News

Exclusive: Dyllón Burnside, star of Ryan Murphy shows Pose, American Horror Story and Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, will make his London stage debut in Black Superhero, the debut play from British actor, activist and playwright Danny Lee Wynter.

Florida-born Burnside will play King, a Black, queer movie star “with the world at his feet,” Wynter told Deadline.

King is “an out, global film star,” Wynter added. “He’s open about his sexuality but he’s not open about his private life, about whom he dates,” Wynter explained.

Burnside character King plays a superhero called Craw in the show that will run at the Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Downstairs located in Chelsea’s Sloane Square from March 14 through April 29. Official opening night is March 21.

Wynter, who is also starring in Black Superhero, made his mark in TV drama Joe’s Palace with Michael Gambon and Kelly Reilly and Capturing Mary...

The Eddy’s Jack Thorne, The Innocents’ Stacey Gregg and Utopia’s Dennis Kelly are among the A-list writers to back a new writers’ scheme organized by Broadchurch producer Kudos.

The Endemol Shine indie has teamed with The Royal Court Theatre to support a new fellowship that will offer three writers £10,000 to help getting their work developed and produced in television and theatre.

These fellowships are specifically aimed at writers already establishing a writing career, but who perceive barriers in getting their work developed and produced because of class, disability, education, ethnicity, gender identity, geography or any other barrier.

The bursaries will support writers for a period of six months from January 2019 and during this time they will also be given the opportunity to see productions, meet other leading writers in theatre and television and have ongoing artistic conversations with staff at both organisations.

During this time, they will...

The easy step from bigotry and ideological entrenchments to outright madness gets a timely depiction in David Ireland’s Cyprus Avenue at Off Broadway’s Public Theater. Timelier, perhaps, than Ireland or his star Stephen Rea (The Crying Game) could ever have imagined.

Be warned: A child – an infant, in fact – will pay the price for adult madness, and though the Belfast-set drama takes place nowhere near America’s southern border, recent headlines of youngsters caged, literally, in fights not of their making resonate throughout Ireland’s dark allegorical drama.

Cyprus Avenue, directed by Vicky Featherstone and a co-production of the Abbey Theatre and The Royal Court Theater, begins before we, the audience, have a chance to adjust our boundaries, which most certainly is the point. On a lovely, intentionally bland off-white set with a few sticks of the attractive but not overly comfortable furniture of a psychiatrist’s office,...

The Public Theater Artistic Director, Oskar Eustis Executive Director, Patrick Willingham will begin previews for a limited eight-week run of the Abbey Theatre and the Royal Court Theatre's acclaimed production of Cyprus Avenue on Saturday, June 2. The new play, written by David Ireland and directed by Royal Court Artistic Director Vicky Featherstone, features Stephen Rea, who last performed at The Public in 2008 in Sam Shepard's Kicking a Dead Horse. The run at The Public follows encore engagements at Dublin's Peacock Stage at the Abbey Theatre April 30-May 19 and the Mac in Belfast May 23-26. Cyprus Avenue will run through Sunday, July 29 in The Public's LuEsther Hall, with an official press opening on Monday, June 25.

Hello and welcome back to our roundup of news from across the industry. From stage to screens big and small, we’ve got you covered. It’s everything you need to know and all you can’t afford to miss. Phyllida Lloyd demands equality on and off stage.Last week, theatre director Phyllida Lloyd called on the Arts Council to refuse funding unless companies commit to gender equality on and off stage. At the Women in the Creative Industries Awards, Lloyd used an acceptance speech to demand that Arts Council chair Nicholas Serota only fund companies that “truly reflect the world around them,” saying, “there must from now on be 50:50 employment of men and women on stage, off stage and in the boardroom”. Lloyd was awarded for her trilogy of all-female Shakespeare plays at the Donmar and celebrating for putting women’s stories centre stage across her film and theatre work.

