Ian Townsend
Ian Townsend has been a member of the board since September 2021.
Ian is a North West based playwright, who has had productions of his plays
performed across the UK.
As he hardly ever mentions, he’s an award-winning writer. His play All The Bens (published by Playdead Press and produced by Bamalam as an audio drama) won a Manchester Theatre Award, the Audience Favourite Play Award at Manchester’s 24:7 Theatre Festival, an Equity Award, and Best Drama at the Greater Manchester Fringe.
Ian also won the Kings Cross New Writing Award for The House in Sofia with a Map of its Surroundings, a special prize at the BBC’s Alfred Bradley Bursary Award for The Lonely Walk Home, and the Bolton Octagon Theatre’s National Prize for his monologue Being Amazing. His short play Turn Around was commissioned by the BBC for Radio 3’s The Verb and two other shorts As If We Just Held Hands and B for Bertie, Q for Queenie have been performed at LGBTQ+ festivals in Manchester, Bradford and London.
Other plays, including Granny Must Die, Fringe Quartet, Five Minutes Fast, The Last Chair and Marjorie, Edward & George, have been performed by a number of societies across the UK. Ian has been longlisted for the international Royal Exchange/Bruntwood playwrighting award 5 times, and for PapaTango’s prestigious annual play competition twice.
He’s delivered a number of writing workshops for new and emerging writers at various venues across the North West, including the Royal Exchange Theatre, Sale Waterside, and libraries in Oldham and Rochdale.
Ian has read scripts, mentored writers and supported new writing for various theatre festivals and for local production companies including Oldham Coliseum, Organised Chaos, Irlam Festival Fringe and Thread Productions.
Ian is always looking for fresh challenges and opportunities and enjoys working with other creatives devising and developing new pieces of theatre. He’s also a big music fan, in particular Kate Bush, who he talks about almost as much as his awards.
