Peter Quilter is a playwright

Playwright

A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...

 whose plays have been translated into 20 languages and performed in 33 countries. His shows have been performed in cities across six continents, including London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, Cape Town

Cape Town

Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...

, Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

, Prague

Prague

Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...

, Warsaw

Warsaw

Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...

, Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...

, Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...

, Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

, Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

, Madrid

Madrid

Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...

, Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

 and New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

.

Early life

Quilter was born in Colchester

Colchester

Colchester is an historic town and the largest settlement within the borough of Colchester in Essex, England.At the time of the census in 2001, it had a population of 104,390. However, the population is rapidly increasing, and has been named as one of Britain's fastest growing towns. As the...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 and is an honours graduate of Leeds University

University of Leeds

The University of Leeds is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England...

. He began his writing career from his home in Greenwich

Greenwich

Greenwich is a district of south London, England, located in the London Borough of Greenwich.Greenwich is best known for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich Meridian and Greenwich Mean Time...

, London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 where he lived for 14 years before emigrating to the Canary Islands

Canary Islands

The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...

 where he is now an official resident.

Entertainment career

He started his career as a television presenter on BBC TV

BBC Television

BBC Television is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation. The corporation, which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927, has produced television programmes from its own studios since 1932, although the start of its regular service of television...

. His first play was an all-female comedy Respecting Your Piers (recently re-published by Samuel French under a new title, "Curtain Up") and he followed this with a musical adaptation of Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde

Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...

´s The Canterville Ghost

The Canterville Ghost

"The Canterville Ghost" is a popular short story by Oscar Wilde, widely adapted for the screen and stage. It was the first of Wilde's stories to be published, appearing in the magazine The Court and Society Review in February 1887. It was later included in a collection of short stories entitled...

which played a number one tour of the UK starring Ron Moody

Ron Moody

Ron Moody is an English actor.- Personal life :Moody was born in Tottenham, North London, England, the son of Kate and Bernard Moodnick, a studio executive. His father was of Russian Jewish descent and his mother was a Lithuanian Jew. He is a cousin of director Laurence Moody and actress Clare...

. The following year, he made his West End

West End theatre

West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...

 debut with a comedy about the pop industry, BoyBand. The show played a summer season at the Gielgud Theatre

Gielgud Theatre

The Gielgud Theatre is a West End theatre, located on Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster, London, at the corner of Rupert Street. The house currently has 889 seats on three levels.-History:...

 and later enjoyed success in South Africa, Denmark, Poland and on a 60-venue tour of the Netherlands. It is currently playing an open ended run at the Nova Scena theatre in Bratislava.

Successful endeavors

In 2005, Quilter had his first big international hit with End of the Rainbow, a musical drama about the final months in the life of Judy Garland

Judy Garland

Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...

. It premiered at the Sydney Opera House

Sydney Opera House

The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in the Australian city of Sydney. It was conceived and largely built by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, finally opening in 1973 after a long gestation starting with his competition-winning design in 1957...

 in Australia (winning Caroline O'Connor two Best Actress awards) and also had an award-winning run at the 2006 Edinburgh Festival

Edinburgh Festival

The Edinburgh Festival is a collective term for many arts and cultural festivals that take place in Edinburgh, Scotland each summer, mostly in August...

. The following year, Joop van den Ende presented a new Dutch production which played a seven-month tour of the Netherlands culminating in performances at the Royal Theatre Carre in Amsterdam. The show has since enjoyed runs in the Czech Republic, Finland, Poland and New Zealand. A new UK production opened in February 2010 at the Royal Theatre in Northampton, directed by Terry Johnson

Terry Johnson (dramatist)

Terry Johnson is a British dramatist and director working for stage, television and film. He is a Literary Associate at the Royal Court Theatre. At The Court he directed Dumb Show by Joe Penhall and opened his play Piano/Forte...

, designed by William Dudley

William Dudley

William Dudley was Dean of Windsor and then Bishop of Durham.A younger son of John Sutton, 1st Baron Dudley, Dudley was nominated to Durham on 31 July 1476. He was consecrated between 1 September and 12 October 1476. In 1483 he supported Richard, Duke of Gloucester, the future King...

 and starring Tracie Bennett

Tracie Bennett

Tracie Bennett is an English stage and television actress. She trained at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts in Clapham, London...

. The show transferred to London's West End on November 16, playing at the Trafalgar Studios - a 400 seat theatre at the corner of Trafalgar Square. The show opened to great critical acclaim and was featured on the front cover of The Times newspaper. The play ended its six month run in May 2011. The show received nominations for 4 Laurence Olivier Awards

Laurence Olivier Awards

The Laurence Olivier Award is presented annually by the Society of London Theatre to recognise excellence in professional theatre. Named after the renowned British actor Laurence Olivier, they are given for West End shows and other productions staged in London...

 - Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Sound and Best New Play. A new spanish production opened at the Teatro Marqina in Madrid in January 2011, starring Natalia Dicenta

Natalia Dicenta

Natalia Dicenta Herrera is a Spanish actress. She is the daughter of Spanish actors Lola Herrera and Daniel Dicenta.- Family :...

 and a german production opened at the Hamburger Kammerspiele in June 2011. In November 2011 a new Brazilian production of the show will open in Rio de Janeiro directed by Moeller-Botelho. In January 2012, the show will make its USA debut at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, prior to an announced Broadway transfer, opening March 19th.

Quilter's other major hit Glorious! also received its debut production in 2005, opening at Birmingham Rep Theatre and transferring in November 2005 to the Duchess Theatre

Duchess Theatre

The Duchess Theatre is a West End theatre in the City of Westminster, London, located in Catherine Street, near Aldwych.The theatre opened on 25 November 1929 and is one of the smallest 'proscenium arched' West End theatres. It has 479 seats on two levels....

 in the West End. The production starred the much loved comedy actress Maureen Lipman

Maureen Lipman

Maureen Diane Lipman CBE is a British film, theatre and television actress, columnist and comedienne.-Early life:Lipman was born in Hull in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, the daughter of Maurice Julius Lipman and Zelma Pearlman. Her father was a tailor; he used to have a shop between the...

, was directed by Alan Strachan and produced by impresario Michael Codron

Michael Codron

Michael Victor Codron is a British film and theatre producer, known for his productions of the early work of Harold Pinter, Christopher Hampton, David Hare, Simon Gray and Tom Stoppard...

. Glorious! told the story of Florence Foster Jenkins

Florence Foster Jenkins

Florence Foster Jenkins was an American amateur operatic soprano who was known, and ridiculed, for her lack of rhythm, pitch, tone, and overall singing ability.-Early years:...

, the worst singer in the world. It ran in London for six months and over 200 performances. The play was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award as Best New Comedy. Glorious! made its North American debut at Theatre Calgary

Theatre Calgary

Theatre Calgary, theatre company in Calgary, Alberta, established as a professional company in 1968.-History:The origin of the company dates back to the 1940s, when students of Betty Mitchell, a drama teacher at Calgary's Western Canada High School, established an amateur group known as "Workshop...

 and had its first foreign language production at the Helsinki City Theatre, under the title Suurenmoista! It has since played in over 20 countries and recently celebrated its 2000th worldwide performance and a million ticket sales. In 2008 Quilter created a three-actor version which premiered at the Fulton Opera House, Philadelphia and also played to great success in Rio de Janeiro and Madrid. The play is currently running for its 5th year in Prague and Warsaw and has been in continual production in Canada and Germany since 2006. One of the most popular productions has been in Poland ("Boska") starring the legendary Krystyna Janda. The production has visited Chicago and New York, has toured to all major polish cities, and been broadcast live on national television. In the coming year, new productions will open in Bratislava, Caracas, Dusseldorf and Mexico City.

Other works

His other work includes -

Duets, an award-winning romantic comedy for a cast of two actors, which received several national premiere productions in 2009, including in Vilnius, Atlanta, Krakow, Manila and Sydney. It has been published by Samuel French Ltd.

The screenplay Celebrity which was made into a television movie by Teatr Telewizji in Poland titled Rodzinny Show. The film has been broadcast several times on national and digital TV and had guest screenings at various festivals. The screenplay has recently been adapted for the stage and premiered in November at the Vasterbotten Theatre in Sweden under the title Kandisfeber.

Just the Ticket is a one-woman comedy, which had its world premiere at Australia's Ensemble Theatre in February 2011.

Curtain Up! is an all-female comedy popular with amateur groups in the UK. It will open at Divadlo Palace in Prague in February 2012.

Boyband is a pop musical that has played runs in London, Cape Town, Amsterdam, Warsaw, Copenhagen and Bratislava.

The Canterville Ghost is a family musical based on Oscar Wilde's story (with music by Charles Miller). It toured the UK starring Ron Moody.

The Nightingales is a comedy with music based around a theatrical family in the 1950s. The World Premiere will be at the Contra Kreiss Theater in Bonn Germany at christmas.

Peter's latest play (July 2011) is a modern comedy about sex, love and family...and sex. It is titled The Morning After