The San Francisco Film Society has announced the inaugural recipients of its Sffs Women Filmmaker Fellowships, a brand new suite of services designed to support female writer/directors working on their second or third narrative feature through a combination of financial backing, innovative programs and events, mentorship services, industry connections and a growing community of fellow filmmakers. Supported by the Kenneth Rainin Foundation and facilitated by Filmmaker360, the Film Society's filmmaker services department, these fellowships provide direct assistance to an under-served group of storytellers and help to build sustainable careers for women filmmakers all over the world.

Participants in the Sffs Women Filmmaker Fellowship must be working on a second or third English-language narrative feature screenplay. They must have had a previous film premiere at a major international festival and priority is given to women working in the genres of science fiction, comedy, action, thriller and horror, which are traditionally under-represented for women filmmakers.

"We're thrilled to be kicking off this new initiative with such talented individuals, and to help bridge the support gap we have seen for many women in finding the resources they need, especially on their second or third feature film projects," said Michele Turnure-Salleo, director of Filmmaker360. "It's also very satisfying to support kick-ass women making edgy sci-fi, horror and comedies, and we hope this initiative contributes to leveling the playing field in those areas. Like our Sffs Producers Initiative, this program focuses on backing people rather than individual projects, and we are committed to helping these amazing folks realize their creative visions."

In 2013 and 2014, academic institutions such as the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California and the Center for Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State produced substantive reports on the state of women in the film industry, revealing startling statistics that point to drastic gender inequality. The latter group, for example, reports that in 2013, women accounted for just 6% of directors, 10% of writers, 15% of executive producers, 17% of editors and 3% of cinematographers. Additionally, women were found more likely to be working on romantic comedies, dramas or documentaries than the top-grossing genres of animation, sci-fi, action and horror.

"We all benefit from a more accurate and diverse portrayal of society on film," said Jennifer Rainin, CEO of the Kenneth Rainin Foundation. "As more than 50% of the population, it's imperative that women have opportunities to share their stories on screen and that we see female characters valued as much as males, yet there's a lack of progress on these issues and little funding for female filmmakers working in narrative. Recognizing this gap, we've created the Women Filmmaker Fellowships as a way to build a critical mass of female filmmakers enjoying sustainable and thriving careers. I hope it inspires other film organizations and philanthropists to join us in building out this initiative, and to replicate this model."

Designed to grow organically over time to include additional programs and events, the Sffs Women Filmmaker Fellowship is currently seeking additional funding partners. For more information, visit sffs.org/filmmaker360

2015 Sffs Women Filmmaker Fellows

Nikole Beckwith

Nikole Beckwith is from Newburyport, Massachusetts. Her plays have been developed and performed with the Public Theater, Playwrights Horizons, Clubbed Thumb, Here Arts Center, Colt Coeur, Lesser America, 3Ld and Rattlestick Playwrights Theater among others. Her newest play Untitled Matriarch Play (or Seven Sisters) was written at the National Theatre of London's Studio and premiered in rep at the Royal Court under the direction of Artistic Director Vicky Featherstone. Also a pen and ink artist, Beckwith's comics have been featured on NPR, Wnyc, the Huffington Post and the Hairpin, among others. Her first film "Stockholm, Pennsylvania" (2012 Nicholl Fellowship, 2012 Black List, 2013 Sundance Screenwriters Lab), which was adapted from her stage play of the same name, premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in the Us Dramatic Competition. She lives in Brooklyn.

Jennifer Phang

Jennifer Phang's sophomore feature "Advantageous" won the Us Dramatic Competition Special Jury Prize in Collaborative Vision at Sundance 2015. The film will play at the San Francisco International Film Festival and Bam Cinemafest, and is expected to see a release in June. Her award-winning debut feature "Half-Life" premiered in 2008 at the Tokyo International and Sundance film festivals. It screened at SXSW and was distributed by Sundance Channel. She was invited to Sundance Institute Screenwriters Lab and was awarded a Sffs FilmHouse Residency and Sundance Institute Feature Film Grants in support of  "Advantageous." Phang was originally commissioned to create "Advantageous" as a short film for the Itvs Futurestates Program. A Berkeley-born daughter of a Chinese-Malaysian father and Vietnamese mother, Phang graduated from the Mfa directing program at the American Film Institute.

