Theatre Centre and National Drama present…. Uncovering Texts: Princess and the Hustler by Chinonyerem Odimba

Spend time with writer Chinonyerem Odimba to uncover more about her “Richly textured, passionate and enormously affecting” (The Times) play and how you can teach it in your drama class. Princess and the Hustler was shortlisted for the Alfred Fagon Award 2018 for Best New Play. This is the first of a series of CPD events presented by National Drama in association with Theatre Centre.

This event is FREE to National Drama Members with the Promo Code sent via email, and £5 for non-members.

SYNOPSIS

Meet Princess. A cheeky 10-year-old with a plan to win the Weston-Super-Mare Beauty Contest. Trouble is, her mum is busy working several jobs, her brother, a budding photographer, won’t even take her picture and then – The Hustler returns.

In 1963 Bristol, as Black British civil rights activists take to the streets, Princess finds out what it really means to be black and beautiful.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B81fJKoYDXU

CHINONYEREM ODIMBA

Chinonyerem is a Nigerian British playwright, screenwriter, and poet. Her recent work ranges from Medea at Bristol Old Vic, We Too, Are Giants for Kiln Theatre, Unknown Rivers at Hampstead Theatre, Prince and the Pauper at Watermill Theatre, The Seven Ages of Patience at Kiln Theatre, and Princess & The Hustler which toured across the UK for Eclipse Theatre/Bristol Old Vic/Hull Truck. She is currently working on commissions for Young Vic, RSC. She was the inaugural Writer-in-Residence at Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in 2020/2021.

Her work for theatre includes The Bird Woman of Lewisham at the Arcola; Rainy Season, and His Name is Ishmael for Bristol Old Vic; Joanne for Clean Break, and Amongst the Reeds for Clean Break/The Yard Theatre. Her work for young people includes a modern retelling of Twist for Theatre Centre and Sweetness of a Sting for NT Connections.

Her work has been shortlisted for several awards including the Adrienne Benham and Alfred Fagon awards. In 2015 her unproduced play Wild is De Wind was shortlisted to the final ten for the Bruntwood Playwriting Award. She is the winner for the 2018 Sonia Friedman Award (Channel 4 Playwright Bursary) for a new play How to Walk on the Moon, and a finalist for the inaugural Women Playwriting Prize 2020 for her play Paradise Street. Her play Black Love won the Writer’s Guild award for Best Musical Theatre Bookwriting in 2022.

Chinonyerem’s TV credits includes Scotch Bonnet for BBC Three and A Blues for Nia for BBC/Eclipse Theatre, Adulting for Channel 4, and more recently My Best Friend Married a Warrior for CBBC. She is currently developing TV series ideas for Popcorn Productions and BlackLight.

For radio, credits include The Last Flag, and Eve as part of This Is Your Country, Now series on BBC Radio 4.

As a director, Chinonyerem has worked for Bristol Old Vic, Theatre503 and Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. In February 2022 she directed When the Long Trick’s Over by Morgan Lloyd Malcolm which opened at New Wolseley Theatre. She followed this by directing the remount of her new musical play Black Love at Kiln Theatre which she originally co-directed as part of Paines Plough’s Roundabout Season 2021.

Chinonyerem Odimba is Chair of Trustees at Theatre Bristol, a Trustee on the board at Bristol Old Vic and part of Freelancers Make Theatre Work collective.