Tenacious Women Lisa Holdsworth, Hannah Peel, Helen Thomas, Sharon Watson and Esther Richardson (Chair)
Event details
What does it mean to be a woman with a northern accent in leadership settings in 2021? With a special focus on arts, media and politics, a panel of tenacious women come together to share their experiences, and offer advice and inspiration.
Tenacious Women is part of Pilot Theatre's Northern Girls project. Speakers include Head of BBC Radio 2, Helen Thomas; Principal of the Northern School of Contemporary Dance, Sharon Watson; TV and stage writer Lisa Holdsworth; and award-winning composer Hannah Peel. The discussion will be chaired by Esther Richardson, Artistic Director of Pilot Theatre.
Suitable for age 14+
This event is hosted live on Zoom Webinar and you’ll receive a link to join a couple of days before it takes place. During the event, you can ask questions via a Q&A function but audience cameras and microphones will remain muted throughout.
About the speakers
Lisa Holdsworth’s TV writing career started with a 50-minute stand-alone episode for Fat Friends. She was then on the Emmerdale writing team for several years before going on to write numerous episodes of dramas including New Tricks, Robin Hood, Midsomer Murders and Waterloo Road, and won the Writer of the Year award in the RTS Yorkshire Awards 2011 for her 90-minute opener for Series 4 of Waterloo Road. More recently she’s written episodes of Call the Midwife, James’ Herriot’s All Creatures Great and Small and A Discovery of Witches. Her stage adaptation of Adelle Stripes’ novel Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile about the life of northern playwright Andrea Dunbar opened in 2019 to great acclaim and was included in the Observer critics’ review of the top 10 theatre shows of 2019. She is also developing several original TV pilot scripts and treatments and is currently Chair of the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain (WGGB).
Hannah Peel is an Emmy-nominated and RTS winning composer, with a flow of solo albums and collaborative releases, Hannah joins the dots between science, nature and the creative arts, through her explorative approach to electronic, classical and traditional music. From her own solo albums to composing soundtracks like Game of Thrones: The last Watch, or to orchestrating and conducting for artists like Paul Weller, her work is ambitious, forward-looking, always adapting and re-inventing new genres and hybrid musical forms. Hannah is a regular weekly broadcaster for BBC Radio 3’s Night Tracks.
Esther Richardson has been the Artistic Director and joint CEO of Pilot Theatre since 2016 and has directed its acclaimed productions: Crongton Knights (2020), Noughts and Crosses (2019), Brighton Rock (2018). A Clore Fellow 2019-21, she was previously the Founding Artistic Director/CEO of the Theatre Writing Partnership, a new writing development company and has directed productions for UK theatre companies including Soho Theatre, London, Cast in Doncaster, Tamasha Theatre, Royal and Derngate, Northampton, Derby LIVE, Nottingham Playhouse and Bolton Octagon.
Helen Thomas is Head of BBC Radio 2, having previously held the roles of the network’s Head of Content Commissioning, and Network Editor. Growing up in Hull, Helen started her career in News working at BBC 5 Live, before moving on to Today on BBC Radio 4, Newsbeat at Radio 1, and Radio 4’s Front Row. Since joining Radio 2 in 2003, she has produced Johnnie Walker Drivetime, Chris Evans Drivetime and Breakfast Show. Helen was Creative Director of the Radio Academy’s Radio Festival in 2016, was nominated as Individual of the Year at the Arias 2018 and was appointed Chair of the Radio Academy in 2020.
Sharon Watson is the Principal of the Northern School of Contemporary Dance, and the Deputy Lieutenant of West Yorkshire. Before joining NSCD she was the longest-standing Artistic Director of Phoenix Dance Theatre. Sharon grew up in Harehills, Leeds.
Partners
