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Shelley Silas

SHELLEY SILAS

  
Nationality:    n/a
email:    Click here to contact     Website:    n/a

Literary Agent:    Blake Friedmann  

Shelley was born in Calcutta and grew up in North London. She was a winner in the ICA's New Blood fiction competition (1996) with her short story Via Calcutta, later published in the on-line anthology Endangered Species edited by Val McDermid. Her first short play, Shrapnel was produced by the Steam Industry at BAC (1999). Next came Falling at the Bush Theatre (2002) where Shelley was the Pearson writer-in-residence. Other plays include Calcutta Kosher (Southwark Playhouse, Birmingham Rep, Theatre Royal Stratford East), Mercy Fine for Clean Break (Birmingham Rep). Her radio work includes devising and co-writing the Magpie Stories, Calcutta Kosher, the Sound Of Silence (short listed for the Imison Award), Collective Fascination, Nothing Happened (with Luke Sorba), Ink and a co-adaptation (with John Harvey) of the Raj Quartet. She has written a 90' film, the Wedding Dress, for Touchpaper TV. Shelley has compiled and edited Twelve Days, an anthology including stories by Jake Arnott, StElla Duffy, Val McDermid, Patrick Neate and Sophie KinsellA.

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below is a list of Shelley Silas's plays - click on a Play Title for more information

         Calcutta Kosher         Eating Ice Cream On Gaza Beach         Falling         Mercy Fine         Shrapnel         That War

Calcutta Kosher

Synopsis:
In a crumbling Calcutta home, two sisters are forced to come to terms with their mother's secret history. In this funny and moving play, award-winning writer Shelley Silas examines how family and culture, time and distance, influence our sense of who we are. Set in the Indian Jewish community, it explores conflicts between old and new, east and west, tradition and truth. If the past is another country, where is home?

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Southwark Playhouse, London    2004

Organisations:
Kali Theatre Company in association with Tara Arts

1st Published:
in Black and Asian Plays Anthology ed. Cheryl Robson, Aurora Metro, 2000. as single play by Oberon Books, London, 2004 >>>,    -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Eating Ice Cream On Gaza Beach

Synopsis:
Sixty years since Israeli Independence. Good news for some, not so good for others. While one side celebrates, the other mourns. Itıs a scorching day on Gaza beach. A Palestinian ice cream seller discusses his future with an English boy. Two Israeli soldiers argue over what could be. A mother mourns her son and a young man has a plan that brings all these characters together. Six people, two lands. One beach. And a lot of decisions.

Notes:
for A cast of 15, 11 speaking parts which can be condensed, And A chorus of 4

1st Produced:

Organisations:
National Youth Theatre

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Falling

Synopsis:
If we can't have a baby, we'll have a holiday. Pete and Linda have everything, except the most fashionable accessory of the season - a baby. And it doesn't look like a stork will be flying past their house. But there's more to life than procreation. . . Falling is a moving and funny investigation of the modern extended family

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Mercy Fine

Synopsis:
Mercy Fine is a gripping and intensley moving Drama about the effects of a single, life-changing, moment of crisis. Mercy Fine is in her prison bed at midnight. In just over twenty-four hours she'll be going back home - but home was where her life went so badly wrong. As Mercy's future looms, her past comes back to haunt her. . ..

Notes:
Mercy Fine is the prestigious 2005 new writing commission from Clean Break, the theatre, education And new writing company. Clean Break uses theatre for personaland political change, working with women whose lives have been Affected by the criminal justice system.

1st Produced:

Organisations:
Clean Break Theatre Company

1st Published:

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Shrapnel

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
BAC , London >>>    1999

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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That War

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
A benefit evening for Stop the War of ten x ten minute pieces, including new plays, music, poetry and comedy from both UK and Middle Eastern artists to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq  and to celebrate their enduring anti-war movement. New plays, music, poetry, comedy and performance from  Lynsey Baxter, Richard Bradbury, Andrew Bridgmont, Corin Campbell Hill, Aidan Casey, Sally Davies, StElla Duffy, Sophia Efthimiou, Brian Eno, Joe Gaminara, Shappi Khorsandi, Alan Franks, Muzz Khan, Jane Lapotaire, Roger Lloyd Pack, Peter Lynam, Kika Markham, David Mumeni, Ahmed Mukhtar, Lara Rossi, Marlene Sidaway, Shelley Silas, Ralf Togner, Martin Turner, Timothy West, Philip Wilson, Jan Woolf, Saadi Yusef and surprise guests. Compered by Arthur Smith.

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
ten min play

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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