Patricia Cumper

CURRENT

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Producer and director of BBC Radio 4 audio drama series Faith, Hope and Glory. 

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Co-host and co-producer of podcast The Amplify Project exploring the lives, practice and work of Black British writers across page, stage and screen.  Funded by Arts Council England. 

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Author of short story SKIN included in speculative fiction anthology Glimpse published by Peepal Tree Press.

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Abridger for BBC Radio 4 Book at Bedtime including the work of E. Annie Proulx, Bernardine Evaristo, Sam Selvon,  Hafsa Zayyan and Naoise Mac Sweeney. 

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Trained in writing for screen with Channel 4 course led by Philip Shelley. 

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Developing two plays: Red Dirt about the Windrush  Scandal and Though The Heavens Fall about a 1771 court case.

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Completed  a film script set in Scotland 'Confounded Women' for BBC Film. 

 

Trustee of Utopia Theatre Company, trustee and chair of the Arvon Foundation and council member of the Arts and Humanities Research Council. On Museum of London London Sugar and Slavery advisory panel 2022. 

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EXPERIENCE 

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Currently a freelancer with a portfolio of projects that include:

producing and directing audio drama for BBC Radio 4, producing and presenting a podcast,

my own writing projects,

sitting on and chairing various board and councils. 

Occasionally also appearing as contributor on BBC World Service radio Weekend programme

and abridging novels and other texts for BBC Radio 4 book at Bedtime. 

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Have dramatised the work of  Maya Angelou (which was awarded Outstanding Contribution to Broadcasting at the 2020 Audio Drama Awards,) Andrea Levy, Toni Morrison and Alice Walker for BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour. Also adapted the work of Zora Neale Hurston for Radio 4, Marie NDiaye for Radio 3 and Rita Dove for the World Service. 

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From 20013 to 2018, co-artistic director of StrongBack Productions, a company dedicated to exploring Caribbean synergies in British theatre. Produced my play on Jamaican soldiers in WW2, Chigger Foot Boys at Tara Arts theatre, the play text published by Oberon Modern Plays. 

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From 2006 to 2012, led the UK’s largest Black led theatre company( www.talawa.com) whose award winning work included producing with partners including the West Yorkshire Playhouse, The Victoria and Albert Museum and English Touring Theatre, launching the careers of many young Black British theatre makers, supporting a range of bespoke participation and education projects and residencies and overseeing the archiving of the company’s work in the V&A museum.

 

Also founded and led for two years a London wide umbrella organisation of Black Asian and Minority Ethnic performance arts companies, The London Hub (www.thelondonhub.com ).

 

Am an award winning playwright whose plays have toured to the Caribbean, Canada and the USA.  Key Game was produced in New York in 2018 and a production of The Fallen Angel and The Devil's Concubine in Toronto in 2016 won an industry award.  A collection of three plays 'Inner Yardie' published in 2015 by Peepal Tree Press.

 

Contributor to text on Shakespeare 'The Diverse Bard' edited by Dr. Dee jarrett McAuley published by Routledge in September 2016.  

 

Writer of radio drama for BBC Radio 4 and World Service including an original series 'One Bright Child' that won the Race In Media award, and adaptations of outstanding novels including The Color Purple - which won a Sony Silver Award- Andrea Levy's Small Island,  Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, Marie Ndiaye Trois Femmes Puissantes and Toni Morrison's Beloved.  Wrote more than fifty episodes for BBC World Service radio drama series Westway. 

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Also critic and commentator for radio and television including BBC World Service weekend news magazine. 

 

 

ADMINISTRATION

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Trained in organisational planning, leadership, risk management and financial planning with Clore Arts Leadership programme. Project management and arts programming were skills learnt and used extensively on the job.

 

 

GOVERNANCE

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I am currently a trustee  Utopia Theatre Company and chair of the board of the Arvon Foundation. Also a council member of the Arts and Humanities Research Council.  Have served on the boards of The British Museum, the London Hub, English Touring Theatre Company, Standing on the Shoulder of Giants Theatre Company and Spare Tyre Theatre Company. 

 

 

INTERESTS

Current affairs including politics

Sport particularly swimming and athletics

Popular culture after Stuart Hall

Jamaican history and culture 

Cooking and baking

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