Mark Norfolk
Encyclopedia
Mark Norfolk is a prolific author and independent filmmaker. He has made documentaries, short films and feature films and authored plays for stage and radio and well as publishing several books.
Norfolk had noticed while growing up that the voices of black characters in plays and TV shows were never really authentic, "That takes away a large part of what they are: they're just doing what the majority of society has given them to do. What that's done over the years is made black people lose any representation of themselves. So it's very important that people are now trying to use language as it is said." The continuing themes in his writing bring a sharp focus on contemporary British society and how the various groups and generations interlock or collide.
Mark Norfolk's theatre debut came in 1998 when as part of Black History Month his play, By Your Leave was staged at the Albany Theatre, shortly followed that same year by, Fair As The Dark Gets.
After producing a short film, Diary Of A Somebody (2000) and a low budget, digital feature film, Love Is Not Enough, (2001) his play, Knock Down Ginger was produced at the Warehouse Theatre
after being selected for its International Playwriting Festival
in June 2002. The play was nominated for the Arts Council's
Eclipse Award For Combating Racism Through Theatre and was shortlisted for the Verity Bargate playwriting award, later the same year it was staged in Urbino, Italy for the Premio Candoni Festival of New Writing.
In 2003 he took part in the Soho Theatre
Writers’ Attachment Programme where he developed Wrong Place. The play went on to run, featuring Mark Theodore, Larrington Walker and Geoffrey Burton, at the Soho Theatre in the same year. Both plays are published by Oberon Press. 2003 also saw the start of an ongoing film and theatre collaboration with actor and director, Jeffery Kissoon.
Norfolk has also written several productions for broadcast on BBC Radio, including In The Car Park (2002), Medium Risk (2005) and, paradoxically, a radio film called Broken Chain (2008). for Radio 4s The City Speaks series.
Norfolk's first 35mm film, Crossing Bridges started production in 2004 after the script won £1000 in a competition. Without even a fraction of the £150.000 budget, Norfolk proved to be a tenacious and resourceful independent filmmaker. He launched into production, gathering investors as the project progressed. Crossing Bridges tells the story of a suicidal man who meets an angel and features Jason Rose, Jeffery Kissoon and Elisabeth Dahl and went on to win an armful of international awards.
Mark Norfolk is currently working on a new film, Ham and the Piper featuring Jeffery Kissoon in the lead while his play, Naked Soldiers will be staged in May 2010 at the Warehouse Theatre, featuring Ewart James Walters, Adam Sopp and Elisabeth Dahl and directed by Jeffery Kissoon. He is also currently Writer In Residence a London prison working with the Writers in Prison Network, supported by Arts Council England and the Learning and Skills Council.
• A Walk In The Park – Talawa Theatre Co. short play commission 25th anniversary celebration, Soho Theatre & writers’ Centre, 2007
• Dear Mama A – Pascal Theatre Co. commission. Swiss Cottage Library, 2005
• Dinner with Bono – Inaugural Flight 5065 London Eye commission, 2005
• Fess Up – Menagerie Theatre commission, Eastern Pipeline Project 2004
• Wrong Place – Soho Theatre. 2003
• Knock Down Ginger – Produced Warehouse Theatre, winner Guardian Culture Award 2003
• Fair As The Dark Gets -1998
• Buy Your Leave -Albany Theatre-Black History Month, 1998
Broken Chain - BBC Radio 4
/Film London/Arts Council, Multimedia feature project, and UK cinemas nationally, 2008
• Medium Risk - BBC Radio 3/7 TX: July 2005
• In The Car Park – BBC, Sparks, 2002
• Bagman Taps 1998; Shortlisted Orange/Pathe Screenwriting Award, 2000, Moonstone International 2002
• A king in his kingdom Finalist Script City Focus on Talent 1998
• Crossing Bridges, 2006,(Distributed worldwide by Echelon Entertainment) Winner Audience Award – Corinthian International Film Festival 2008, Winner Independent Spirit Award-Screen Nation Film & Television Awards 2007, Winner Cyprus International Film Festival - Best Editing 2007, Official Selection London UK Film Focus 2007 and European Independent Film Festival 2007
• Mothers And Daughters:: A Jewish Archive, 2006 Creative Director-[50 x 120 mins Video archive. Pascal Theatre co/Heritage lottery Fund]
• Love Is Not Enough, 2001 (Distributed worldwide by Frontier Media Corp. US)
• Vengeance By Proxy, 15 mins, 2005
• 'The Slimes, (Commission-Southwark Environmental Services) 2003
• The Grimes, 2000 (Commission-Lewisham Environmental Services. Winner “Tidy Britain” Campaign Award 2000)
• Diary Of A Somebody", 8 mins, 2000 (Winner LFVDA & Wandsworth Arts Short Production Award 1999, BFM International Film Festival 2001, Le Mans International Film festival, 2001; XXIII Grenzland International Film Festival; Greenwich Film Festival 2000; Chichester Film Festival; Portobello Film Festival; 5th Bite The Mango Film Festival-NMPFT, Bradford; Foyle Film Festival, N.I; Manchester Intl. Film Festival; Nubian Tales, London; XV Brest Intl. Short Film Festival, Wandsworth Film Festival).
