Sue Curtis: Biography
Librettist. Playwright. Teller of Unconventional Tales.
A Journey Through Dark Comedy and Lyrical Storytelling
Sue Curtis approaches her work as writer and librettist from the solid foundation of a lifetime’s experience of literature and theatre.
After taking degrees in Psychology and English Literature, including an M.Phil from the University of York, she trained as an actor in London.She has spent much of her life as an academic, lecturing at universities in South Africa, Austria, and England, and teaching at King Edward’s School in Bath, where she founded the Department of Drama and Theatre Studies. Her passion for theatre and her commitment to professional production values communicated itself to her students, over 150 of whom now work in the industry as actors, writers, directors, stage, lighting, sound and costume designers, fundraisers, producers, theatre managers and film-makers.She has worked as a actor and as an award-winning director in Austria, South Africa and England.
For the last eleven years she has been a full time writer and librettist, collaborating with the composer Jools Scott, writing stage and radio plays, operas, musicals and children’s song cycles. Their work has been performed in several theatres in London, at Bath Abbey, the Wimbledon Festival, and most recently at St Paul’s Cathedral in November 2018, when The Cool Web:A Robert Graves Oratorio, was performed as the final commemoration concert for World War I on behalf of the Flemish Government and St Paul’s.
Present work awaiting production includes two stage plays, Nocturne, and Blood, Vice, a jazz opera, and Solo, a London musical.
Her work is varied; dark, subtle, intelligent and funny; she is as happy writing lyrics for Elizabethan characters as dialogue for modern teenagers or Victorian vampires; as much at home having fun in a child’s world of imagination as revelling in the intellectual thuggery of Jacobean satire.
Sue is represented by:
Rachel Daniels
Berlin Associates
7 Tyers Gate
London SE1 3HX.
+44(0)20 7632 5284
http://www.berlinassociates.com
Career Milestones
Dracula tours Transylvania
John Tilley and Sue Curtis' musical adaption tours Transylvania
The Cool Web at St. Paul’s Cathedral
The Cool Web : A Robert Graves Oratorio closes the UK and Flanders WW1 Centenary Programme
Vice is featured in the Oxford Handbook to Thomas Middleton
"My goal is to find the light in the darkest of comedies, and the absurdity in the most profound tragedies."
A Body of Work
Theatre & Plays
2 worksStage plays delving into dark comedy and psychological drama, often with a Gothic twist. Sharp dialogue and unconventional plots exploring the absurdity of human nature.
Opera & Libretti
3 worksLyrical narratives for the stage, from intimate chamber pieces to grand, sweeping productions. Libretti focused on complex characters and emotionally resonant stories.
Let's Create Together
I am always open to new collaborations and commissions. If you have a project in mind or wish to discuss professional inquiries, please get in touch.
Contact Sue Curtis