Richard Conlon (born 1965 in Hemel Hempstead) is an English playwright. His plays for young people are published by Heinemann, an arm of

Pearson Education Pearson Education is a British-owned education publishing and assessment service to schools and corporations, as well for students directly. Pearson owns educational media brands including Addison–Wesley, Peachpit, Prentice Hall, eCollege, ...

. As well as his own original works he has adapted Benjamin Zephaniah’s novel ‘'Face'’ and ‘'Whispers in the Graveyard'’ by Theresa Brelsin for the stage. Both are published as play-texts for schools internationally. In 2010 he wrote ''Wasted'' for Forest Forge Theatre Company. His work has been performed by youth theatres in venues including the Lawrence Batley Theatre, Birmingham Rep, The Watermill (Newbury), The

Georgian Theatre Royal The Georgian Theatre Royal is a theatre and historic Georgian playhouse in the market town of Richmond, North Yorkshire, England. It is among the oldest of Britain's extant theatres. It was built in 1788 by the actor-manager Samuel Butler (1 ...

(Richmond) and The Castle Theatre (Wellingborough). His plays have also been performed in Ireland, the USA and New Zealand. During his career, Conlon has been the recipient of two

Arts Council England Arts Council England is an arm's length non-departmental public body of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is also a registered charity. It was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council of Great Britain was divided into three s ...

Awards, one of which was for the creation of ‘Hope Springs’ which has been performed in theatres across the UK, including at the

Edinburgh Festival Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as The Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe, or Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest arts and media festival, which in 2019 spanned 25 days and featured more than 59,600 performances of 3,841 dif ...

. A play inspired by an article by ''Guardian'' journalist Decca Aitkenhead. Conlon has received commissions from Farnham Maltings, Forest Forge Theatre Company, Bristol City Council, Take Art, The Old Vic and Somerset County Council. In 2009 he began collaborating with Hampshire's Forest Forge Theatre Company on Lucy Clifford’s short story ‘Wooden Tony’. This turned into a play called ‘The Boy at the Edge of the Room’ which premiered in March 2013. The same short story has also been turned into a large-cast community piece called ‘Very Small and Very far Away’. Conlon is a member of the Writers' Guild of Great Britain, NAWE (National Association of Writers in Education) and NAYT (National Association of Youth Theatres). He lives just outside the Dorset town of Shaftesbury. In 2016 he took on the role of co-Artistic Director of Winchester's Blue Apple Theatre Company.

References

Published works

* ''Hope Springs'' (2006) Heinemann * ''Face'' (2008) Heinemann * ''Whispers in the graveyard'' (2009) Heinemann * ''Paving Paradise'' (2010) Heinemann * ''The Death Of Jude Hill'' (2011) Heinemann (part of Pearson Education's ‘Heroes’ series) * ''The Emigrant's Friend'' (2013) Phoenix, Australia {{DEFAULTSORT:Conlon, Richard 1965 births Living people English dramatists and playwrights English male dramatists and playwrights