• Vegetaria, 10 mins, 1998 (Direction Film Club, Belfast, 2000; Raindance Film Festival, 1999; XIV Black International Cinema Festival, Berlin 1999; Truly Madly Cheaply Film Showcase, London, 1998)
• Rage, 5 mins, 1997
• Miltroed I Ffwrdd, 1997(Commission-Pop video broadcast "GAREG", S4C 1997)
• Miles Away, 1997 (Music video-Music Box)
• Nation, 15 mins, 1996
Early life and career
Birthdate unknown. Mark Norfolk studied film at the University of Wales, Cardiff and has worked as an actor, reporter and sports journalist.Norfolk had noticed while growing up that the voices of black characters in plays and TV shows were never really authentic, "That takes away a large part of what they are: they're just doing what the majority of society has given them to do. What that's done over the years is made black people lose any representation of themselves. So it's very important that people are now trying to use language as it is said." The continuing themes in his writing bring a sharp focus on contemporary British society and how the various groups and generations interlock or collide.
Mark Norfolk's theatre debut came in 1998 when as part of Black History Month his play, By Your Leave was staged at the Albany Theatre, shortly followed that same year by, Fair As The Dark Gets.
After producing a short film, Diary Of A Somebody (2000) and a low budget, digital feature film, Love Is Not Enough, (2001) his play, Knock Down Ginger was produced at the Warehouse Theatre
The Warehouse Theatre
The Warehouse Theatre, located in Hope Street, Weymouth, Dorset, England, has been home to the Weymouth Drama Club since 1993. The Drama Club owns and runs the property, which is primarily used for rehearsing forthcoming productions, although also includes:...
after being selected for its International Playwriting Festival
International Playwriting Festival
The International Playwriting Festival was founded in 1986 by Steve Gooch and Ted Craig and is hosted by the new playwriting theatre, Warehouse Theatre, South London. It is held in two parts: the first is a competition with entries accepted from all over the world, which are judged by a panel of...
in June 2002. The play was nominated for the Arts Council's
Arts Council England
Arts Council England was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council of Great Britain was divided into three separate bodies for England, Scotland and Wales. It is a non-departmental public body of the Department of Culture, Media and Sport...
Eclipse Award For Combating Racism Through Theatre and was shortlisted for the Verity Bargate playwriting award, later the same year it was staged in Urbino, Italy for the Premio Candoni Festival of New Writing.
In 2003 he took part in the Soho Theatre
Soho Theatre
Soho Theatre is a theatre in the eponymous Soho district of the City of Westminster. It presents new works of theatre, together with comedy and cabaret....
Writers’ Attachment Programme where he developed Wrong Place. The play went on to run, featuring Mark Theodore, Larrington Walker and Geoffrey Burton, at the Soho Theatre in the same year. Both plays are published by Oberon Press. 2003 also saw the start of an ongoing film and theatre collaboration with actor and director, Jeffery Kissoon.
Norfolk has also written several productions for broadcast on BBC Radio, including In The Car Park (2002), Medium Risk (2005) and, paradoxically, a radio film called Broken Chain (2008). for Radio 4s The City Speaks series.
