BA (Hons) Acting for Stage & Screen and MA Directing & Theatre Making graduate Connor Dorrian, 22 years-old, recently won the Under 26 Playwrighting Award at The Live Theatre Newcastle with his work ‘A Moving Still’, a North East coming of age story. The play was originally written, directed and performed by Connor himself as part of his MA FMP project. After being re-drafted it has won this award and opened many more doors, he is currently working with our acting degree students on their final year performance ‘Cupid’ and a number of other exciting productions in North East. Read on to find out more:

Congratulations on your award! Tell us about it:

It feels amazing to have won the award. I still can’t quite believe it, but nevertheless I’m super happy and grateful. It will change my life and project my career to a point I didn’t know was possible at this stage. Already it has started to open up many new doors for me, and I can’t wait to see where they lead.

I saw the opportunity when Live Theatre posted about the award and that they were receiving submissions a few month ago. After just graduating, I decided to submit my play ‘A Moving Still’, which I was redrafting. The submission was anonymous so they could keep it fair. After a few months I heard back that I had made the long list and then the shortlist. I was then invited to the award ceremony, and told I had won the 16-26 Playwright award.

The evening was great. It was full of industry professionals, creatives and fellow shortlisted writers. My award was specifically presented to me by Robson Green who said some very kind words about my piece, as he was also one of the judges. He loved my play, and personally congratulated me, telling me how amazing he thought play is and how proud I should be. My Dad is a massive Robson Green fan and I grew up watching his fishing programs with him, so this was a surreal full circle moment. Along with the awards, there were script reads from extracts of the runner up plays that were beautifully delivered. There was also a few free drinks which is also a win, including a table full of every type of wine. Unfortunately I was driving and had work in the morning, but I’m glad others were able to capitalise on it all. Overall a fantastic evening.

Tell us about your play ‘A Moving Still’

I won the award for my play ‘A Moving Still’. The play is a North East coming of age story. With troubled young lad ‘Lucas’, trapped in a life of drug dealing at its centre. After his brother’s arrest, he starts to explore his youth as newly presented options open up. It is around 70 minutes long due to the requirements of the submission for the play to be no more than 70 minutes. The play initially was created as my FMP for my MA where it was performed at the John Marley centre. For which I also directed and performed in it. After its initial performance, I started to redraft, edit & extend the play. I then submitted the new version.

You are working on cupid with our final year acting degree students, how has that process been?

Yes! I am working on the final year show ‘Cupid’ for the level 6 acting students. Cupid is about a local postie who runs off with all the letters on Valentine’s Day. Causing chaos amongst the town. The play is about love, self acceptance and what Valentine’s Day can be for people.

The play will be performed at ARC Stockton in May by the level 6 acting course students. This is their final year show and part of their showcase. Therefore, the play consists of sixteen cast members.

It’s an amazing honour to come back and work with the uni, especially creating the final year show for the actors this year. I know how much the final year show means to the actors before they take on the industry, having done one myself. Which is a great full circle moment. Showing not only far I’ve come in a few years, but how mind the Uni is creating it’s own creative network and looking after alumni. The fact I get to follow in the footsteps of professional writers I look up to is a fantastic feeling. The talent of the third year actors  is immense and who better than to perform and premiere my new play Cupid.

What other projects are you working on?

Since graduating I’ve worked across a number of projects in the region. I became a trainee facilitator for Live theatre at the Firestation Sunderland, where I teaching acting to youth. I finished the Live playwright course recently which has helped push my writing to the next level. With that, I was successful in winning the response piece for Disco Pigs at Alphabetti with my play ‘Neon Brown’. Along with my theatre company ‘BrainSoup’ we also participated in a residency sharing at Alphabetti with our play ‘Thresholds’ which I wrote and performed in.

I’m continuing to work on ‘Neon Brown’ and extend it until a full play, which will then hopefully be staged in the future. ‘Thresholds’ is also being extended, to hopefully perform at fringe festivals within this year. Other than that I will be working on numerous other plays including developing A Moving Still with Live theatre after winning the playwright award.

As an alumni of both our our BA and MA degree’s, what do you think is special about the school?

Everything I have learned creatively & my confidence as an artist has come from my time spent at The Northern School of Art whether on the acting degree or directing MA. Both courses helped me gain knowledge & insight on the industry I was going into. The uni itself is like a community and excels at collaboration. Other courses can collaborate with each other. This is where I was able to learn about other roles in the industry while working with them too. This was super useful as it helped create a network of creatives that I can also call friends.

The acting degree pushed me out of my comfort zone (in a good way), that ultimately helped me discover my abilities and potential as an actor. This also helped me build social skills and gain new confidence as not just an artist but a person. I can’t tell you how much the course helped me come out of my shell. By the end of the course I also attempted my first bit of writing and directing with my FMP ‘Stole the show’. For my first ever play it was surprising to be so well received, which led me onto join the MA in directing as I loved creating the play so much.

The MA pushed me further, but luckily I was able to carry over everything I learnt from the BA to implement into a new practice. This was extremely useful, as I was now able to focus more on the specifics of what I wanted to do and who I wanted to be as a creative. During my time on the course, creating and writing plays became my strong point, so I decided to focus on that. Creating a new piece for my FMP, my second ever play to be written A Moving Still. Which now just won me the playwright award.

Keep up to date with Connor by following him on Instagram: @connorjd21 and Twitter/X: @connorjd21.

If you are interested in studying acting at degree level find out more here. If you want to take the next steps in your academic career take a look at our postgraduate programme in MA Directing and Theatre Making. You can also check out our programme of theatre performances here.