About

Join us on Thursday 26th of September at 7PM as Drama on the Rise returns for a special rehearsed reading of Anna Reynolds 'Nothing on Earth.' A funny, moving play which celebrates the lives of three real-life heroines: Edwardian balloonist and parachutist Dolly Shepherd (1886–1983), suffragette Constance Lytton (1869–1923), and interwar explorer Violet Cressy-Marcks (1895–1970).

Past and present intertwine as their stories collide with Jade, a 21st century woman coming to terms with the loss of her beloved grandfather while working in a care home after her career as an air steward is grounded by the pandemic.

After this special rehearsed reading we will have an opportunity to speak with the playwright Anna Reynolds for a short Q&A!

The play was originally commissioned by Pursued by a Bear TC and the University of Hertfordshire and performed in 2023.

Cast tbc

Director tba

About the playwright

Anna Reynolds has written over 20 plays including the award-winning Jordan, Red, Skin Hunger and Wild Things. Her work has been seen at Watford Palace (SoulPlay, Ring Road Tales), West Yorkshire Playhouse (Precious), Colchester Mercury (Blue Sky State), The Pleasance, Edinburgh (Stand By Your Van) and many other venues. She has written for opera, dance, theatre, screen, circus, short-story anthologies and numerous newspapers and magazines. She has won awards from Time Out magazine, the Writers' Guild, and she runs the UK's leading writing website WriteWords.

Her opera Push! (Tête-à-Tête, 2006) was described by the Guardian as 'brilliant, celebratory, painful, tremendous'. She won the Yeovil prize for short fiction with her story 'The Bleeding Heart' in 2007.

Anna has taught creative writing at a wide variety of venues including prisons, community centres, drama schools and universities. She is currently a reader for Cornerstones literary consultancy and for the Playwrights' Studio, Scotland.