Subika Anwar-Khan is a playwright. She is currently a member of the WritersLab at Curve Theatre Leicester. Her play Stateless was performed at the Tristan Bates Theatre in 2016.
Work
Writing Credits
Subika won a scratch night competition in Northampton which will result in her play being produced by Warts and All Theatre Company in 2019.
Subika worked with Paines Plough to prepare a short poetic play about her hometown Northampton. She also performed this at the Royal and Derngate thetre. A recording of the piece is also available at the ‘Come to Where I’m From’ app online.
Subika was part of a 6 week R&D process for this play which she also performed in. The play was about the development of Northampton town and was a sold out show, performed at the Royal and Derngate Theatre.
Subika wrote and performed this full length play exploring Domestic Violence from a south Asian Perspective. The play was inspired by real life case studies.
Commissioned to write a full length play by London Grey and Green theatre company for a run at the Vault Festival in London. The play is based on the life of Sophia Duleep Singh, who lived in India and England during the early 20th Century and campaigned both against British Imperialism and for women’s Suffrage.
A One year writers programme run by Director Julia Thomas. 6 writers have been selected to write a full length play by the end of the scheme, which will also feature as a reading within the theatre’s Inside Out Festival. They will also write responses to the theatre’s programmed shows, and receive external mentorship.
Directed by Trilby James, Stateless received a commission by Kali Theatre.
Stateless merges the political with the personal, by examining the current state of the nations’ idea of contemporary global conflict, through the perception of two strangers and question what it means to belong.
Read reviews and further information here.
‘Stateless’ also received rehearsed readings at the Royal and Derngate theatre and The Nottingham Playhouse.
Commissioned to write a short play by Birmingham based ‘Soul City Arts’ to highlight the confusion and isolation experienced by young women with mental health issues. The play was performed at three charity events by The British Asian Trust, to raise money for women with mental health issues in Pakistan.
Competition winner to the theatres’ Royal React Respond callout for writers to respond to their programmed show ‘Gaslight’ By Patrick Hamilton. Performed alongside the production as a response piece A Night in the Dark is a short play about a group of teenagers attempt to perform a seance in a Victorian House. When a group of their once close friends decide to gatecrash the event, the tables turn for the worse.
Ideastap selected writers to feature in their Love Takeover Festival. Directed by Claire Quinn of Made from Scratch theatre company. Subika’s play ‘From an Unknown Soldier’ received a rehearsed reading. The play jumps between present day (2014) and 1914 where Neelum, a journalist, discovered the first female disguised as a male solider, to enter the French barracks during WW1. Frustrated with the state of the current nation and traditional pressures and expectations within her own life, Neelum begins to relive Dorothy’s story. She unravels unwanted truths about the inception of war and in turn changes her understanding of what it means to fight for what one believes in.
Comissioned by The Royal and Derngate Theatre to write a youth theatre production for 5 – 7 year olds, which was performed alongside the theatre’s programmed productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
An ensemble of actors were selected to perform the winning entries within a devised piece amalgamating all the pieces into one called ‘Goldfish’, which also went on a local East Midlands tour.
At the end of the One Year New Writers Programme with Ulfah Arts and Birmingham Rep Theatre, writers were asked to write short pieces for their ‘Unwrapped’ New Writing Festival.
P.A.R.I.S was a short comedy piece, which explored the relationship of a group of scientists who managed to send the first paper aeroplane into space.
At the end of the One Year New Writers Programme with Theatre Writing Partnership, Nottingham, a rehearsed reading was performed as part of their New Writing Festival.
‘Will You Marry Me’, explores the consequences for Pakistani fashion designer Sebastian, who asked his best friend Naima to marry him, in order to hide his true sexuality from his family, the agreement of which also has benefits for her.
An extract of this play was also performed at the Royal and Derngate, Northampton.
Training
Subika was among the 6 winners then chosen to attend a one-day workshop with playwright Dawn King.
The scheme supports and encourages the development of South Asian women writers, through a series of workshops run by established theatre professionals for those in early career writing. It involved learning the concepts and techniques in writing for theatre while working on developing a script.
A ten week course in which 10 writers were selected to attend weekly sessions, covering various topics such as structure, character development and forming ideas. Writers were also asked to complete a full length play which received feedback from the theatres’literary development
Led by dramaturg Rob Drummer, 10 writers were chosen to discuss their existing plays, understand the Playwriting industry which included a talk by Vickie Donoghue as well as work on developing ideas and taking part in various short writing exercises.
10 BAME writers were chosen to take part in weekly sessions covering various playwriting techniques. Writers were then asked to submit a full length script to receive feedback. Run by Ola Animashawun.
8 writers were chosen to attend weekly sessions ran by playwright Avaes Mohammad and Film Maker Kuldip Powar to develop short pieces on the programme’s theme, ‘Small Lives, Global Ties’ for a rehearsed reading at the Unicorn theatre. The programme also included a masterclass with The BBC Writersroom.
Run by Joel Horwood and Nabakov Theatre, writers attended weekly sessions on character development, play analysis and developing existing short pieces, which would be selected to be performed at The Roundhouse and dramaturged by Nabokov Theatre. Subika’s short play, ‘My County Council’, was chosen to be performed as part of their ‘Present Tense: Counted’, New writing evening, where the pieces responded to the 2010 general elections.
Four writers were selected to recieved one to one mentoring. Subika was paired with Playwright Amanda Whittingdon
Run by Naylah Ahmed, BAME writers were selected to attend weekly sessions on writing for performance, which resulted in a rehearsed reading at The Mac Theatre, Birmingham.
Included weekly workshops on the introductions of playwriting and a masterclass in ‘Performance’ by Howard Barker
Freelance Writing
Online and printed publications with ‘I Am Hip Hop’ Magazine.