Stewart Thorndike

Stewart Thorndike is a writer/director from Tacoma, Washington. She makes female-driven genre films and her first film, "Lyle," was hailed as a "lesbian Rosemary's Baby " after its premiere at Outfest, where star Gaby Hoffmann won the Grand Jury Award for Best Actress. Thorndike attended Nyu's graduate film program and her thesis short film, "Tess and Nana," premiered at SXSW. Stewart's next film, "The Stay," is about a group of women at a hotel who are told to do bad things by a haunted Ted Talk, with Chloe Sevigny attached to star in the 2015 production. She is currently developing her second horror feature, "Daughter," about a love triangle between a single mother, her troubled teenage daughter and the witch who moves in next door. Thorndike plans to shoot "Daughter" in 2016.

Sffs Women Filmmaker Fellowships will take place from April to October each year, overlapping with the Film Society's previously announced Producers Fellowship programs and the San Francisco International Film Festival (April 23 - May 7). Program support includes:

* A $25,000 - $40,000 cash grant, which must be used for living expenses. Individual amounts depend on place of residence and estimated travel costs to participate in Bay Area fellowship components.

* Placement in FilmHouse Residency program and access to all FilmHouse programs and activities.

* One-on-one consultation with film industry experts from the Bay Area and beyond regarding casting, financing, budgeting, legal issues, distribution and other relevant topics.

* Weekly one-on-one consultation services provided by Filmmaker360 staff, with feedback on screenplays, verbal pitch strategies and written materials such as synopsis and treatment.

* Presentations and networking opportunities with Bay Area narrative filmmakers.

* Expenses covered for one 3-day networking trip with a Filmmaker360 staff member from San Francisco to Los Angeles, for meetings with established industry professionals.

Filmmaker360 has a strong track record for supporting innovative work by female writer/directors. Four out of six of the projects that received funding in the most recent round of Sffs / Kenneth Rainin Foundation Filmmaking Grants-the Film Society's flagship grant program which has disbursed more than $2.8 million since its inception-were written and directed by women. Additionally, four films supported by Sffs grants, residencies and fiscal sponsorship had their world premieres at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival:

-Jennifer Phang's "Advantageous"

-Jenni Olson's "The Royal Road"

-Chloé Zhao's "Songs My Brothers Taught Me"

-Kris Swanberg's "Unexpected."

For information about all Filmmaker360 support services, visit sffs.org/filmmaker360 .

Elegant and meticulous actor whose work ranged from Shakespeare to EastEnders

Paul Bhattacharjee, who has been found dead aged 53, was one of the country's leading British Asian actors, a key member of Jatinder Verma's Tara Arts, a regular at the Royal Shakespeare Company – he was last seen in the West End last year, playing Benedick opposite Meera Syal in the RSC's Much Ado About Nothing – and a popular television and film actor whose roles included Inzamam in the BBC soap EastEnders, an immigration officer called Mohammed in Stephen Frears's Dirty Pretty Things (2002) and parts in the Bond movie Casino Royale (2006) and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011).

He was tall, slim and naturally funny, always meticulous in his movement and perfect in his articulation. He reminded me of an elegant bird – a heron, perhaps, or a flamingo. His eyes twinkled as much as they burned. He slowed things down, rather than speeded them up,...

Noël Coward; Donmar; Royal Court, London

The Michael Grandage plan is working. Stars and cheap tickets are bringing new audiences to his West End season, with 25% of the tickets going to first-time bookers.