Norfolk's first 35mm film, Crossing Bridges started production in 2004 after the script won £1000 in a competition. Without even a fraction of the £150.000 budget, Norfolk proved to be a tenacious and resourceful independent filmmaker. He launched into production, gathering investors as the project progressed. Crossing Bridges tells the story of a suicidal man who meets an angel and features Jason Rose, Jeffery Kissoon and Elisabeth Dahl and went on to win an armful of international awards.
Mark Norfolk is currently working on a new film, Ham and the Piper featuring Jeffery Kissoon in the lead while his play, Naked Soldiers will be staged in May 2010 at the Warehouse Theatre, featuring Ewart James Walters, Adam Sopp and Elisabeth Dahl and directed by Jeffery Kissoon. He is also currently Writer In Residence a London prison working with the Writers in Prison Network, supported by Arts Council England and the Learning and Skills Council.
Stage plays
• Naked Soldiers – Warehouse Theatre May 2010• A Walk In The Park – Talawa Theatre Co. short play commission 25th anniversary celebration, Soho Theatre & writers’ Centre, 2007
• Dear Mama A – Pascal Theatre Co. commission. Swiss Cottage Library, 2005
• Dinner with Bono – Inaugural Flight 5065 London Eye commission, 2005
• Fess Up – Menagerie Theatre commission, Eastern Pipeline Project 2004
• Wrong Place – Soho Theatre. 2003
• Knock Down Ginger – Produced Warehouse Theatre, winner Guardian Culture Award 2003
• Fair As The Dark Gets -1998
• Buy Your Leave -Albany Theatre-Black History Month, 1998
Radio
• The City SpeaksThe City Speaks
The City Speaks is two BBC radio dramas, a feature film and 6 collaborations between audio drama directors, script-writers, artist film-makers, composer David Pickvance and sound designer Pete Ringrose....
Broken Chain - BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
/Film London/Arts Council, Multimedia feature project, and UK cinemas nationally, 2008
• Medium Risk - BBC Radio 3/7 TX: July 2005
• In The Car Park – BBC, Sparks, 2002
Screenplays
• Waiting In The City, ZDF, Germany.• Bagman Taps 1998; Shortlisted Orange/Pathe Screenwriting Award, 2000, Moonstone International 2002
• A king in his kingdom Finalist Script City Focus on Talent 1998
Feature films written & directed
• Ham And The Piper, April 2010• Crossing Bridges, 2006,(Distributed worldwide by Echelon Entertainment) Winner Audience Award – Corinthian International Film Festival 2008, Winner Independent Spirit Award-Screen Nation Film & Television Awards 2007, Winner Cyprus International Film Festival - Best Editing 2007, Official Selection London UK Film Focus 2007 and European Independent Film Festival 2007
• Mothers And Daughters:: A Jewish Archive, 2006 Creative Director-[50 x 120 mins Video archive. Pascal Theatre co/Heritage lottery Fund]
• Love Is Not Enough, 2001 (Distributed worldwide by Frontier Media Corp. US)
Short films include
• Anonymity", 20 mins, 2008, Finalist World Peace Film Festival, Italy 2008• Vengeance By Proxy, 15 mins, 2005
• 'The Slimes, (Commission-Southwark Environmental Services) 2003
• The Grimes, 2000 (Commission-Lewisham Environmental Services. Winner “Tidy Britain” Campaign Award 2000)
• Diary Of A Somebody", 8 mins, 2000 (Winner LFVDA & Wandsworth Arts Short Production Award 1999, BFM International Film Festival 2001, Le Mans International Film festival, 2001; XXIII Grenzland International Film Festival; Greenwich Film Festival 2000; Chichester Film Festival; Portobello Film Festival; 5th Bite The Mango Film Festival-NMPFT, Bradford; Foyle Film Festival, N.I; Manchester Intl. Film Festival; Nubian Tales, London; XV Brest Intl. Short Film Festival, Wandsworth Film Festival).
• Vegetaria, 10 mins, 1998 (Direction Film Club, Belfast, 2000; Raindance Film Festival, 1999; XIV Black International Cinema Festival, Berlin 1999; Truly Madly Cheaply Film Showcase, London, 1998)
• Rage, 5 mins, 1997
• Miltroed I Ffwrdd, 1997(Commission-Pop video broadcast "GAREG", S4C 1997)
• Miles Away, 1997 (Music video-Music Box)
• Nation, 15 mins, 1996