DOUg CROSSLEY
ARTS COUNCIL R&D
SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS
Click to relevant content: Biography | Letters of Support | What drives my work
Excerpts from past shows: Give Me One Moment in Time | No More Mr Nice Gay | Life Support | Spoken Word | Comedy | Production Photos
Press & Feedback: Audience responses | Press
BIOGRAPHY
I’m a writer and performer from Stoke-on-Trent. I grew up there and, over the past five years, have lived there again; the city remains central to my voice and to the work I create.
At sixteen, I won one of the few places available to students from outside London to study musical theatre at The BRIT School of Performing Arts. My parents scrimped and saved to make that possible. I later secured a full scholarship to train at Guildford School of Acting, where I studied musical theatre for three years. During my actor training, I began writing and completed my first play, developing the dual practice that now underpins my work.
I have refined my writing in invited groups at the Royal Court, Soho Theatre, Bush Theatre and Arcola Theatre. My original sitcom FAIRIES, set in Stoke-on-Trent and inspired by my father’s work as a kissogram, was selected for the BAFTA Rocliffe Forum List. I have been a finalist for the Mercury Weinberger Playwriting Prize and shortlisted for the BBC Studios Writers’ Academy, Old Vic 12, Best Play at the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain Awards, the Verity Bargate Award (Soho Theatre), and the Perfect Pitch Award at Theatre Royal Stratford East. I was Playwright-on-Attachment at Oxford Playhouse from 2017–2019.
CREDITS
Most recently, my work has included TREE SHALL NOT BE MOVED (Sky Comedy Rep). Previous credits include CRUSH HOUR (Audible), an original musical comedy podcast featured in The Guardian and Sunday Times Culture; GIVE ME ONE MOMENT IN TIME, my debut solo play produced by Pleasance Futures and Oxford Playhouse; BETWEEN THE RIOT AND THE RAINBOW (Arcola Theatre); LIFE SUPPORT (York Theatre Royal), for which I wrote book and lyrics; and 12 MILES FROM NOWHERE (Action Transport Theatre).
ETHOS
I create tragicomic work rooted in working-class life and LGBTQ+ experience, often exploring mental illness, addiction, trauma and political fracture through direct, emotionally honest storytelling, using humour and music. Alongside my writing, I perform long-form improvised comedy as a house player with The Free Association.
LETTERS OF SUPPORT
Brian Logan, Artist Director, A Play, A Pie and a Pint
Former Artist Director Camden Peoples Theatre
Theatre and comedy critic, The Guardan
Sophie Skellern, Producer, Birmingham Rep Theatre
WHAT DRIVES MY WORK?
I’m obsessed with performance. I’ve studied it for years and from a very young age. Acting, singing, dancing, performing, choreographing, long-form improv… I love and remain fascinated by all of it. That said, I have something an ambivalent relationship to performing myself. As such my work is often deliberately formally erratic, blending comedy, tragedy, music, and storytelling, learning to play the piano, writing around a specific genre of 90s indie music - you name it, I’ve delved into it.
I think of my performance projects as the unwieldy offshoots of disciplining my neurodivergence into PLaY WRITING form. Consider yourself comforted by the knowledge that you’re in a safe pair of hands, but my shows explore the virtue of mess, they’re unmannered, experimental, and genre-curious.
EXCERPTS FROM PAST SHOWS
NO MORE MR NICE GAY
Written and performed by Doug Crossley.
Dramaturgical support from Brian Logan. Performed as a work-in-progress as part of Camden People’s Theatre’s 50th Anniversary programme. Independently produced, with additional work-in-progress performances at Pen Theatre and LGBTQ+ venues at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, including CC Blooms and The Street.
The ten-minute excerpt here reflects the artistic case for this period of research and development. The writing and lyrical work demonstrate a confidence in tone and storytelling, while the musical accompaniment shows the limits of my current fluency as a composer-performer. Addressing that gap between dramaturgical and musical confidence is a central focus of the R&D programme.
Synopsis
What if you looked back on your life like you were the villain and not the hero?
I am diving into his villain era to answer that question and I’d love to take you along for the ride. Sashaying across the divide between hard and soft themes, I’m needling the nasty bits of life to make friends with them.
Unpicking the lifelong harm of Section 28, I’ll ask juicy questions, like, is niceness what we need to wear to survive a straight world? What’s more villainous, anger, shame, or empathy? Are we all terrible nasty people? If so, can we laugh about it?
It’s time for the dawn of a new gay. If it’s No More Mr. Nice Gay, then who? Come and find out.
Expect LGBTQ+ themes, humour, depth, and a naughty little pause for thought.
