Alexandra Taylor: Writer

On 16th September 2019 there was introductory event at Birmingham REP that aimed to share initial plans for the  Birmingham 2022 Culture Programme with creatives in the region. These are the main points that I came away with. If you were there and think I missed anything out, or got anything wrong, please feel free to drop me a line and let me know. Amit Sharma - Deputy Artistic Director, Birmingham REP 60% of Birmingham school kids are non-white. 1/3 of Birmingham school kids live below the poverty line. The REP's audience should reflect the city. Four key aims: to create popular theatre to focus on representation (diversity) to connect with the community to work with schools Martin Green - Chief Executive Creative Officer, Birmingham 2022 The Cultural Festival will run from Easter to September 2022. The festival team is currently three people: Martin, Phil and Rachel, with four vacancies currently open (until 22nd September). They're curre...

I never see myself portrayed on TV. In fact, I rarely see characters like my friends or family, or the worlds I inhabit, on screen. And that's OK. I'll happily watch dramas about lawyers or aliens or Russian nuclear disasters. But the stories and characters that really hit home, that take over my head and my heart to the point where I'm heading to online discussion forums, reading the scrips, watching YouTube interviews with the writers, even penning my own fan fiction - those are the ones with worlds and characters that I know, that I've met, that I understand and relate to. It just happens so rarely that when it does it hits me like a sledgehammer. The first time I remember feeling that punch was with Queer As Folk. I knew people like that, I understood that world. The bars, bitchiness and hedonism of Manchester's Canal Street reflected my own experiences of Birmingham's gay village. I was seeing an aspect of my life portrayed on screen for the first ...

If you enjoy my writing, then now is the time to help support my work, in one of three ways. 1. Contribute to the fundraiser for my short anti-Brexit film, Taking Back Control:  https://www.gofundme.com/qy6g29-taking-back-control 2. Buy a ticket to the Raving Pink Panto, an LGBT version of Cinderella that I co-wrote, and that is raising money for Animal Free Research (you can just make a donation):  https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/jane-mckears2 3. Share these links. Thank you!

My short, Brexit-themed play was performed as part of Deadman's New Writing Night at the Mockingbird in the Custard Factory on Monday 29th January 2018. You can listen to an audio recording on my website .

My sitcom was given a rehearsed reading. You can watch the video here .

A short film I wrote has now been released on the world! Watch it here:  https://vimeo.com/224860339

On 2nd May 2017 my short play 'Cake' was performed at the Birmingham REP. You can listen to an audio recording here . 

Moseley writer Tim Stimpson has had an amazing twelve months. He’s played a major part in the ground-breaking, headline-grabbing Rob and Helen storyline on the Archers, which led to an Outstanding Contribution award for the soap at this year’s BBC Audio Drama Awards. And now, after fourteen years in Ambridge, he’s turning his hand to another much-loved, but very different British soap, EastEnders. Tim came to Birmingham University in 1998, where then-Editor of the Archers, Vanessa Whitburn taught a module. Her advice was to “pester someone who can help you”, and Tim took her at her word, pestering her into giving him work experience on the show, then invitations to script meetings then opportunities to write trial scripts. His persistence paid off and in 2003 he was asked to be a part of the Archers writing team, where he’s been ever since. In contrast, Tim’s move to EastEnders was a lot less calculated. In 2016 Sean O’Connor, the then-Editor of the Archers, took over the helm...

Bassist John Dalton played his first live gig with The Kinks on York Road in Kings Heath in 1966. Fifty years later he’s returning with The Kast Off Kinks to bring the band’s hits back to Birmingham. But this time round it’ll be a very different experience for John. “Back then it happened so quickly,” he explains. “I met the band on Thursday, had Friday to learn the music and then played with them on Saturday night. I didn’t know any Kinks songs before that, but the set was only about thirty minutes so I just about got through it! Nowadays we normally play for around two hours and we obviously know the numbers really well.” John is also no stranger to Birmingham. “My dad’s family lived in Balsall Heath and I used to spend my summer holidays there. We went to the Lickey Hills, Cannon Hill Park and saw the cricket at Edgbaston. It was really nice to be coming back to play.” John toured the world with the Kinks for seven years at the height of their fame and, after a long and...