David Pownall
Encyclopedia
David Pownall FRSL is a British playwright and author of novels and short stories. Some of his plays have been adapted as films, for instance, Music to Murder By (1976), and others were written as radio plays.
. He graduated from Keele University
in 1960.
He worked as a personnel officer with the Ford Motor Company
, Dagenham
, Essex
, from 1960-63. In 1963, Pownall moved to Zambia
to take up a post as the personnel manager at Anglo-American PLC and lived and worked there until 1969; he had several early plays produced there.
Returning to England to write full time, he became the resident writer of the Century Theatre touring group, from 1970-72. He was resident writer of the Duke's Playhouse
, Lancaster
, from 1972–75, and had several plays produced by them. His plays reflected the local environment, as well as meditations on the plays of Shakespeare.
He helped found the Paines Plough Theatre, first based in Coventry
, where he was resident writer from 1975-80. In 1977, his play Richard III, Part Two, first produced by Paines Plough, was taken to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Being deeply interested in music, he wrote several plays related to the challenges of composers, both in terms of personal creativity, and, in Master Class (1983), working within the oppressive political environment of the Soviet Union
under Joseph Stalin
.
Pownall has written plays for radio, as well as material for performance by children and college students.
David Pownall's wife is a photographer; the couple have a son.
Life and career
David Pownall was born in LiverpoolLiverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
. He graduated from Keele University
Keele University
Keele University is a campus university near Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, England. Founded in 1949 as an experimental college dedicated to a broad curriculum and interdisciplinary study, Keele is most notable for pioneering the dual honours degree in Britain...
in 1960.
He worked as a personnel officer with the Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...
, Dagenham
Dagenham
Dagenham is a large suburb in East London, forming the eastern part of the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham and located east of Charing Cross. It was historically an agrarian village in the county of Essex and remained mostly undeveloped until 1921 when the London County Council began...
, Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
, from 1960-63. In 1963, Pownall moved to Zambia
Zambia
Zambia , officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....
to take up a post as the personnel manager at Anglo-American PLC and lived and worked there until 1969; he had several early plays produced there.
Returning to England to write full time, he became the resident writer of the Century Theatre touring group, from 1970-72. He was resident writer of the Duke's Playhouse
Duke's Playhouse
The Dukes in Lancaster, England, formerly known as the Duke's Playhouse, is a professional producing theatre, currently producing six theatre productions a year. It also hosts outside companies and arts festivals. It has two auditoria, the larger seating approximately 313 and a newly refurbished...
, Lancaster
Lancaster, Lancashire
Lancaster is the county town of Lancashire, England. It is situated on the River Lune and has a population of 45,952. Lancaster is a constituent settlement of the wider City of Lancaster, local government district which has a population of 133,914 and encompasses several outlying towns, including...
, from 1972–75, and had several plays produced by them. His plays reflected the local environment, as well as meditations on the plays of Shakespeare.
He helped found the Paines Plough Theatre, first based in Coventry
Coventry
Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...
, where he was resident writer from 1975-80. In 1977, his play Richard III, Part Two, first produced by Paines Plough, was taken to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Being deeply interested in music, he wrote several plays related to the challenges of composers, both in terms of personal creativity, and, in Master Class (1983), working within the oppressive political environment of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
under Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
.
Pownall has written plays for radio, as well as material for performance by children and college students.
David Pownall's wife is a photographer; the couple have a son.
Legacy and honours
- Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Keele UniversityKeele UniversityKeele University is a campus university near Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, England. Founded in 1949 as an experimental college dedicated to a broad curriculum and interdisciplinary study, Keele is most notable for pioneering the dual honours degree in Britain...
; and - Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of LiteratureRoyal Society of LiteratureThe Royal Society of Literature is the "senior literary organisation in Britain". It was founded in 1820 by George IV, in order to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". The Society's first president was Thomas Burgess, who later became the Bishop of Salisbury...
in 1976, for the linked novels The Raining Tree War and African Horse - Edinburgh Festival Fringe Awards for Music to Murder By (1976) and Richard III Part Two (1977).
- 1981 John Whiting Award for Beef (1981), radio play.
- New York Theatre Yearbook: Best Foreign Play on BroadwayBroadway theatreBroadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
, and the London Stage Director’s Award for Livingstone and Sechele (1985). - 1980s - Los Angeles Drama Desk Award and the Plays and Players nominations for Best Play: Master Class
- Giles Cooper Awards for two radio plays, plus a Sony Gold and two Sony Silver Awards.
