Mark is the Part Time Executive Director of Arts at the Oasis Academy Lord's Hill and director of the Oasis Youth Theatre. Although his name is not well-known outside of schools and colleges, he is one of the most-performed playwrights in Britain.
At GSCE level he is in the top three most performed contemporary playwrights – the other two being John Godber and Alan Ayckbourn. His work is often singled out for praise in the Edexcel Chief Examiner’s report. In term time his plays are performed up to 12 times a day. Too Much Punch For Judy has been on tour constantly since 1987 and has been performed well over 5,000 times.
His latest play One Million To Stop The Traffik, about human trafficking, has just won the All England Theatre Festival. Mark has over a dozen plays published with dbda, has recently written a book about his Drama teaching for Rhinegold and has had several DVD guides to drama theory published.
His plays include: Too Much Punch For Judy, Hard To Swallow, Chicken! The Gate Escape, Wacky Soap, Arson About, Missing Dan Nolan, Legal Weapon 2, Chunnel of Love, Graham – World’s Fastest Blind Man, Jamie and the Land of Dinnersphere, One Million To Stop The Traffik, Driven To Distraction, Sequinned Suits And Platform Boots.
He is currently working on a book celebrating the creation 25 years ago of Too Much Punch For Judy (The Too Much Punch Files) and a new Road Safety play telling the tragic true story of one of the original Chicken! cast.
Some reviews for Mark’s work: “The audience I sat in was patently out for some whooping Friday night fun watching their mates on stage. At the end there was a horrid silence.” Times Educational Supplement “A model of its kind… elegantly structured, highly informative, and imaginatively theatrical.” The Stage and Television Today ..should be compulsory viewing for anyone connected with the education of teenagers.” Times Educational Supplement “I can’t remember the last time I saw a grown man, a stranger, cry in front of me. .. As the tale of a family in freefall unfolded, slowly and silently loved ones sought out each others’ hands and clasped them tightly in the darkness to a chorus of staccato sniffs and muffled sobs.” Southern Evening Echo “Imaginative, exciting, disciplined, tuneful and very funny.” Scottish TES |