MARY COOPER
Writer
Award-winning writer, Mary has written more than 50 commissioned scripts for theatre, audio, and screen. Her work ranges from drama series for BBC Radio Four, through national theatre tours, to award winning short films. She also works as a dramaturg, mentor, researcher/deviser, producer, creative-writing tutor and script-consultant.
Mary’s radio dramas have been nominated for the Tinniswood Award (Edith Sitwell in Scarborough and Bangla Bantams) a Sony Award (Close to The Bone), and the Imison Award and Mental Health in the Media Award (Away With The Fairies). Missing Out, her short film for Clean Break/Action for Prisoners’ Families won an IVCA Gold Award for Best Drama 2010.
Stage play, Breathing Space, is included in the 50 Best Plays for Young People Anthology (Aurora Metro 2016) and was short-listed for a DORA Award when it made a British Council sponsored tour to Canada.
Her ‘micro-drama’ training films, written for Challenge Consultancy, are used by major companies across the world. In the UK she has been commissioned to write for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Labour Party, among others, on themes such as respect in the workplace and unconscious bias.
Of her writing Mary says,
‘I write to make sense of the world; I write to tell untold stories, to unravel paradox. All my work draws on thorough research;
I aim for authenticity, emotional truth and compelling drama.’