Selected works
Date is year produced- All the World Should Be Taxed (1971)
- As We Lie (1969, Zambia)
- An Audience Called Edouard (1978, pub. London: Faber and FaberFaber and FaberFaber and Faber Limited, often abbreviated to Faber, is an independent publishing house in the UK, notable in particular for publishing a great deal of poetry and for its former editor T. S. Eliot. Faber has a rich tradition of publishing a wide range of fiction, non fiction, drama, film and music...
, 1979) - Barricade (1978)
- Beauty and the Beast (1973)
- Beef (1981, one-act radio play); in Best Radio Plays of 1981, London: Methuen Publishing, 1982)
- Black Star (1987, pub. in Plays Two, London: Oberon BooksOberon BooksOberon Books is an independent publisher which specialises in drama and the performing arts. Whilst the majority of Oberon's catalogue is made up of play texts, in recent years it has begun to publish theatrical biographies as well as books on ballet, opera, illustration, photography and...
) - Buck Ruxton (1975; pub. in The Lancaster Plays, London: Oberon Books, 2006)
- Crates on Barrels (1974, pub. in Plays for One Person, London: Oberon Books, 1997)
- Death of a Faun (1991)
- Dinner Dance (1991)
- The Dream of Chief Crazy HorseCrazy HorseCrazy Horse was a Native American war leader of the Oglala Lakota. He took up arms against the U.S...
(1973, epic play for children; pub. London: Faber and Faber, 1975) - The Edge (1987)
- ElgarEdward ElgarSir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet OM, GCVO was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos...
's Rondo (1993, pub. in The Composer Plays, London: Oberon Books, 1993) - ElgarEdward ElgarSir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet OM, GCVO was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos...
's Third (1994, BBCBBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
3 radio play; pub. in The Composer Plays, London: Oberon, 1993) - Gaunt (1973, pub. in The Lancaster Plays, London: Oberon Books, 2006)
- Getting the Picture 1998, London: Oberon Books, 1998)
- The Hot Hello (1981)
- How Does the Cukoo Learn to Fly? (1970)
- How to Grow a Guerrilla (1971)
- The Human Cartoon Show (1974)
- Innocent Screams (2009, London: Oberon Books, 2009)
- King John's Jewel (1987)
- Ladybird, Ladybird (1986)
- The Last of the Wizards (1970)
- Later (1979, pub. in Plays for One Person, London: Oberon Books, 1997)
- Lile Jimmy Williamson (1975, pub. in The Lancaster Plays, London: Oberon Books, 2006)
- Lions and Lambs (1973)
- Livingstone and Sechele (1978)
- Master Class (1983 - Re: Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Stalin; London: Faber and Faber, 1983)
- Motocar (1977; London: Faber and Faber, 1979)
- Music to Murder By (1976; London: Faber and Faber, 1978)
- My Father's House (1991, pub. in Plays Two, London: Oberon Books)
- NijinskyNijinskyNijinsky can refer to:*Vaslav Nijinsky , ballet dancer and choreographer*Bronislava Nijinska , dancer, choreographer and teacher*Nijinksy , starring Alan Bates Harry Saltzman as Vaslav Nijinsky*Nijinsky II, race horse...
: Death of a Faun (1991, London: Oberon Books, 1997) - Ploughboy Monday (1985), radio play
- Pride and Prejudice (1983)
- Q (1965, Zambia)
- The Pro (1975)
- Richard III, Part Two (1977, Edinburgh Fringe Festival; London, Faber and Faber, 1979)
- Rousseau's Tale (1990, Plays for One Person, London: Oberon Books, 1997)
- Seconds at the Fight for Madrid (1978)
- A Tale of Two Town Halls (1976, pub. in The Lancaster Plays, London: Oberon Books, 2006)
- The Viewing (1987, pub. in Plays Two, London: Oberon Books)
- Source: "David Pownall", The Playwrights Database, Doollee
- Flos (1982) Radio Play published in Radio Plays:(Oberon Modern Playwrights) by David Pownall (Paperback - 21 May 1998)
- Source: http://www.davidpownall.co.uk/Tablepages/radio.html, The Official David Pownall Home Page, Radio list
Further reading
- Contemporary Dramatists, St. James Press, 1988, pp. 439–440.
- Contemporary Literary Criticism, Volume 10, Gale, 1979, pp. 418–420.
- Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 14, Part 2, Gale, 1983, pp. 592– 597.
External links
- David Pownall's radio plays, Diversity website*"Paines Plough", Official Website