Sharman Macdonald
Sharman Macdonald | |
|---|---|
| Born | 8 February 1951 Glasgow, Scotland |
| Occupation | Playwright, screenwriter, former actress |
| Alma mater | University of Edinburgh |
| Period | 1984–present |
| Genre | Drama, fiction, libretto, radio drama, screenplay |
| Subject | Mother/daughter relationships |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2, including Keira Knightley |
| Relatives | James Righton (Son-in-law) |
Sharman Macdonald (born 8 February 1951) is a Scottish playwright, screenwriter, and actress.
Life and career
Macdonald was born in
7:84 Theatre Company and at the Royal Court Theatre. Although her acting career included 7 years of television work, she eventually left it, due in large part to stage fright.[4]
While working as an actress, Macdonald wrote her first play, When I Was a Girl, I Used to Scream and Shout; it was first performed at the
Evening Standard Award for most promising playwright. Some of the themes in Scream and Shout were inspired by games that her son Caleb played with his friends. Of this, Macdonald has said that "it's the result of a bet, this writing life. I was desperate for a second child. Desperate never to act again. Most of all desperate to stop eating lentils, French bread and tomatoes. We were broke, Will and me. We had one child. My hormones were screaming at me to have another. So. Will bet me a child for the sale of a script".[5] Actor Alan Rickman, then a reader, found it in the unsolicited script pile and told the Bush they should put it on. I[6]
Macdonald's other work includes The Brave, commissioned by the
English Stage Company and first performed at the Royal Court Theatre in 1991; The Winter Guest, which was made into a film, in 1997, directed by Alan Rickman
; The Girl With Red Hair (2005), which had its first reading in August 2003; and Windfall a film adaptation of Penny Vincenzi's best-selling novel PiVotal Pictures.
She has written two plays for the National Theatre's Shell Connections programme; After Juliet (in which Macdonald's daughter Keira starred as a young girl), and 2006's Broken Hallelujah.
Macdonald's resume also includes the novels The Beast (1986) and Night Night (1988), the
radio plays (for the BBC) such as Sea Urchins and Gladly My Cross Eyed Bear (1999), the libretto to Hey Persephone!, performed at Aldeburgh with music by Deirdre Gribbin, and Lu Lah, Lu Lah (2010) commissioned for a young all-female cast and performed at the Cheltenham Ladies' College in Cheltenham
.
Personal life
Macdonald is married to the actor Will Knightley. They have two children, composer Caleb Knightley and two-time Academy Award-nominated actress Keira Knightley.
Selected writings
- When I Was a Girl, I Used to Scream and Shout (1984, stage play)
- The Beast (1986, gently surreal novel about a family picnic at Kenwood in Hampstead) Collins, ISBN 0-00-223021-6
- The Brave (1988, stage play)
- When We Were Women (stage play)
- Night Night (1988, novel about a 1980s family in emotional freefall) Collins, ISBN 0-00-223311-8
- Soft Fall the Sounds of Eden (2004, radio play)
- The Edge of Love (2008, film)
References
- ISBN 9781857434286– via Google Books.
- ^ "ROTTEN TOMATOES: RT Interview: Keira Knightley on Welsh Accents and Life After Pirates". www.rottentomatoes.com. Archived from the original on 22 June 2008.
- ^ Ian McKellen, Alan Bates, Hugh Hudson, et al. For Ian Charleson: A Tribute. London: Constable and Company, 1990. pp. 63–67.
- ^ Gardner, Lyn (17 March 2005). "Interview with playwright Sharman Macdonald". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 July 2021.
- ^ Getting There: Sharman Macdonald Archived 14 November 2007 at the Wayback Machine, National Theatre, as-appeared in Stagewrite (Summer 1999)
- ^ Gardner, Lyn (17 March 2005). "Interview with playwright Sharman Macdonald". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 July 2021.
External links
- Sharman Macdonald at IMDb
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