GIVE ME ONE MOMENT IN TIME
Written and performed by Doug Crossley.
Independently produced, supported by Oxford Playhouse and Pleasance Futures. Directed by Paul Hunter.
SYNOPSIS
True story, as a teenager I wrote my first play about my older brother’s attempted suicide. My friend was going to direct it and we were going to take it to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. That didn’t happen. Ten years later, that same friend took her own life… A weird, painful, difficult, thing to try and process. A very intense opener to a synopsis, right?
It’s ok. I’m able to handle how sad it was for me and still entertain you along the way. Instead of trundling off for lots of therapy (which for the record I also did) I learnt to play the piano and created this project.
A playful, irreverent, open-hearted attempt to understand. A mischievous enquiry into the experience of a play as much as a play itself, with elements of song, monologue, comedy and audience communion. It weaves a dialogue between the ideas of the play that I once wrote and a document my friend left behind, “to help us understand”.
I explore why we tell stories, where that impulse comes from, and what power the writer has to impact an unknowable audience largely impacted by its unconscious experience. Put simply, it’s happy, sad, and sometimes silly. It's for anyone anywhere whoever had a friend and might have dressed up, done daft voices, or dreamt big dreams about putting on shows with them. In its grandest terms, it explores the relationship between psychological trauma and time. Ultimately, it's about how we seek comfort in the face of loss. A love letter to the present moment experience we share during a performance. It asks if this can be a place for healing... Can you give me one moment in time?
READ SOME EXCERPTS BELOW
“Songs and dialogue are witty, surprising and enlightening, even touching.”
— Charles Hutchinson, The Press, York
Life Support
Book & Lyrics by Doug Crossley
Produced in collaboration with York Theatre Royal, directed by Kirsty Patrick Ward
Synopsis
It tells the story of Tommy, who arrives in the Big Smoke seeking post-university infamy and claim his place as a musical icon. The only problem being that he can’t play any instruments. So, instead, to get a fearsome landlady off his back he’s sent to work, reluctantly and rebelliously, as a “vigilante educational reformist”. He joins a primary school as a special needs teaching assistant, alongside the eternally enthusiastic if beleaguered Lucy, Pete and Damien. Songs from his concept album, Life Support, play out against his learning curve, where a culture of failure is turned into an appreciation of those who compensate us for what we are not.
ROLE: BOOK & LYRICS
"You’ll never hear the Alphabet Song in the same way again, or hear someone speak Spanish without thinking of the Gigantic Man With Massive Hands – and although they’re funny, there’s a sadness just under the surface which lingers the same way."
— Dan Beam, The Press, York
MY LIVE THEATRE WORK BLENDS GENRE, HERE ARE SOME SHORT RECORDED EXAMPLES.
SPOKEN WORD
Comedy
AUDIENCE FEEDBACK
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We loved the songs and music. "Set you free", perfectly contextualised the narrative and was a great end message. Your command of the stage. Your raw honesty and ability to shift from light to dark, recognising the shift in your in the room. Your northern humour."
James Welby, Audience Member (No More Mr Nice Gay, Camden People’s Theatre)
Press
Gallery
Production Still: No More Mr Nice Gay, The Pen Theatre, credit: Holly Revell
Production Still: No More Mr Nice Gay, The Pen Theatre, credit: Holly Revell
Production Still: No More Mr Nice Gay, The Pen Theatre, credit: Holly Revell
Production Still: No More Mr Nice Gay, The Pen Theatre, credit: Holly Revell
Production Still: No More Mr Nice Gay, The Pen Theatre, credit: Holly Revell
Production Still: No More Mr Nice Gay, The Pen Theatre, credit: Holly Revell
Production Still: No More Mr Nice Gay, The Pen Theatre, credit: Holly Revell
Production Still: Give Me One Moment In Time. Pleasance Dome. Credit: Geraint Lewis
Production Still: Give Me One Moment In Time. Pleasance Dome. Credit: Geraint Lewis
Production Still: Give Me One Moment In Time. Pleasance Dome. Credit: Geraint Lewis
Production Still: I'm not here to make friends @ Vault Festival. Credit: FA Improv
Promo Shot: Episodes @ Vault Festival. Credit: FA Improv
Production Still: I'm not here to make friends @ Vault Festival. Credit: FA Improv
Production Still: Tragedy Plus Time @ FA Improv
BTS Still: Tragedy Plus Time @ FA Improv
Read some of my scripted work
Read some of scripted work, like Tree Shall Not, Tree Shall Not Be Moved, a short comedy play about trees, trauma, and traditional British desserts. I developed this project with Sky Comedy and Birmingham Rep.