piece, and the circumstances of production.

James Martin Charlton, April 2021