The Windsor Fringe has announced the two judges – Pete Gallagher and Joan Lane that are to evaluate and choose the final winners for the Kenneth Branagh Drama Writing Awards.
This year the Kenneth Branagh Drama Writing Awards has had a substantial number of scripts submitted -301 from 24 countries.
These scripts have been numbered and are being evaluated anonymously through a panel of readers- these are currently in the 3rd round – will go to a 4th round before determining a short list of nine scripts that will be forwarded to these two judges.
The judges- Pete Gallagher and Joan Lane will liaise, evaluate and critique the final nine scripts before selecting the winner and two runner ups of the prestigious award.
These final three scripts will be performed as the finale to the Windsor Fringe with the winner being kept secret until the announcement at the Awards Ceremony on October 6th -the final night of the Fringe.
Pete Gallagher is a successful actor/writer/director who works through his company The House of Gulliver.
Pete has directed dozens of productions – drama, musicals, comedies and variety – including the award nominated UK tour of Spring Awakening and critically acclaimed gothic punk A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Chelsea. At the age of 25, he took charge of the legendary Corona Academy in London and has since been Director of Musical Theatre or Head of Drama in others. He was a director of Miscellany Theatre Co. and co-founded GAJIT, a theatre master-class company.
As a director in two of the previous Kenneth Branagh Drama Awards, he immediately picked out the two that unbeknown to him, had been already been chosen the winners! Pete was also a very successful judge alongside Fay Weldon CBE for the Award in 2013 and Sarah Wolf of Samuel French Ltd. in 2015.
Joan Lane has worked in arts management and production for 30 years.
Joan is known for having developed the film ‘The King’s Speech’, directed by Tom Hooper, starring Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham Carter, having discovered the then unknown author David Seidler. and adapted it from his stage play.
She trained as a Speech and Language Therapist, with a background as a music scholar and has also worked as a vocal consultant.
Her varied work in music, film and television expose Joan to scripts and screenplays. With a background of language, Joan began to work with and edit writer’s work/ scripts. She now spends most of her working hours doing just that. Currently four TV series on which she has worked with first time writers are under consideration and three films are expected to go into production in 2018.
Her company, Wild Thyme Productions, has toured six innovative productions of Shakespeare’s plays in the UK and Germany and mounted world premiere showcases and readings of new plays and musicals in London. She is a member of Musical Theatre Network UK, concerned with the writing of new musicals, and a member of the British Shakespeare Association.