Now Harry Potter fans are confronted with a gloriously perverse writing talent. The Cripple of Inishmaan is Grandage's most unlikely combination to date. Smooth-faced Daniel Radcliffe takes the title role in provocative Martin McDonagh's 1997 play. The neat, adored boy wizard plays a shambolic youth no one wants to kiss. As directed by Grandage, this looks like a cunning wheeze.

You would not pick Radcliffe out as a soaring talent if you saw him with an innocent eye on the stage. Yet neither would you mark him down as a star who has blundered on to the boards. More assured than he was in his last stage appearance, in Equus, he is restrained and controlled in a...

Things I Forgot I Remembered | The Cripple Of Inishmaan | If Only | Manchester Sound: The Massacre | Open Court season | The Enough Project

Things I Forgot I Remembered, Llangefni

Shon Dale-Jones's alter ego, Hugh Hughes, has delighted audiences over the last eight years with his fantastical and deeply ordinary stories about his life and family in Wales. There was the delightful Floating, about the time that Anglesey broke off and floated away from the mainland, and most recently Stories From An Invisible Town, a project that took place both on stage and online, and which drew on childhood memories and growing up. Now he makes a show for National Theatre Wales as part of a month-long residency on Anglesey that includes collaborations with local audiences and free audio walks around Hugh's hometown of Llangefni. It's his first appearance in Anglesey, and should be a memorable one.

Theatr Fach, Wed to 15 Jun

LG

The Cripple Of Inishmaan,...

The box office power of some movie actors is affecting the types of plays staged on Broadway. Should they hold such sway?

When it was announced that David Tennant would be playing Richard II for the RSC both in Stratford and at the Barbican over Christmas, there were rumours of a rush for membership from those eager to get priority booking. If Tennant read the telephone directory aloud it would probably sell out, but the actor and Richard II seem made for each other – a nifty piece of casting in which the interests of star, box office and artistry collide.

But what happens when it's the names who start calling the shots and dictating what plays we see? To some extent it's already the case, of course: it's unlikely that there would be a Hamlet in the West End without a Jude Law, an actor with proven sellability. But in...

Can Tomas Alfredson’s dark story of a Swedish tween vampire and her outcast friend make the transition from stage to screen? The Scottish Theater company is betting yes.

“It is a deeply felt love story and that sense of Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the world of coldness, seems just right for a Scottish setting," Vicky Featherstone, the outgoing artistic director of the National Theatre of Scotland told TheGuardian.com.

This isn’t the first time a horror movie has gone from screen to stage. Night of the Living Dead, Evil Dead, Re-Animator, Carrie, and The Fearless Vampire Killers have all found a place in the theater, some, like Evil Dead, even made the leap to musical.

Here’s hoping we don’t see a musical version of Let the Right One In. I just can’t imagine Eli bursting into song after she attacks and rips a man apart, limb from limb.

Tomas Alfredson's acclaimed Swedish drama to show at Dundee Rep Theatre, with John Tiffany directing

Let the Right One In, Tomas Alfredson's acclaimed Swedish drama about a little girl vampire and the bullied boy who loves her, looks set to rise again, as a stage production, in the Scottish town of Dundee. "It is a deeply felt love story and that sense of Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the world of coldness, seems just right for a Scottish setting," explained Vicky Featherstone, the outgoing artistic director of the National Theatre of Scotland.

The vampire romance will form the centrepiece of the Nts's 2013 programme and will open at the Dundee Rep Theatre, with John Tiffany directing. "If it delights the people of Dundee, it would be nice to think it would have a future life in other places," said Featherstone.

Based on the 2004 novel by John Ajvide Lindquist, Let the Right One In...

'My definition of success is not worrying if money will come out of the cash machine'

What got you started?

I had a huge interior world as a kid: I'd sit on endless wet holidays in Cornwall playing with paper dolls. When I was older, I'd go backstage after watching plays [her father was a director, her mother an actor] and knew I wanted to do something in theatre. But I didn't start writing until I went to university and realised I was going to be the world's worst actor. I thought I'd better find something else.

What was your big breakthrough?

Meeting the director Vicky Featherstone at Paines Plough theatre company. You need your champions: she gave me confidence about my work.

What are the main differences between writing for stage and screen?

Stage is the place of the playwright: you're guided by great actors and directors, but it's the playwright's word on the page that counts. In film,...

Our critics' picks of this week's openings, plus your last chance to see and what to book now

• Which cultural events are in your diary this week? Tell us in the comments below

Opening this week

Theatre

27

Return of Abi Morgan's play, set in a convent, which examines faith, science, ageing and loneliness. Maureen Beattie stars and Vicky Featherstone directs. Citizens, Glasgow, Thursday to 26 May, then touring.

Mayfest

Fabulous festival in Bristol of work from both established and emerging artists. It's a real mixture, very little of it in traditional form. Be adventurous. Various venues, Thursday to 27 May.

100% Norfolk

Famed Berlin company Rimini Protokoll, who create theatre with real people, are exploring the experiences, hopes and dreams of 100 Norfolk dwellers. Theatre Royal, Norwich, Friday and Saturday.

Pop

The Horrors

Still riding the wave of last year's fantastic Skying album, the Horrors tour with support from the equally great and similarly psychedelic Toy.

Our critics' picks of this week's openings, plus your last chance to see and what to book now

• Which cultural events are in your diary this week? Tell us in the comments below

Opening this week

Theatre

Romeo and Juliet in Baghdad

Shakespeare's epic love tragedy relocated to present day Iraq, a society riven by sectarian violence between Sunni and Shia. In Arabic with English surtitles. Swan Theatre, Stratford upon Avon (0844 800 1110), Thursday to 5 May; Riverside Studios, London W6 (020-8237 1111), 28 June until 30 June.

Enquirer

A new site-specific production from the National Theatre of Scotland based on interviews with leading figures in the newspaper industry, from editors to retailers. Andrew O'Hagan co-edits with directors John Tiffany and Vicky Featherstone. Hub at Pacific Quay, Glasgow (0141 429 0022), 26 April until 12 May.

Film

Marley (dir. Kevin Macdonald)

A documentary about the life and times of Bob Marley. He was a musical legend, but a flawed and vulnerable human being.

Our critics' picks of this week's openings, plus your last chance to see and what to book now

• Which cultural events are in your diary this week? Tell us in the comments below

Opening this weekTheatre

Enquirer

The Guardian's Deborah Orr is one of a team conducting the interviews with journalists for this timely site-specific verbatim piece about the media. Andrew O'Hagan co-edits a project directed and edited by Vicky Featherstone and John Tiffany. The Hub, Glasgow (0141-429 0022), 19 April to 13 May.

A History of Everything

The controversial Ghent-based company Ontroerend Goed returns to the UK with a show that offers a history of everything, from now back to the Big Bang. No small undertaking from a company that has delighted and challenged spectators with previous shows including the outrageous Audience. Drum, Plymouth (01752 267222), until 28 April.

Film

The Cabin in the Woods (dir. Drew Goddard)

A bunch of great-looking teens take a...

Want to see cutting-edge drama from Edinburgh? Then just pop into your local cinema. Andrew Dickson on why the Traverse theatre is being besieged by cameras

The Traverse theatre in Edinburgh has a cute name for this year's series of morning play readings: Impossible Things Before Breakfast. Technically, it's a misnomer – your ticket includes breakfast, or at least a bacon buttie and a splash of coffee – but in other respects the title, borrowed from Alice in Wonderland, seems fair enough.

Last year, festival audiences had to endure hostage crises (a new work by Enda Walsh) and were forced to act out chunks of the script (David Greig). This year, Simon Stephens dwells on the fallout from a stabbing in T5, while Linda McLean's new play This Is Water is a verbatim account of interrogation. Quite a lot to deal with at 9am, especially if you've a hangover the size of Arthur's Seat.